Considering all this, if you happen to work on experiences that younger people will use, you can safely assume that your users are gamers. As digital gaming natives enter the workforce, they bring certain expectations and influences from gaming that will shape the products they come in contact with. This includes the products they use in their free time, those they use for work, and the products they create.

But what does this influence from the gaming world mean for design advancement? And how does it shape the future of collaboration?

Friction is fun

A game would not be a game without a bit of friction. And the more friction, the harder the game. At the same time, the more rewarding it is once you succeed. Overcoming difficult challenges or obstacles can add to the overall enjoyment of the experience by providing a sense of accomplishment. Similarly, moments of satisfaction when discovering a hidden secret or unlocking a new ability can add to the overall fun of a game by providing a sense of surprise and reward.

When you play a game, you do so for the game content and not other parts of the UX. In gaming, UX design often focuses on making menus, UI, and surrounding non-game interactions as smooth as possible. This allows friction to shine where it’s essential: in the gameplay. Too much friction in unintended parts of an experience will have the opposite effect and is, unfortunately, all too common in poorly designed experiences.

When there is no gameplay to focus on, the same principles of friction can be applied to non-gaming experiences. You have to be careful not to overdo it. By deliberately mapping friction points to create moments of satisfaction at the right times, you can provide a captivating user experience with increased retention. For example, a shopping site might use moments of friction like requiring users to enter a referral code or complete a survey to add a sense of exclusivity or accomplishment to the shopping experience. Similarly, a social media platform might use moments of enjoyment, such as letting users uncover a special feature or offering a reward to keep people engaged so they return for more.

By using friction to provide a sense of delight, designers can ironically create a better experience than completely unruffled.

The world is multiplayer

The offline world is inherently multiplayer. Interacting and collaborating in real-time is what makes us human, in some sense. Let’s call this collaborative behavior “real-life multiplayer.” Throughout most of history, multiplaying has, inconveniently enough, required people to be in the same physical space — unless, perhaps, you would be able to scream really loudly.

As multiplayer games came around, in-game collaboration became the norm. Better internet connections made it easier for players to engage with each other and interact naturally, even from different sides of the globe.

Gaming has been onto something for decades, and in recent years, the way people play together has inspired social media and video-conferencing software to make the internet a more social place. With the rise of multiplayer tools such as Figma, Miro, and Google Docs, we no longer need to be in the same room as others to share our work or collaborate on complex tasks. This has led to various shifts in how we work together.

Sometimes, writing what you think or feel gets old and doesn’t convey the full message. Gamers who are accustomed to memes, in-game emotes, and twitch-stream gifs often expect these ways of interacting even in non-gaming settings. Thus, gamified communication elements find their way into work and design software. High-fiving your colleague in Figjam is instant and fun — and creates a bit of connection. A VR-minigolf meeting with a client allows for an almost in-person human experience with full-body gestures and facial expressions. Finding the perfect GIF to display your feelings in Around boosts the mood of remote meetings by allowing a bit of fun.

Gone are the days of siloed individual users working in isolation with offline tools. Engaging, real-time teamwork no longer requires physical proximity. With the rise of VR experiences, and as more people expect things to work as they do in their favorite games, online multiplayer experiences will only get better and more innovative.

Speaking of work

Gaming communities have versatile ways of talking to each other, and some are finding their way into the mainstream. Gaming natives are used to emotes, live streams, and voice chat and are generally more comfortable being heard by an AI system or their server mates on Discord. And they are bringing a shift in remote communication that means more instant, fun, and creative ways of interacting.

Speech is a popular way of communicating within games because it’s the most direct way of letting others know what you think while enabling multitasking. When it comes to gaming conversations, social, community-driven lobbies are the way things are done. These lobbies emerged as a means of communication isolated from the games to enable live communication when gaming. But where Skype calling used to be applied to coordinate dungeon raids with your World of Warcraft guild, now, voice chat is built into the games themselves for a more effortless experience.

Outside of gaming — for instance, at work — the ability to talk virtually about complex topics is equally important. Meetings are usually the go-to solution for aligning communication. But we can only attend many scheduled meetings in a day before feeling swamped. Zoom meetings also lack the casual feel of the more effortless water cooler chat that “just happens” when people hang out in the same space. Many people have missed this in recent years due to the shift towards remote work.

As a potential remedy, what gaming figured out long ago, in the form of social lobbies, is now finding its way into work environments, probably because of the increase of workers who are gaming natives. Gen Z employees are more comfortable hanging out in a casual remote work setting. For instance, using Slack huddles or Figma audio chats all day, jumping in and out of conversations, much like in an onsite office setting. By seeing both games and workplaces as social hangouts, it becomes clear why remote communication will benefit people who are comfortable with this approach. Learning from games can make remote work communication more effortless, influence how people feel about their jobs, and build stronger relationships with colleagues.

Let users have a say about their own experience

As digital experiences and products become more prevalent daily, people want to make those experiences their own. We increasingly expect the ability to customize and personalize digital products to suit our individual needs and preferences. Once again, this trend is fuelled by popular games, which have a long history of allowing players to tweak and create their setups and tailor experiences to their preferences.

In a game, a player might be able to choose their character's appearance, abilities, and equipment, or they might be able to customize the game's UI, controls, or settings. This level of customization lets players feel an increased sense of ownership by creating a unique experience that feels like their own, fully tailored to their specific needs and preferences. Customization also makes games more inclusive and accessible to people with various needs or disabilities outside the “norm”.