I'm reading a book titled "How to measure anything: Finding the value of intangibles in business" by Douglas W. Hubbard. It's a great book. It talks about how to approach difficult business problems so you can find meaningful ways to measure things that are often considered too complex to measure. If you work in the domain of analytics, then there is plenty to learn in this book.
The core of the book talks about how to reorient your thinking when faced with business problems. Problems need to be broken down and terms must be defined. Hubbard takes a reductionist approach to problems to understand them in their most basic components. Once you decompose a problem, Hubbard talks about how to take a bottoms up approach to measuring those problems such that quality decisions can be made.
I am curious what video games can teach us in this space.
Video game designers must create interfaces that communicate vital information to a gamer. Gamers consume that information and make decisions about how to adjust their gameplay. Gamers adjust their gameplay so they can overcome difficult in-game challenges and achieve in-game goals. Therefore, part of the art of video game design is figuring out what information needs to be conveyed to a player, when that information must be conveyed, and what types of decisions can be made based on that information.
One simple example comes from first person shooters (FPS) and 3rd person action games (think Mass Effect). Players cannot see or feel everything their characters see and feel. Players need to know when their characters are being attacked. Players also need to know what it means that they are being attacked, and from where they are being attacked. Designers will present visual and audio cues to communicate to the player that their character is being attacked.
An example of this occurs in the Mass Effect games. If an attack occurs somewhere off-screen, the edge of the screen is colored red. Early in the game, the player learns to recognize this coloring as an attack coming from a direction in which they cannot see their attacker. The game will also provide audio cues in the form of grunts from the character or projectiles hitting the character's shield. There is also tactile information. A player will feel the controller vibrate telling the player that they are being attacked. While all of this tells the player they are being attacked a second set of information needs to convey the seriousness of an attack. In Mass Effect the on-screen shield indicator will be depleted and the edges of the screen change depicting a form of visual trauma; the player feels, through a visual indicator, that their character is physically hurt.
The combination of all of this information serves as a call-to-action for the player: (a) assess the threat; (b) find cover; (c) neutralize the threat. Failure to heed the call-to-action will result in character death and the game ending.
All of the information that conveys you are being attacked occurs in different levels of intensity. Low intensity signifies a low danger to the character. High intensity signifies high danger to the character. The intensity measures an otherwise ambiguous level of threat to the player. Players consuming the information interpret the information and ultimately make a decision based on that information. If the intensity is low, a player may turn to face their attacker without taking cover. If the intensity is rather high, a player may look for cover before even assessing the threat. The information is not just about communicating information. The information is intended to get the player to make a decision and then take action.
Making informed decisions is the heart of "How to measure anything." The book's goal is to teach you how to measure ambiguous things or problems believed to be to complex to measure. However, you don't measure them just to measure. You measure so you can make quality decisions. Video games are adept at measuring ambiguous information and presenting that information in meaningful ways so players can make interesting decisions.
What can business learn from studying video game UIs?