

Second, it’s a direct callback to the old Gameboy games, where users were welcomed by Professor Oak. Thus what would be a chore instead adds to the user’s experience.
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It turns a tiresome series of popups into a conversation. This strategy of the “character onboarder” has been employed with great success by apps like Duolingo, with their friendly green owl, and even Slack’s “ Slackbot.” For Pokemon Go, the strategy works on several levels:įirst, using a character to communicate important information keeps people engaged by framing it as part of a narrative. Willow offers up advice a speech bubble at a time, and users can tap through at their own pace. Onboarding: Welcome to the world of Pokemon Go!Īfter creating an account, new players are introduced to the basics of the game by the character of Professor Willow, a Pokemon scientist. To that end, Pokemon Go’s UX complements the nostalgia strategy, narratively adapting the Gameboy games of the ’90s and early ’00s to an addictively fun mobile game. A lot of the game’s success is built on the massive Pokemon brand, taking advantage of formidable nostalgia among its audience. If AR/VR games have seemed niche so far, Pokemon Go has changed all that. Players explore their surroundings, following their map to find Pokemon when they get close, a camera view superimposes the critters onto the 3-dimensional world, and players toss Pokeballs to capture and collect them. Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game that uses map and camera interfaces to populate the real world with the imaginary, collectible creatures. They are Pokemon trainers, and they are all engaging in the biggest new mobile gaming phenomenon, Pokemon Go. Go for a walk in almost any public place, and you’re bound to notice them: striding with purposeful gait, phones drawn and held at the ready.
