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i wonder … Designing for Curiosity Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets) Museums+Tech 2016, October 19, 2016
cb
Image: JosephB
The other keynote speaker
Talk … play & games engagement design crowdsourcing AI/machine learning VR/AR/audio … to me.
CentreforDigitalHeritage
chapter 1
Storytime
exhibit #1
Curiosity* * like, literally
2012: curiosity - what’s inside the cube?
In the first month: 3 million users
800,000 daily active users 5 billion cubes clicked
exhibit #2
Upworthy
Fasted growing media site in history1 6 mio. UU/m. in first 12 months1
90 mio. UU/m. in first 18 months2 79th largest US site in traffic3
3rd most fb likes/shares of any news site4
... with 7.5 articles per day.4
(1) Forbes, 2013 (2) Quantcast, 2013 (3) Quantcast, 2014 (4) The Whip, 2013
2012
The Atlantic, 2013
HOW?*
*?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!???!??!?!???????!?!?
all about that headline
so what makes a viral headline?
Link to their guide in online slides
curiosity drives engagement
so how do we drive curiosity?
chapter 2
How does curiosity work?
unpredictability Can I not reliably anticipate
the future of this?
solvability Am I able to resolve
that inability?
relevance Is the ability to anticipate this
relevant to me?
curiosity unpredictable, positively relevant,
solvable, safe
safety Is resolving this inability
dangerous?
fear unpredictable, (un)solvable, negatively relevant, unsafe
curiosity: a motive to approach novel stimuli
invitation
Links in the online version
Invitation: Click me!
Not fully predictable.
I tell you that there’s something, but not what – and it’s shocking, not what you’d expect.
Solvable.
Did I mention you can click here? Come on. You know you want to.
Relevant.
Really, it’s shocking! And its about what you would pay.
Safe.
Honestly: Clicking never hurt anyone.
chapter 3
How to design for curiosity?
<1/4> safety
not this kind of safety
this kind
“Don’t make me feel dumb.”
Google “hacking shyness”
<2/4> relevance
“Create a need to know by organising learning around complex problems in engaging contexts.”
katie salen-tekinbas
your mission: hack the election Build a mathematical model to explore and demonstrate how changing voting methods can elect different presidents despite the same votes.
can you escape in 60 minutes?
can you convince this creature it’s a fish/bird?
Answer, design for, start with
“why care?” before
“what’s to know?”
everyone should care about the climate. But what will make your audience care?
concrete
personal
speculative
no knowledge test
frames experience
<3/4> unpredictability
don’t bury the lede!(but hint and reveal bit by bit)
Answer, design for, start with
“why care?” before
“what’s to know?”
don’t fudge dump all your content at once.
Content is the candy.Curiosity is the wrapped package that
makes me want it, piece by piece.
how radiolab does micorrhiza
Young girl loses her dog in the forest. Will she ever find it?
Dog is howling from a deep ditch, sitting among a strange white thicket with roots.
What is this stuff?
Fast forward: Girl is now a scientist, discovers that tree species don’t fight: if a fir dies, the birches around also suffer.
Why is that?
We set up an experiment to see if this has something to do with the roots.
Will food marked with radioactive isotopes stay in tree?
Image: Marierodkjer
Trees share their food through a wood-wide web!
But there’s something else …
We dig up roots: magnifying glass shows seven miles of filaments in a pinch of dirt!
What is this stuff?
A fungus! The filaments are actually tubes. But why is it there? Why do the fungi do
this? Why don’t the trees do it themselves?
Trees can’t draw minerals, fungi can’t produce carbon: They enwrap each other and exchange carbon and minerals.
But how do fungi get minerals?
Fungi mine tunnels through pebbles with acid! They invade insects and suck out their minerals!
But how important is that, really?
Up to 80% of sugers go to fungi, majority of minerals go to trees!
And there’s more …
Trees communicate through fungi with other trees via chemicals!
Are trees and fungi an intelligent superorganism? A forest brain?
THE END.
and how standard science ed does micorrhiza
fudge dump.
five forms of unpredictability
Links in the online version
Novelty
We are curious about novel experiences: something potentially enjoyable we haven't experienced yet has us wonder: "How does it feel?" We follow a promise or surprise signalling novelty if we feel we are able and safe to do so.
▪ What experiences, interactions, content do players know and expect in the given context?
▪ What haven't they experienced they might want to know how it feels?
▪ How might you signal that the new experience exists and is enjoyable without giving it away?
▪ Do players fear the experience might be overwhelming, boring, or unpleasant? How might you mitigate those fear?
Instantiations: Novel Content, Novel Interactions, Novel Interfaces, Surprise.
CU
users
users
what if?
even adults are curious about novel sensation
do not press the red button: novel content
wall to floor to ceiling: changing content
Surprise
We feel good when our expectations are positively broken: something novel and good happens that we did not foresee. Such surprises stoke curiosity whether there might be further surprises in store, wondering: "Is there more like this?" A first surprise can thus become the hint in a hide-and-hint.
▪ What do players expect in this context (genre, level, interaction, situation, plot, menu, ...)?
▪ How might you positively break these expectations: something vastly more, better, or different?
▪ How might you first create or affirm the expectations – and then positively break them?
▪ How might you not reveal the existence of something positive for the player in your game until you surprise them with it? (Think level and interface design, but also packaging, marketing).
Instantiations: Easter Eggs, Hidden Information, Panoramic Opening, Plot Twist.
CU
users
user
innocent smoothies: easter eggs
timehop: easter eggs drive exploration
what if you… scroll beyond the edge?!?
“I wonder what else they’ve hidden…”
Hide-and-hint
We are curious about potentially relevant information and resources that are hinted at but hidden. If we know about something, but not its content, we wonder: "What is there?"
▪ What information or resources are relevant to players at this point?
▪ How might you hide their specific content away?▪ How might you hint at their existence?▪ How might you signal their potential relevance?▪ How might you help players feel that they can
follow that hint safely?
Instantiations: Cliffhanger, Fog of War, Hidden Information, Locked Abilities, Locked Content,
Locked Items, Skill Tree, Tech Tree.
CU
users
users
Hint-and-hide
upworthy: curiosity gap
command & conquer: fog of war
which is more curiosity-inducing?
york castle museum
the drowned man: environmental storytelling
Unresolved Complexity
We are curious about unclear meanings or paths to a positively relevant outcome, wondering: "What's the solution?"
▪ How might you make a situation positively relevant? How might you signal this to players?
▪ How might you create a complex, non-obvious path to or symbol within that situation?
▪ Do players feel confident they can find the path or meaning? If not, how might you instil that confidence?
▪ How might you offer leads that spark multiple hypotheses for paths or meanings that players want to test?
▪ How might you help players feel that they can safely test these hypotheses?
Instantiations: Puzzles, Whodunnits.
CU
interactives
new scientist festival: space on earth
Possibility Space
We are curious and feel autonomous in front of an untested possibility space, wondering: "What if …?" Possibility spaces arise from recombinable items or actions with no prescribed goals and emergent effects that feel unpredictable but over time, guessable and reliably learnable.
▪ What actions and/or items might you offer to combine?
▪ Do they produce a combinatorial explosion of effects that are logical but not foreseeable by you?
▪ How might you give players space, time, and license to try their own combinations?
▪ How might you balance effects so that they are neither unpredictably chaotic nor predictable?
▪ How might you give openings that suggest new combinations to try: constraints, traces of others, random suggestions, or half-begun things?
▪ How might you make testing an untried combination relevant – e.g. with novelty, competence, or self-expression?
▪ How might you help players feel that they can safely test new combinations?
Instantiations: Building blocks, Editors.
CU/AU
lego: the original possibility space
toca hair salon
people find possibility spaces everywhere
exploratorium
barbican: the light machine
<4/4> solvability
dan meyer: math education
this is puzzle design!
trivial Not a (good) puzzle
impossible Not a (good) puzzle
solvable A (good) puzzle
trivial Not a (good) puzzle
impossible Not a (good) puzzle
solvable A (good) puzzle
chapter 4
Summary
curiosity is a powerful motive.
unpredictability Can I not reliably anticipate
the future of this?
solvability Am I able to resolve
that inability?
relevance Is the ability to anticipate this
relevant to me?
curiosity novel, comprehensible, positively relevant,
safe
safety Is resolving this inability
dangerous?
fear novel, (in)comprehensible, negatively
relevant, unsafe
stoke it by inviting to a relevant, safe, solvable unpredictability
invitation
let me safely expose my lack of knowledge
“Don’t make me feel dumb.”
make me care before telling me what’s to know
give me a puzzle i’m able and proud to solve
and don’t fudge dump your content on me:
Image: Marierodkjer
unwrap yourself bit by bit …
teasing me with novel experiences, ...
… surprises, ...
… hinting-and-hiding, ...
… unresolved complexity, ...
… and rich possibility spaces.
