The Science of Fun: How Fun Helps Improve Your Design
by Frank Spillers
CEO/CXO @ Experience Dynamics; UXInnerCircle.com
Summary: Fun is important to UX design (Monk et al 2002; Overbeeke et. al. 2002; Hazzenzahl and Burmester 2001). Fun activates several important cognitive processes, known for centuries from games we have created and played. Think of a fun game you lasted played…These same processes make fun an important UX design tool.
First, fun erodes structured cognition making it easier to learn. Fun engages whole-brain learning by engaging our right-brain processes (in the right prefrontal cortex).
Second, fun triggers feel-good brain chemicals (endorphins, dopamine, serotonin) and activates positive and relaxed emotions.
Lastly, fun allows exploration without fear of failure or frustration that comes with making errors or perceived errors.
Check out this video on: How Fun Can Change People’s Decisions
Fun can have the same frame-breaking aspects as nonsense and the use of Improvisation (Improv) in UX Design. Note: Improv is a core skill if you are designing Immersive Experiences (VR/AR) or Service Design experiences, where service prototyping is heavily improv-based.
Why should nonsense be taken seriously?
“Nonsense spurs people to challenge their pre-conceived assumptions. It shows people the world from a topsy-turvy perspective, causing them to link information in a new way — like a child swinging upside-down from monkey bars seeing an unexplored corner of the playground. Unlike the child’s accidental exploration, however, nonsense can be carefully facilitated. Designers can use nonsense as a powerful rhetorical tool to create and guide people through cohesive and transformative experiences”. — Amy Bickerton “Nonsense and Transformative Experience: From Breaking Meaning to Making Meaning”.
10 Rules to Augment Fun and Beauty in Interaction Design
Source: Overbeeke et. al. “Let’s Make things Engaging” in Funology (book). Comments are by Frank Spillers.
1. Don’t think products, think experiences.
Comment: Support the wider context of use. Pull back from the UI and see what else you can support or utilize to enhance the overall experience.
2. Don’t think beauty in appearance, think beauty in interaction.
Comment: Beauty is skin deep. An interface needs to not only look inviting (in the right way, with “affordances + signifiers”) it should respond beautifully when users interact with it. The interaction itself should put a smile on a user’s face.
3. Don’t think ease of use, think enjoyment of the experience.
Comment: Easy does not matter as much as an overall experience that is irresistible, compelling and desirable. Joy of use should be found alongside or within ease of use.
4. Don’t think buttons, think rich actions.
Comment: Focusing on the UI is important but how the user gets to the UI, how the UI flows, and what the steps leading to (onboarding) and departing (reflective actions or feelings) are as important.
5. Don’t think labels, think expressiveness and identity.
Comment: Instead of focusing on labeling icons and controls, design them to stand out or call screaming attention to the task. Use animation to enhance interactions.
6. Metaphor sucks.
Comment: Don’t try to over do it with metaphor unless it really works…this is rare since metaphors do not translate from offline reality to online experiences. The same for Skeuomorphism (literal representations like real life) in design, unless it’s VR/AR…Also, strick a balance between Flat Design and Skeuomorphism… consider Neumorphism.
7. Don’t hide, don’t represent. Show.
Comment: Choose transparency of actions instead of hiding options, processes, descriptions or actions that users must know or explore to find.
8. Don’t think affordances, think irresistibles.
Comment: Focus on evoking feelings rather than focusing on functional controls. What if all of usability is just a feeling? Start with the feeling you want them to have and design back from that.
9. Hit me, touch me, and I know how you feel.
Comment: Study the rich actions, interactions and microinteractions involved in your product’s use and design to those emotions.
10. Don’t think thinking, just do doing.
Comment: Get hands-on with the design early on. Prototype early and play with the prototype…on a phone if mobile, shake/carry/ grab it if it’s a tangible product or mimick the interaction in it’s native environment (not your desktop or quiet office space).
3 ‘DIM’ Enemies of Fun in Design
1. Discoverability- Searching, hunting, exploring, finding…these are all aspects of discoverability behavior. If your product, application, service or experience requires too much discoverability (or any for that matter), you’re moving users away from fun.
2. Implicit Rules- One of the biggest challenges of design for users is: “How does it work?” Function is not always apparent. Intuitive designs require little to no understanding. This means rules are discoverable, explicit and transparent.
3. Memory- Having to remember what to do or where to go beyond a “quick guess” can cause users to digress from design enjoyment.
Conclusion: Leveraging fun in the design process is probably more challenging than designing for fun. Design teams should specify what their “joy of use” criteria will be starting with the end-state or feeling the customer should experience a) before interaction, b) during interaction and c) post-interaction.
p.s. Also see my 15 Lessons from Emotion Design
About the author: Frank Spillers, CEO/ CXO of Experience Dynamics, a leading UX consulting firm with Fortune 500 clients worldwide.
For over 20 years, Frank has been a seasoned UX consultant, Researcher, Designer, and Trainer. He is an award-winning expert in improving the design of digital products, services, and experiences. Frank is a Subject Matter Expert in UX Design, UX Management, Accessibility, Emotion Design, Service Design, Localization UX, Lean UX, VR/ AR UX Design. He provides private corporate training and offers courses to the largest online design organization in the world (Interaction Design Foundation). In 2001, Frank founded UX consulting firm Experience Dynamics. He provides deep learning opportunities at UX Inner Circle.
