In a market that becomes more and more saturated and competitive by the day, web designers need to stay on top of developments and the latest trends to get ahead. However, constantly chasing trends sometimes doesn’t work, but thinking outside of the box can go a long way. It’ll help your product stand out and relate to people in a way that other similar designs perhaps wouldn’t.
Over the last decade or so, the gaming industry, across all platforms, has become incredibly competitive. The desire to show that each platform’s offering is better, or somehow different to the rest, has led to some key strains of innovation which can be extrapolated into other sectors.
So, let’s look at some of the inspiration that can be taken from various gaming industries and how that can be used when you’re designing a new and modern platform.
Forging a hybrid product
Source: Pixabay
This current console generation features the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, both of which launched in 2013, at the forefront of the so-called ‘console war.’ But, in 2017, Nintendo decided to join the party with the innovative Nintendo Switch. Instead of bringing out a solely home console, the Switch combines both home console and handheld gaming into one innovative design.
Console and mobile gaming have often been seen as opposite ends of the gaming spectrum, but the Switch brought the two together and, in less than half of the lifespan of the Xbox One, the Switch has already outsold the supposed top competitor to the Sony console.
The Switch broke the mold, combining two polar opposites to create an increasingly-popular gaming platform. In mobile design, the same can be done by integrating server-side and client-side techniques into a responsive design, aiming to avoid the pitfalls that can come with a solely responsive design or a separate sites approach.
Greatly increasing accessibility
Source: Pixabay
Simply by developing a website and mobile site, you’re making the brand much more accessible, but there are further ways in which you can help make the product more accessible through the design. The key here is to implement ways in which customers don’t just see or read about the product, but also have a way of exploring and interacting with it online.
People like free things, which is something that the iGaming industry knows all too well. Not only did the brands make their products much more accessible by bringing an immense selection of offers, titles, plus the best pokies and tabletop games to the online space, but they also brought in a way to play them for free. With free spins available to newcomers, accessibility is further heightened, and it’s a technique used in other forms of gaming as well.
Mobile gaming is becoming the dominant force of the gaming industry in terms of revenue, and yet it’s all because the games are free to access. Utilizing what is known as the freemium model, many companies offer players the chance to download and play a game for free, but then have premium aspects or parts of the game locked behind a paywall. The access to the product in the first place gets the customer in at zero cost to them, after which they’re more likely to repay the free entertainment in the form of paying for the game.
When selling your own designs and products, try using this method of giving free access and then an option to pay to either continue to use your service, or to add premium features. Once people get to try something that intrigues them, they then get invested and, if they enjoy it, are more than willing to pay to use it further.
Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box, draw from the innovations of gaming to mix and merge techniques to create a hybrid that stands out in the crowd, as well as enhance the accessibility of your designs.
