What poker decks, medieval maps, and Google can teach us about making a better design tool
Let’s play a game: how many ways can you use a deck of poker cards? What tends to come to most people’s minds are card games, such as blackjack, poker, and goldfish. However, asking the same question to creative folks will get you suggestions like bookmarks, stacking towers, a calendar, and party garlands.
These answers help to illustrate how the humble deck of cards can achieve two important criteria of sustained usage:
- Reusability: the quality of being able to be used again repeatedly
- Versatility: the quality of being adaptable in different functions or activities
Other criteria, such as aesthetic appeal, may also be important, but achieving reusability and versatility indicates the user attains repeated value, as well as recognising extended value for its other purposes. One can even say such an object is well-designed.