New book signing: “Playful Design” by John Ferrara

Many designers and developers are finding that their applications and sites are far more engaging when they incorporate game-like qualities. So we’re thrilled that John Ferrara will be tackling this topic in his new book, Playful Design: Creating Game Experiences in Everyday Interfaces.

Here’s the blurb:

Game design is a sibling discipline to software and Web design, but they’re siblings that grew up in different houses. They have much more in common than their perceived distinction typically suggests, and user experience practitioners can realize enormous benefit by exploiting the solutions that games have found to the real problems of design. This book will show you how.

You can keep up with John’s work by visiting the book site and subscribing to its RSS feed. You can also sign up to be notified (and receive a discount) when it goes on sale.

Our last three book signings have corresponding Ning communities, and this one is no exception—we hope you will participate. And of course, you can follow John on Twitter: @ferrarajc

The book is due out in 2011. If you’re anxious to learn more about how UX and game design intersect right away, you might consider purchasing John’s Future Practice webinar on the topic, Extending Game Design to Business Applications (recorded in July of 2009).