Product design lessons from the creator of Civilization
I remember seating there for hours, me and my cousin playing on a Nintendo 64. The most fun game was the one with a fox that flew fighter jets in space. It was called Starfox.
We would take turns, each trying to outdo the others’ scores, immersed in that world. Years have passed but the memories are still there.
Super Mario Bros, Skyrim, Elder Rings, World of Warcraft, Civilization.
Those games sold millions of copies and caught the attention of players for billions of hours.
Yes, billions with a B.
If you’re under 60, it’s likely one or two videogames symbolize your childhood. A game’s ability to both catch our attention on a daily basis or, mark entire phases of our lives has always made me curious.
To dive deeper into the topic I came across Sid Meier’s book.
Sid is a legend in the industry — he has his name attached to over 20 games, most of them best-selling. There’s not a lot of people that can (literally) put their name on a best selling product. He did that for decades and was both a designer and developer of his games.
His tips are a gift for anyone building technology. We can find game design heuristics in blogs like the UX Collective, and those are great. But here, Sid gives us a glimpse on his work philosophy and thought process.
As a product designer, here are lessons I drew from “Sid Meier’s Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games”:
1. “No subject is universally boring; everything contains a core of fascination somewhere, and the primary job of a game designer is not to make something fun, but to find the fun.”
Every product has something interesting about it. The designer’s job is to discover that interesting element and bring it to the forefront.
Or, in many cases, reduce the product until it is just that. The juice. What solves the problem.
Take B2B SaaS tools, those that we all use for work. The fascinating part can be in making an annoying part of your day just disappear.
Calendly is a good example: there’s not much to it. It’s a boring tool that made the experience of scheduling meetings orders of magnitude less annoying through great design.
I feel a small burst of fascination everytime I get a meeting scheduled through it, avoiding an endless emailing seesaw with my clients.
Elegant, simple, fun.
2. “Find the fun first. Then, use the technology to enhance the fun.”
For the type of software we care about, it translates to “find the need first, then use the technology to solve that need”.
Steve Jobs told us to “start with the customer experience and working backwards to the technology”. Sid’s tip feels similar.
3. “Do research after the game is done. Tap into the player’s brain.”
Shipping a product is just the start.
Once you launch, it’s time to lean in. Understand how people interact with your product, look for real world cases you couldn’t get your finger on before your product was out there.
4. “The most important part of the game is the first and last 15 minutes.”
First and last impressions are crucial. The start should grab the user’s attention, and the end should leave them satisfied.
Especifically, I believe the idea of putting care on a journey’s end is still overlooked. We have books, blogs and articles dedicated to onboarding but not a lot related to that other crucial part of the journey.
The peak-end rule is a cognitive bias that changes the way individuals recall past events and memories. It states that people judge a past experience based on the emotion they felt at peaks or at the end of it.
With that being true, ends are a very high leverage point for product designers to focus on.
5. “Double it or cut it in half. You are more wrong than you think.”
If you’re unsure about something, don’t just tweak it. Change it significantly. A big change will show with more clarity if the variable you thought mattered clearly do.
This approach can give you insights a simple A/B test can’t.
6. “Make sure the player is having fun, not the designer/computer.”
Let’s face it: we talk a big game on being user-driven but as designers we love to design for ourselves and other designers.
Creating product is indeed a form of self expression, but sometimes we can go beyond what makes sense. Product Design is the pragmatic corner of the Liberal Arts.
An idea might sound and look cool, but do users really think so? Do people want it?
In a startup’s context, does it also make sense for the business? Once again, Sid reminds us to step back and focus on what matters.
It’s not about showing off our Figma skills, it’s about giving people what they need.
7. “The dichotomy between someone else’s talent and your own is a cause for celebration”
Collaboration is what brings out the best outcomes.
8. “You can’t decide what something’s going to be before you embark on it, and you shouldn’t stick with a bad idea just because you’re fond of it.”
Imagine a night illuminated by stars and candles. Beautiful but impractical, that was life before Thomas Edison. Humanity didn’t have a light source that they could control.
To invent the electric battery, Edison connected wires and a piece of carbon to it. While trying that out, the carbon produced light.
This gave him the a idea of something that could possibly exist — A light source he could control based on that mechanism.
There was just one thing: it went away too fast. He wasn’t the first to try carbon as a way to produce light, but everyone else before him didn’t really get it to function.
Now, his true work started. He tested out 3000 materials to see which worked better, including carbonized wires of every plant imaginable.
Relentless iteration to find what worked.
His quote “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” is still a good mantra for designers who want to do great things.
9. “Whatever it is you want to be good at, you have to make sure you continue to read, and learn, and seek joy elsewhere”.
Finding joy and exploring your curiosity outside of work is important. It keeps you inspired and open to new ideas. It lets you observe beyond what you can already see.
Write, play games, go to museums, hikes, watch movies. It can help you understand, see differently and get inspired
Conclusion
Sid’s experience is unparalleled, there’s not a lot of product builders as prolific and hands on as he is.
He wasn’t interested in the politics of business and didn’t love corporate stuff, but kept himself busy with coding and designing games throughout his whole career.
These lessons from him, if taken seriously, can make as all better designers. I recommend reading the book and diving deeper on his lessons if you’re interested in the topic.
Thanks for reading!
