Wii the people

Bill Barton was in our offices the other day, and we were talking about the Wii. We think the Wii is far more innovative than the X-Box 36o or PS3, and not because of its cool controller, the wii-mote. Sure, the way you interact with the game is different, but what makes Wii revolutionary is the way it encourages people to interact. Wii is a social video game that encourages social interaction. The software and controller are amazingly well-suited to having a gang of people over to bowl or play tennis, as opposed to shooting aliens and zombies which is best performed solo, in some sort of isolation chamber. So a tip of the hat to Nintendo for designing a product with human interaction in mind. As web designers, we need to take the same approach, and consider social interaction. Not just user experience, but users experience. More and more  web apps (like Basecamp) are leveraging this approach. The futurists’ fears that we’ll become less socialized appear to be in abeyance, at least for the moment.