They have a great user interface. But what most intrigued me was the way they had built a reward system into the site. As you explore, you are assigned “quests” which you can complete to earn more hearts (the ability to favorite something) and reputation points.

In fact, it resembles nothing quite so much as an old-fashioned D&D style role-playing game complete with “levelling up” to unlock new abilities.

Each of these quests seems carefully crafted to help users familiarize themselves with how the site works. For instance, the “Similarity Complex” quest encourages you to use the “similar” link found beneath each song listing.

This excellent usage led me to wonder about other ways that we could use reward systems in web design.

Of course, most reward systems are implicit rather than explicit, like comment counts on a blog or number of followers on Twitter. Both explicit and implicit rewards can be extremely powerful in shaping user behavior.

Have you seen particularly good or bad implementations of a reward system? Tell us about them below.

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Actual Content: What makes my admission of eccentricity useful and what does it have to do with design for the web? I offer it as a reminder of something so easily forgotten in our tech-driven lifestyle. Namely, that we can’t touch things online.

We can write about what it feels like to have wet feet. We can build sites with images of shorelines, showers, and other places where one might become a moist pedestrian. But we cannot give the guests who visit our sites the actual sensation of wet feet.

What can we give them? A sense of familiarity.

The next time you stand in your shower, actually pay attention to the things around you.

• Limited options – The water comes in either very hot or very cold. There are no in-between settings. No “mildly Arctic” or “Intermediate Hell” options. Just two inputs that each user can mix as they see fit. Offering the ability to remember preferred settings is nice, too.
• Clear functionality – Showers serve a particular necessary function. You step into a shower to get clean. Not to take phone calls, write letters, or chop broccoli. Adding options to your site may temporarily boost perceived value, but does it really increase the function? More buttons != more useful.
• Familiar Design – The knobs to adjust water flow and temperature are below the shower head. Not at the opposite end of the shower or beside the sink. Changing placement of basic site elements might seem edgy and groundbreaking to you, but will your visitors agree? Novelty is a poor foundation if you hope to inspire daily use.

Does this mean we should abandon all attempts at innovation and seek to replicate the offline world as closely as possible online? Not in the least! But we would do well to remember that most of our visitors come from a place that still uses knobs, dials, and latches that click. If we want to relate to them, we’ll need to shut off our giant monitors and get our feet wet.

Just not in my kitchen.

Image:Nicholls

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With the news that Digg, YouTube, and other social media sites are beginning to drop support for IE6, there has been a flood of articles discussing whether web designers should stop supporting it as well. Unfortunately, neither “full IE6 support” nor “no IE6 support” are practical solutions for most of us.

Let’s face it, unless your site is skewed toward a tech-savvy audience, IE6 still makes up a decent percentage of your traffic. On the other hand, taking the time to code for IE6’s idiosyncrasies can be annoying and expensive.

The solution? Dean Edwards’ IE7/IE8 scripts.

These files use Javascript to plug deficiencies in IE6. Want to use :last-child? Just include the javascript reference in your header. (Using conditional comments to make sure that only the appropriate version of IE downloads the script.)

<!--[if lt IE 7]>
<script src="http://ie7-js.googlecode.com/svn/version/2.0(beta3)/IE7.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
 <![endif]-->

As a bonus, if you want to upgrade IE7’s capabilities to equal IE8, you can do that too.

<!--[if lt IE 8]>
<script src="http://ie7-js.googlecode.com/svn/version/2.0(beta3)/IE8.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
 <![endif]-->

This solution may not work for everyone. Still, offering Javascript-based support for an outdated browser seems like a better solution than either wasting time with full IE6 support on every project or offering no IE6 support at all.

Is this something you’d consider implementing on your site(s)?

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With that in mind, here are five indie games with designs that I find inspiring.

Aquaria

Systems: Windows/Mac
Price: $19.99/$30.00 

Website: http://www.bit-blot.com/aquaria/

Aquaria is the story of Naija, a mermaid who has lost her memory and must explore the depths of the oceans to uncover what she has forgotten.

While the story is interesting and moves the game forward, the real strength of Aquaria lies in its environments and puzzles. The various seas are beautifully illustrated. Some parts teem with green and life, while others lie in darkness. The puzzles are well-crafted and make good use of Naija’s song-related abilities.

As is appropriate for a game where much of the play is based on the notion of song, the music is very well-produced, and adds to the texture of the environments.

Aquaria Trailer HD from BitBlot on Vimeo.

Mightier

Systems: Windows
Price: Freeware

Website: http://www.ratloop.com/?games/mightier 

Mightier has the most original gameplay mechanic I’ve seen. Puzzle solving doesn’t just take place on-screen. It also takes place in the real world, as you craft a solution with pen and paper, then import it to the game with your webcam or scanner.

Mightier from Ratloop on Vimeo.

Crayon Physics

Systems: Windows (Mac & Linux ports are planned)
Price: $19.99

Website: http://www.crayonphysics.com/ 

Physics based puzzle games are quite common, but Crayon Physics adds in a bit of childlike wonder. Did you ever wish your crayon drawings could come to life? They can. Draw a wheel, and it will roll. Draw a giant hammer, and it will hit things. The goal of each level is to reach the star in the most creative way possible.

Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo.

World of Goo

Systems: Windows/Mac/Linux/Nintendo Wii
Price: $20

Website: http://worldofgoo.com/ 

World of Goo is another fun physics game. But the twist this time is that all of your creations have to be built out of living (and semi-intelligent) balls of goo. Span an abyss by building a goo bridge, reach a pipe by creating a goo tower. There’s plenty of sticky fun to go around.

World of Goo Trailer 2 Director’s Cut
by 2dboy

Braid

Systems: Windows/X-box 360
Price: $14.99

Website: http://braid-game.com/ 

Of all these games, I’ve found Braid to have the most depth in nuance. On the surface, it is just another Mario clone. But it adds a twist. You have the ability to rewind time, so you can never die. This shifts the emphasis of the game from reflexes to reflection. Things that would be completely impossible in an ordinary platform game become trivial, while intriguing time-based puzzles take their place. 

The game is illustrated in a rich, painterly style, and the classical music provides a great cue for your rewinding abilities. (The music rewinds along with your past actions.) 

But to really understand the game, you should watch the demo, and quite possibly the Jonathon Blow’s presentation as well.

Braid trailer from David Hellman on Vimeo.

Your suggestions

Are there any games (Indie or otherwise) that inspire you with there design?

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1. Learn to see things differently

One of Calvin’s most powerful traits is his childlike ability to see things differently than the grown-ups around him. Where they see mundane reality, Calvin sees the fantastic, the monstrous, and occasionally, the downright weird.

Like Calvin, designers must also learn to see things differently. Where others see text, designers see a typographical baseline. Where others see a photo, designers see the golden ratio. In everything, we should learn to see the underlying beauty that holds it all together.

2. Take time to educate yourself

While anyone can learn to see things differently, designers can’t just depend on their vision to get by. They also need to be able to explain that vision to others. And for that you need the proper background and vocabulary.

That doesn’t necessarily mean going to an art school and majoring in design. There are some fabulous resources available to those who are willing to take a little time to teach themselves.

3. Originality isn’t everything

In the world of art and design, originality is highly prized, but sometimes the emphasis is a bit too strong. The point of design isn’t to be original, but to speak a message effectively.

If a highly original design does it, so much the better. But sometimes the traditional is all you need.

4. Pay attention to the details

One crucial part of learning to see differently is the importance of details. A great designer has the ability to recognize when changing things “just so” will take a design from good to brilliant.

5. Keep exploring

In the end, a designer always needs to keep exploring, to learn new things, to learn new ways of seeing, or to relearn old ways. Exploring is what keeps things feeling new, regardless of how many times you’ve layed out a page or designed a logo. What are you waiting for? Go explore something!

All images excerpted from It’s a Magical World by Bill Watterson.

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“And you: friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless! Do you want me to send you back to where you were? Unemployed in Greenland!”

Never forget where you started. As you build your blog and increase contacts through social media and other blogs, take care not to lose sight of the person who started all this: you. It doesn’t matter how long it took you to build your blog for it all to be swept away in a moment of poor judgement or anger. Hold on to your roots and let them guide you.

“Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the  line.”

Pick your battles carefully. Insight and incite are two of the most-confused words in blogging. You will be tempted to write a quick, emotional post that says exactly what you think of a topic at the time. Don’t follow through on the temptation. Doing so could be very damaging for your blog, especially if it turns out you were wrong in your initial assumptions or you lose a potential advertiser because your writing seems childish.

“Never get involved in a land war in Asia”

Pick a niche and stick with it. Techcrunch, Mashable, HuffPost, and many others have already happened. Take Vizzini’s advice and avoid trying to take massive amounts of territory (readers) with your one-horse army (blog). 

“Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? Morons!”

Every success story is told by somebody looking backward, not ahead. Keep this in mind as you read popular bloggers talking about how they “made it big.” Sometimes the best thing you can do is ignore all the “experts” and set out on a path you feel to be right in terms of your passion and goals. Others might laugh at you for your presumption. Ignore them.  In the midst of all the hooplah about Twitter, web 2.0, and the newest and greatest technology, it’s easy to forget that great blogs don’t grow from frenetic repositioning.

As Inigo Montoya said so well, “let me sum up“. If you have a specific purpose for your blog, a sense of where you came from and an idea of where you’d like to end up, you won’t need the gurus to be a success. Sure, you could discount Vizzini’s advice on blogging because he died from drinking wine with iocane powder in it…but Wesley wasn’t entirely fair in poisoning both glasses of wine. Or was he? 

If there’s a favorite quote that you’d like to share or a lesson you learned from your earliest days of blogging that you’d like to pass on to new bloggers, please share in a comment. I look forward to our conversation!

screen shots via: www.thebigpicturedvd.com, www.mos.totalfilm.com

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How does he corner such an obviously eclectic creative force to focus on building specific projects? In his own words:

“Big Country is one of those things that sort of just arrived, done, in my mind. What I do when that happens is I call myself. I call my machine at home and I sing the melody. I shouldn’t be singing in the first place but its the only thing I can do. The melody is going to be gone. In another minute it’ll be gone. That’s the nature of composition. There’s an inspiration factor, and then there’s craft. So how do you take that inspired moment and how do you make it into something that’s complete and makes sense all the way through?“ 

Find a way to put your creative idea into a form that allows you to revisit the idea at a later date.

For Bela, calling his answering machine and singing to himself allows him to capture his moments of inspiration for later use.

I keep a new post open in Wordpress whenever I’m reading so that when I do run into an idea I can put it into writing and include a link to the inspiration and give it credit. Josh prefers to write on paper. I’m happy to type. 

What about you? Do you have a special way of cornering your flashes of inspiration so they can later be reworked into something complete and beautiful?

Also, if you’d like to share a link to a musician or song  you find inspirational, please share that in a comment as well!

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Tanya: 

“I want to have fun and geek out on my blog. It’s all about gadgets, geeky things, charities and running. But mostly geeky things. It’s a blast to research and write, and I think it’s completely cathartic to have something to do other than manage the 20 websites under my charge at work, and the 5-yr old under my charge at home. It’s the only thing I really control, and it gets some decent traffic for a site that I don’t advertise (averaging 200+ visits/mo right now).”

Sukumar: 

“I have been trying really hard to make my blog a better, but am stuck in the dark ages. My blog is in a mess probably cause i don’t know much about blogging. i intend to make my blog more creative, and maybe attract more traffic this year.”

Bella Casa: 

“My blog is off to a great start in its first 6 months or so of blogging, but I would love to take it even further. I would love to have more giveaways, more spotlights on great home designers (on a budget, of course) and Etsians, too. (I love Etsy!)”

Becci: 

“In 2009 I’d like to take my blogging (silly blather & random though it is) more seriously. I have all sorts of stuff to say I just don’t say it often. I’ve been told many times I should write a book or something. I love to write & it’s always been my dream to do it for fun (if not profit).”

Two Rock Volunteer Fire Department: 

“Our volunteer fire department needs a blogging engine to power up our message to our community and beyond. The public in general, does not know what we do. Our static website has good information about our department, but we need a better way to push our stories out to the public. We have some good stories that need to be told with hard working volunteers behind these stories. A better way of publishing fresh content so the public is more aware of the things we do, would be a great uplift for our department.”

Alisha Whiteway: 

“I’m creating a video blog (Like Gary Vanerchuck’s blog as an example) The are three main purposes of my blog, 1. To inspire people to believe in themselves and to encourage them to make a difference 2. To help grow local businesses 3. To ultimately Tell Their Stories. People NEED to hear stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I want to introduce you to those people because I have the content, the characters and the camera/editing work down pat, together we will make a difference in 2009! I actually believe I’ll win this contest. ha ha!”

Laurel B: 

“In my blog, Local Yarns, I would like to chronicle my efforts learning to spin and to spin from local fibers. I’m defining Local to mean the Puget Sound area from Vancouver, B.C. to Olympia, Washington, including the Kitsap and Key Peninsulas, San Juan Islands, Canadian islands, Seattle area east to the Cascades. I also want to grow flax and learn to process it into linen and grow indigo for dying. Okay, I want to be able to spin well enough to sell my products.”

Henie: 

“In 2 thousand 9

I want to be fine
Drink lots of wine
And never whine! :)

I also would like to meet all you fine young people who are social media geniuses and copy writers extraordinaire…though I’m old enough to be your mom, I know that I can learn alot and in turn share with others, and so on and so on.

I want to live my passion and use my blogsite as a platform to inspire and encourage all bloggers.”

Mike Brown: 

“I hope to:

• Generate more comments. People that I talk with personally seem to like the content, but something’s missing in generating more interaction and idea sharing.
• Generate more traffic. I started the blog to force myself to write content for a book, yet I’d like to be able to share ideas more broadly to help people in their careers. It’s tough to find the time to comment on other websites to help drive traffic to the blog.
• Provide more variety in content – more video, pictures, etc. The blog is about innovation and creativity, so the content and the blog’s look and feel need to all be consistent with those themes.”

Pam Robertson: 

“I am trying to get people excited about Living Inspired and realizing that life does not have to be a drain on their energy all the time (some times it will be; that’s realistic). A bailout would mean that I had a credible looking, content rich, reader oriented site.” 
  

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6. The secret to making money online
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Have other great freelancing resources? Post them in the comments!

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