What is a mental model & why does it matter?

SimCity is an urban simulator the Sims is a dollhouse come to life these mental models are easy to understand and interact with and it's part of what makes those great games so endlessly engaging have you ever wondered what a mental model is and why you should care I'm ami Joachim game designer and startup coach today I'm gonna answer that question and show you how brilliant designers use mental models to create engaging experiences by the end of this video you will have a clear idea of what a mental model is and how you can use one to enhance your design process and leadership first let me give you some context my students and clients struggle with this issue all the time their questions usually come up when we're working together to design their end to end customer experience using the mastery path framework when you look at product design through this lens and think about the experience that you're delivering over time the power of a strong mental model becomes blindingly clear it's one of the best ways to organize your design and help your team make coherent decisions in a nutshell a mental model is an explanation of someone's thought process about how something works we all build mental models that's what allows us to navigate the world and make assumptions about how to behave based on our previous experiences our mental models shape what we expect and how we think about what's possible for example think about going to the doctor you have a set of expectations a mental model for what's going to happen you role in the interaction how that conversation will go how you'll handle payment now it's the same with having drinks with a friend you also have expectations about the rules that drive that interaction you'll probably ask about each other's lives swap some stories your interaction will be less formally structured than your visit to the doctor so why are mental models so useful and important for product leaders to understand it's simple they shape expectations and drive engagement through familiarity for example it's polite to ask your friend how she's doing but your doctor doesn't expect you to inquire about her health when you're aware of these patterns and you implement the right cues you can trigger a mental model in your customers head that's familiar and thus helps them understand and get comfortable with what you're offering now there's another reason mental models are so useful they give us a shortcut for understanding new situations great product design often means tapping into a familiar habit or pattern that your customer already understands whether you're aware of it or not whether you're intentional about it or not your customers will map what you offer to what they already understand they're gonna leverage what's in their head and make assumptions based on that for example my client replica makes a sophisticated AI chat bot that engages in natural feeling conversation we worked closely together to tighten up the mental model for their chat bot and create something customers would understand and engage in and want to come back to suppose you're interacting with a mental health chat bot having a conversation does that feel more like talking to a friend or a doctor what are the cues that trigger one mental model or the other those two frames for the situation are very different and if you mix them up your product experience is going to feel incoherent the person who really drove this lesson home for me is will write the brilliant creator of the Sims and SimCity I worked with well on several projects including the original Sims and he'd always say to us pay attention to the story that's unfolding in the players head everything we're building into the game needs to support that story now this is something that great storytellers like will understand and that every product leader can use to their advantage it's hard to engage in the story if you don't have a clear mental model of what's happening for example Sim City is an urban simulator the sims is a dollhouse come to life these mental models are easy to understand and interact with and it's part of what makes those great games so endlessly engaging and on the development side a clear easy to understand mental model gives your whole team a North Star that helps clarify and organize your design decisions and that makes it easier to develop a compelling and coherent customer experience working with will taught me that game development is as much about programming the players brain as it is about programming the experience itself if the mental model embedded in your game or product feels real if the cues are consistent and the player can see themselves in the story it's much more likely to become part of their identity and that's one of the very best ways to drive retention and engagement want more join me in the game thinking hub our free group for product leaders who want to innovate smarter go to game thinking dot io / hub and sign up today I'll see you there you

Channel: Game Thinking TV

Views: 1,195

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 0wxj2VhGHOs

Length: 5min 59sec (359 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020