Do Games Know The Secret Of UI?

A reader writes "There is a nice interview at the BBC talking about how computer games are the ones pushing the envelope. Particularly interesting is it doesn't just deal with the tech aspects, but goes into the user interface aspect as well." Having conversed with her on a number of occasions, I can attest to JC being smart. Good interview.

Re:Nothing pushes a computer like games.

[Nos.]

A few years ago, as a summer job, I was offering my expertise in helping people purchase a computer.

The first question I always asked was "What do you want to do with your computer." This gave me a starting point. If it was gaming, the machine was always a more powerful machine than the folks who were looking to do word processing and internet access (we're talking mid-90's here).

I remember one guy being quite shy about saying that he wanted to play games, I had to admit that I did a lot of gaming before he would. As a result he ended up being very happy with his machine, and as I recall, he didn't have to put a dime into that machine for over a year!