Talk / Mixed Reality
In praise of discomfort
Marie Jasmin
A short talk in which we explore our assumptions about design, usability and comfort. If we are to
create memorable experiences, we might want to begin by purposefully breaking our own rules.
Imagine someone playing a video game. The player ‘emerges’ from a long play session, alone in her living room, wondering how three hours have just vanished. What constitutes “Time Well Spent” in a game?
Here is a personal answer: If players emerge feeling inspired, engage in meaningful conversations about the game, create their own fan art and stories; if people feel enriched, inspired, transformed by a game, then, yes, the time invested has worth. But such impact is *uncomfortable*.
In my 12 years of practice within the game industry, I have tested, iterated, and worked out ways to improve our players “Quality of Life”. A “good” interface is a comfortable interface. However, I also have experience creating discomfort: I work in games. The interfaces we craft must, like any other, provide good visibility on the system status, but with entertainment comes an extra set of constraints: narrative constraints.
In three short examples, we will illustrate how violating a specific usability heuristic, in the name of
storytelling, can create ‘memorable discomfort’.
About the speaker
Marie Jasmin
I am an Interaction Design specialist, with 12 years of experience in game development, and 15+ years of career in the UI-UX field. I started out in music, helping an indie label (Audiogram Records) successfully transition from the physical to the digital worlds, picking up a few cues on change management along the way. I joined the game industry in 2008, where I have built a varied portfolio of accomplishments, ranging from motion design, interface R&D, UI tool design, and team management. I am now an interface designer on the mobile team at Bethesda Game Studios in Montréal.