Learnings on creating a simple online game
You can play the game first from your mobile and read the article later 😅
In my (humble) opinion, when it comes to mobile, or handheld, games: Tetris started it all. I remember being a 10-year-old in the early ’90s and everyone in my family would steal my Gameboy Color just to play this game. My dad, my mom, uncles, and aunts: didn’t care about my Mario, Xmen, or Zelda games; for them, those seemed too complicated. They just loved lining up those weird blocks into rows and getting points. They were simply hooked on Tetris. …
Or why a book’s cover was designed for you
The English idiom «don’t judge a book by its cover» is a metaphorical phrase which means «you shouldn’t prejudge the worth or value of something, by its outward appearance alone».
Remind yourself of your middle school library: pass the entrance, get inside, and tell me what you visually remember. Most probably bookshelf’s of pale colors maybe autumn tones all around.
Now go to your neighborhood trendy-bookshop. You’ll immerse yourself in a jungle of colors; mostly shiny backgrounds, high contrast, big badges showing awards, and bold letters for reviews.
Similar to a candy-shop, you are indulged in a rainbow of colors…
10 swearing phrases to drive your way into a better User Experience
High school: a distant memory, a forgotten phase, ‘glory years’ or a current living hell. A place where we are shoved together with a bunch of other teenagers to learn from teachers. Each teacher with a different topic and different way of imparting knowledge to hormone-busting kids.
I must have seen more than 50+ courses taught by dozens of different teachers. Still, there is only one who’s classes I could vividly recall:
The teacher who used bad words.
There is something about the anger, the in-your-face attitude, and out of character behavior; that let any kind of information sync into…
Fight Information Overload during Social Distancing Season
Ever since I was a kid, I loved being outdoors (mostly around nature). For the past month, the background of my desktop is the closest I’ve been to nature. Most of the time, this lovely mountain landscape is covered by video chat applications, Design & Dev tools, Outlook, the occasional Netflix movie and newsfeeds (mostly Twitter).
So·ci·al Dis·tanc·ing
In order to protect the physical health of their citizens, governments are recommending (and sometimes enforcing) the practice of Social Distancing so that citizens do not get infected nor infect others with the COVID-19 virus. …
My personal thoughts on a UX career-level-up strategy
6+ years into my career and no idea of where I was standing…
Until one rainy Sunday evening…
playing Super Nintendo…
I had a realization…
Professional careers share a lot with video games! or at least with platformers like Super Mario Bros. For those of you unknowledgeable on the fine art of old-school gaming: you basically control an 8-bit Italian plumber (Mario) traversing through a landscape full of obstacles, holes, foes, allies, powerups, and coins (points)!
From a professional career perspective, we are talking about: crazy deadlines, endless email threads, bad colleagues, good colleagues, happy clients, gratifying projects, and coffee!
…
Ricardo Gerstl
User Experience Engineer > ricardogerstl.com
