

Profile of Shigeru Miyamoto - karzeem
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/20/101220fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all

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jbermudes
"Miyamoto said he wants the game players and the developers to have [the
feeling of a shared experience called] kyokan: for the players to feel about
the game what the developers felt themselves."

This is an excellent piece of advice to keep in mind when developing an
interface. An application is certainly a tool, with features X, Y, and Z, but
at the same time there are experiences that go along with the usage of those
features. Miyamoto likens it to telling a joke or writing a mystery novel:
timing is key. You mustn't overwhelm the user with too much information nor
leave the user wondering where to go next.

Miyamoto's games are excellent examples of Donald Norman's affordability. In
some of his newer games characters may give a long speech to the player via a
modal dialog box, but the keywords are highlighted in certain colors to denote
that they are either important people, places or actions; and after you have
talked to character, walking past him may cause a small non-modal speech
bubble to pop up with some small blurb summing up the info given by that
character, e.g. "Find the key to unlock my friend!" so that you don't have to
go through the longer speech again.

What really sets his games apart from many others is simply the attention to
detail and the amount of polish. When once asked about the delay of a certain
game he replied, "A delayed game is eventually good, but a bad game will stay
bad forever."

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jon914
What fascinates me about Miyamoto is his tendency to allow form to follow
function. Whether it's the design of Mario (to maximize visibility), the
choice of music to suggest the nature of a stage or the instant
recognizability of an enemy (spiny - don't jump on it!), his background in
industrial design shines through.

