Rules of Play is an exhaustive, clear, cogent, and complete resource for understanding games and game design. Salen and Zimmerman describe an encyclopedia of game design issues, techniques, and attributes. In particular, they analyze the elements that can make a game experience richer, more interesting, more emotional, more meaningful, and, ultimately, more successful. It should be the first stop you make when learning about game design.

All design is the process of making experiences.

Relationships happen in experiences.

You need to marry the qualitative with the quantitative. It better informs us so we can decide what to do. We can't be afraid of data and analysis. We have to use that lens.

Information design addresses the organization and presentation of data: its transformation into valuable, meaningful information.

Designers are optimistic people who are trained to be courageous about the future—and making the future happen. They aren’t always aware of the intricacies of operations and the impacts of the solutions they propose, just like entrepreneurs, but they aren’t afraid of confronting a blank piece of paper (or screen or board) and getting to work making something new.

User experience is important to strategy.