Spreading the Love

I spent this day in expectation, waiting to see if Game|Life or Joystiq would pick up and blog about my survey. Kyle Orland, of Joystiq, sent me an email around noon. He was ready to post about it, but I had forgotten to open the survey. I closed it late last night in order to tweak a few questions, but forgot to open it back up. Kyle said he was willing and so I spent the afternoon following up with Kyle providing some more information. So I'm hopeful that Kyle will blog about it tomorrow.

So while I was following up with Kyle, I was spreading my Nintendo DS love around the library staff. I "forced" the DS and a few games to some of the librarians and staff at my library. It's a slow time of the year and a good time to let others play. I introduce my nongaming co-workers to accessible games like Elite Beat Agents and Brain Age. Elite Beat Agents was met with enjoyment, while the idea of Brain Age was more exciting for the staff than the actual game. Elite Beat Agents is a fun and light rhythm game that is easy for anyone to pick up, Brain Age is interesting and stimulating but can be frustrating during the initial attempts...

"easy for anyone to pick up"
"frustrating during the initial attempts"

I've heard these exact words used to describe internet search engines and library databases. Switching places is an important piece. The library that gets frustrated with the game interface, but can quickly navigate a research database and a student frustrated with a database interface - are they that different? If we realize that not everything is as intuitive as it is for us, we've made a good first step toward creating more accessible instruction sessions.