Developing a New Major

Overbeeke, K., Djajadiningrat, T., Hummels, C., Wensveen, S., Frens, J. (2003). Let’s make things engaging.  in Blythe, J., Monk, A., Overbeeke, K., & Wright, P. (eds.), Funology: From usability to enjoyment. 7-17.

“physicality of the product should be reinstated to restore engagement. Fun, as such is not hte issue, engagement is.” (p.

we all talk about user-centered design and starting our design process with the user/person - but these guys say design seems to focus on just one aspect of the person or another (designers with psych background focus on cognitive stuff, designers with programming background focus on logic stuff) - these guys say people have 3 kinds of skills - cognitive, perceptual-motor, and emotional - and good design should play on all of those - knowing, doing, feeling - can’t focus just on cognitive/intelligence angle; can’t reduce emotion to just “fun” and smiley faces

“users are not interested in products; they are in search of challenging experiences” (p. 9) - wants to use all his senses, doesn’t want everyting made “easier” - usability is more than ease of use - “A user may choose to work with a product despite it being difficult to use because it is challenging, seductive, playful, surprising, memorable or even moody, resulting in enjoyment of hte experience.” (p. 9) - learning to play an instrument isn’t easy but reward worth the effort

aesthetics important part of usablity and it’s not just making products beautiful - these guys say should want not beuatiful appearance but rather beautiful interaction and engaging interaction

• product has to function correctly, do what it’s supposed to do - nothing i ndesign makes up for that
• user’s needs, interests and skills differ (from person to person, over time) and so not all products resonate with all people all the time
• designer doesn’t always know the context in which the product will be used
• design needs to have aesthetic richness - use all the senses. designer can evoke or intensify feelings but they can’t force someone to have specific feeling
• product should be open to let user create his own story about usage, should allow exloration and interaction

10 rules

• think experiences - not products.think about context for the experience and how to use all the senses. think about how to let hte user create his own experience in the context you’ve created
• think beauty in the interaction, not just in appearance
• think enjoyment of hte experience, not ease of use
• think rich actions, not buttons - all buttons now require the user to do the same thing regardless of what the button does (user pushes and machine starts, stops, goes into reverse, records, palys…) - need to differentiate the actions of the user
• think expressiveness and identity , not labels - lots of controls look alike so they have to be labeled - they think controls should look, sound, and feel different, give user lots of feedback about the product’s use
• metaphor sucks - user usually doesn’t understand the product because of the metaphor and probably has more than one metaphor they use to understand
• show. don’t hid, don’t represent. show the actual thing, not some alternative representation - we hide the cassette in a camera and then put some representation on the screen to show it’s loaded and how much time left
• Think irresistibles, not affordances. A products beauty of interaction can draw people to interact wiht a product, regardless of affordances
• we can understand people’s emotions by how they use products
• don’t think thinking, just do doing. - these guys say we need to do “do” earlier and more often - handle physical objects, manipulate materials - loets you be more creative in ways that just thinking ever will

goal of hte arrticle is to be provocative - enjoyment should not be an afterthought and can not be added to a product by pasting on a smiley face

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