Lee Dunbar

Sep

11

Hey — it happens to the best of us. As you develop your product you keep adding features and layers of complexity as you continue through the development cycle. That’s what the customer wants, right? More features? More complexity?

Not always. Maybe never. Sometimes developers get to the point where they lose sight of what their purpose is. That is, to solve a problem or need. Sometimes the product itself can become a barrier to the desired result, whether it be for business, convenience or entertainment.

This is the conclusion 2K Sports came to when designing their newly released NHL 2K9 video game.

“Feeling last year’s version was too complicated, 2K Sports is offering a simpler entry into its hockey title, promising gamers can pick up a controller and play from the get-go with virtually no learning curve. There are deeper playing options with plenty of complexity, but the goal was to make the title simple and fun out of the box.

“Thomas and his California-based development team concluded that as consoles grew more sophisticated, hockey games became more complex, turning off some gamers.

“We just kept layering controls and adding more functionality and looking for the next silver bullet feature that we had to put in there. And we kept layering this stuff on. And what happened, in our mind, was I think the game got out of hand.”

Read the article It’s Game On for NHL2K

I can relate to this story. When we purchased EA Sports’ NHL08 for my two boys they would not use it, deciding instead to keep playing NHL06. They didn’t like the way EA changed the controls, taking what was an intuitive, simple interface with the game and adding far too much complexity.

While this article speaks specifically of products, the same idea holds true for process, place, graphic design and other elements that are designed.

Tags: Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Technology Stuff
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