Creating Pleasurable Experiences, Zach Pousman, ReMIX Atlanta

Designing Pleasurable
Experiences
ReMIX Atlanta 8 May 2010
Zachary Pousman
Sr. Experience Architect
IQ Interactive

Comments-added version for Slideshare. Some Rights Reserved. CC Remix with attribution for non-commercial uses.

Today, Iʼll try to

Convince you
that designing pleasurable experiences can
help you build better products, connect
more closely with users, and be a differentiator
for your business (or your clientʼs business).


Theory
Iʼll present a few theoretical foundations and
formulations of pleasure (and try to get the
holistic nature of human life).


Practice
Iʼll also present some themes and practical tips
and tricks for designing for pleasure.


Examples
Of course, examples speak louder
than anything else.


Big stuff


Small stuff


Tiny stuff
Depending on the context and audience,
even things like sub-pixel rendering
can increase pleasure.


What is pleasure?
What kind of pleasures are there?


Definition
er, we know it when we see it...
Iʼm not sure a deﬁnition from the dictionary is
helpful -- what is helpful is thinking of all the
different kinds of pleasures that you
experience. And then to remember that youʼre
not (exactly) like everyone.


Seems like there are lots
Kinds
Types
Taxonomies


Kinds
Types
Taxonomies


People are
not robots.
People are not automatons, who are
only interested in efﬁciency and
effectiveness.People have a whole
host of individual ʻways of beingʼ
and ways of interacting in the world.


Survival
breathing, homeostasis, food, water, sleep, sex

Safety
bodily security, property security, financial security,


Survival
breathing, homeostasis, food, water, sleep, sex

Safety
bodily security, property security, financial security

Belonging / Love
friendship, family, intimacy

Esteem
self-esteem, identity, achievement, confidence

Self-actualization
morality, problem solving, creativity, personal growth


Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self-actualization

Esteem

Belonging / Love

Safety

Survival

4 types of Pleasure
Designing Pleasurable Products
(Jordan 2003, following Tiger 1992)

Ideo-pleasure
Identity, intellectual

Physio-pleasure Socio-pleasure
Sensorial pleasures the pleasure that comes from
social life

Psycho-pleasure
Cognitive load (usability term), matching mental models


Emotional Design
Don Norman, 2003

Visceral
Sensorial, nearly subconscious, pleasures

Behavioral
Usability

Reflective
the pleasure that comes from social life, identity, etc.


“Attractive things work better.”

For evidence, see the CHI 2010 paper ʻAttractive phones don't
have to work better: independent effects of attractiveness,
effectiveness, and efﬁciency on perceived usabilityʼ by Quinn
and Tran, 2010. There is one of these papers nearly every year
where effectiveness is more correlated with aesthetics than with
efﬁciency.

The Product Ecology
Forlizzi, J. (2008). The Product Ecology: Understanding Social
Product Use and Supporting Design Culture. International
Journal of Design vol. 2, no. 1


“Most people make the
mistake of thinking design is
what it looks like.
That’s not what we think design
is. It’s not just what it looks like
and feels like...Design is how
it works.”


Hierarchy of design
considerations
From Stephen P. Anderson (via poetpainter.com)

Meaningful

Pleasurable

Convenient

Usable

Reliable

Functional

Is there a business case for
building into our systems?

Definitely.


ROI: easy marketing,
more use, longer-term use


(but) match the
experience to attributes
that people care about
In order to get the best return on investment
in pleasurable products, think about the
individuals... Not everyone gets the same
pleasure from the same experience inputs.


Think about restaurants

Price

Quality

Think about restaurants
Bachanalia
Rathbunʼs

JCT Kitchen
Price Holman & Finch

Tacqueria Del Sol

FarmBurger

Subway
Taco Bell Antico Pizza Neopoletana

Quality

Examples
(and themes)


Exaggeration
From Cartoons to the User Interface
Chang, B. and Ungar, D. Proceedings of UIST 1993

Physicality
“Please the senses”

“Touch gestures should provide a
+ delightful experience to your
application whether a single gesture
refresh is initiated, or a combination of
chained gestures. Touch delights the
senses as the user gets to see the
scroll interaction match the performance.
Single, multi-touch, and even
chained gestures can provide a more
colorful, intuitive experience.”

From: Page 8 of Windows Phone 7
Guidelines Document


Progress: Achievements


Points!
Beyond badges, Foursquare also Points in Farmville are so ʻvaluableʼ that
has points and a leaderboard there are tons of cheat codes / plans...


Personality

whoops screen


Personality


Support reflection


Say hello to Tableau Machine

Create a mirror of
domestic space
and the ‘vibe’
rhythms and
moods of home
life.


Tableau Machine
System Implementation Overview


Quiet times such as
watching TV, reading...


Active times alone such as
vacuuming, exercising...


Social times such as family
meals, homework, games...


Wild times such as play,
fighting, parties...


Tableau Machine
Pleasures are momentary
but also long-term Household A

• Three households in Atlanta
GA
• 6-8 weeks
• Elicitation techniques:
Household B
• Interviews
• Feltboard
• Wordgame
• Print outs

Household C


Household C

‘NIKO’


Printing

Household B


Printing

Household A Average 1.46 / day

Household B Average 3.16 / day

Household C Average 12.64 / day


Deepening of
Reflection

Household C


Social sharing / reputation

• reward activities you
want. people feel a deep
need to manage
reputation

• Amazon ʻtop 500
reviewerʼ

• review was helpful,
pleasure for the reader,
not the writer.

Ambiguous Actions
(users create the
meaningfulness)


‘Poke’


‘Wink’


‘Friend’/‘Follow’


Open up spaces
to unravel ambiguity


http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexsegre/

People print.
A lot.
3.2 billion reams of “office paper”
used by “businesses” (in 2004).
Source: NADEP Environmental Program Office Report 2005.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexsegre/

And usage is going
up, not down.
Global production in the pulp, paper
and publishing sector is expected to
increase by 77% from 1995 to 2020.
Source: OECD Environmental Outlook 2001


Imprint
• Make visible the invisible traces that are
frequently unexamined
• Data reﬂects back the social life

• Data about sustainability

• Growing catalog of visualizaitons


Beyond paper....
Energy
Manufacturing
Toner
Printers
Transportation
Environmental
degradation

Powersave: 100w @ 22hours = $0.50 / day

Active: 600w @ 2hours = $0.25 / day
http://cchrc.org/math.html


Kiosk...


Creating Pleasurable Experiences, Zach Pousman, ReMIX Atlanta

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