For those of you who don’t know, Blizzard (the company that created Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch…) is like the Apple of game design. Their attention to detail is insanely meticulous. When someone says their product was built with love, Blizzard is the bar.
Hearthstone is filled with all sorts of Easter eggs, micro interactions and tiny little details. While most apps and games try to minimize long load times, Hearthstone celebrates it.
Hearthstone’s match making load screen.
They could have slapped in a boring screen with a load bar, but they had some fun with it. I think there’s a lesson to be learned in these little details.
Recently, I saw a cool animation on Dribbble by Kyle Decker that was inspired by Hearthstone. To bring in these kinds of details to a product, a culture has to be built around going the extra mile. It’s pretty crazy that he was able to do this all with code.
Dat motion blurrrrrr tho.
As I work on Input, I’m trying to balance between building the essentials versus adding the special touches that add a wow factor. Here’s an example of a small animation tied to a micro-interaction when a user posts. Notice the tiny little animation in the button that resembles our logo. The animation prevents the user from double clicking and communicates that a post is being sent.
Button animation during posting.
I know these kinds of things won’t help us find product market fit… but there’s just something about exercising your love for details and the small things. I’m tickled by cool hover states, minimal transitions and micro-interactions. The best designs are often unnoticed… but on the other hand, I think there are times where users will welcome personality and a little extra somethin’ somethin’.
By the way, I made a Hearthstone video with my buddy Justin Ho. It’s a quick pilot to see if: a) it’s something that he’s interested in doing long term, and b) it’s something that I have time to edit. If you didn’t know, Justin (aka Lyrondak) was ranked #11 in the world last season. I actually believe he could be #1 in the world if he really tried.
The Greedy McGreeds original Hearthstone Deck.
This was our first attempt, so the audio and lighting is a little janky. Creating these videos is just a good excuse to fly drones and play crazy troll decks in Hearthstone.
Anyway, I’m not sure if this is something that we’re going to commit to yet… but I’m pretty determined to work on a video project at some point. I’m just waiting for the right opportunity. You’ll see some more experimental YouTube content soon.
