How Does a Good Idea Become a Great User Experience?
You might be aware that last weekend marked the 25th anniversary of the creation of the puzzle video game Tetris. This event has given me cause to reminisce on my own experiences with the game.
I was bought a Nintendo Game Boy as a seven year old, and I played Tetris a lot in the years that followed. I can easily recall all the little details of the game; the smooth glide of the pieces as I depressed the down button, the satisfying crunch sound of a piece falling into place, the texture rendered on each of the different shapes that made it easy to recognise the shape of a piece regardless of its orientation, the musical arrangement of what I now know to be popular Russian folk tune Korobeiniki, etc, etc. Nintendo really nailed the details with Tetris, which is why the Game Boy version was able to eclipse all the previous versions of the game (Tetris existed for five years before the Game Boy was released) and make a massive contribution to the sale of 118 million hand held consoles.
This is a great reminder of a principal that applies very much to the World Wide Web, that nailing the details is of crucial importance if an idea is to reach its full potential.
On the web, such details might include deciding whether or not clicking a text box should select the existing contents automatically, or using subtle animation to help the user understand how a page is changing, or ensuring the layout of a form remains aesthetically pleasing when validation error messages appear, or ensuring that important call-to-actions are prominent and clear, or using a CSS background image instead of an in-line image to make the page load appear smooth, etc, etc.
Tetris for the Game Boy shows that attention to detail can result in a great user experience, but it shouldn’t be believed that these heights of achievement can be reached simply by following conventions and guidelines; Korobeiniki could not have become the iconic music of Tetris if the composer simply went through the motions. Nailing the details requires many small but significant leaps of creativity, only then can a good idea become a great experience.
