The 8 elements of user enjoyment
The user experience design of a software application allows the user to reach its function and goals with a seamless pleasure and enjoyment.
Mihaly Csikszentmihali defines Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience as the engagement of a person with the action they are performing. He explains that in order to create an optimal life experience and immerse yourself in the state of Flow, one must design and strive for this. Life is beautiful but things are not naturally designed to make us happy by default. There are many things in our daily lives that make us incredibly frustrated, it is how our brains react that matters. Flow happens when you are really into what you are doing.
We never want our users to feel frustrated with the software applications we design. We want them to feel Flow when they use our products. In order to achieve this it is a must to understand how enjoyment is created in our brains and what triggers it.
We can only design for what we understand.
Csikszentmihali explains that when a person is fully enjoying an experience they should feel in the zone. He dissects enjoyment into 8 elements.
1. Tasks with a chance of completing ✅
Users should feel confident they can complete the task you are asking them to do. If they feel the task is greater than what they can achieve, they will abandon your application and do something else.
Actions and goals should be simple to achieve. It is always useful if you let your users know the stage of the process they are currently in.
In games in specific it is good to challenge the user. The tasks should have a change of completing but also challenge the user’s intellect. Otherwise they will get bored and leave.
For example: The Getting Started section of Hologram explains in four simple steps how the user needs to proceed in order to use their software solution.
Hologram divided their enrollment form into four steps. They detail what these steps are and show the user the step they are currently in.
2. Concentrate in what we are doing 🧠
Design clean and straight to the point layouts. Users should be guided towards what we want them to do. What is our call to action? What does the user ought to do in order to reach their goals and solutions.
This allows the user’s consciousness to immerse in the activity and avoid unknown experiences that may cause confusion and anxiety.
Form follows function. It is important to focus on the function and user objectives as a primary goal and design the eye candy as a secondary goal.
Don’t get me wrong, I think user interfaces and interactions should be carefully crafted for a beautiful experience but this is constantly evolving as well. You can always make your interface and interaction prettier and catchier but if the user experience of the application does not work properly and users get frustrated when using your app you will not have anything to improve upon to begin with. Less is more.
A good example of this is Invision’s website. It has a clean layout that focuses on guiding users with a prominent call to action to sign up for the app. They use the brand’s pink color to stand out and not confuse the user.
3. Tasks must have goals 👊🏼
Users should understand why they are doing what they are doing. Why they are interacting with the application the way they are. What will they achieve? Why are they there? Users should always have a clear grasp of what they are doing next.
If the users feel lost, or they do not understand what they will gain out of their efforts of interacting with your app, they will abandon the experience and leave. You should always strive for intrinsic motivation when crafting your experience. Users must feel immediate return on their investment.
A good is example is Uber. The application allows you to rate your drivers by sending them a thank you note along with these badges. In this case “Late Night Hero” refers to the drivers that pick users up late at night.
Another good example is Elevate. After you complete a game in the brain train app, it tells you how many points you achieved, whether this is a high score or not, it shows the points you earned, etc. This gives the user purpose and motivation to continue.
It also allows you to track your progress by showing you some graphs of your level of expertise. Seeing these levels increase motivates the user to become a higher level ranking.
4. Provides immediate feedback 🙋🏽
We should craft the experience between the user and the system as a conversation. When the user talks to the system, it should always respond. After an input there should always be an output. The system should always guide the user whether they are in the correct path or mistaken (error validation) in their actions.
Form validations are a good example of this principle. When the user types an incorrect input information we should let them know what the error is. In Jetblue’s log in form, if the user types an incorrect email format the form lets the user know with a red validation.
Confirmations are a good example of immediate feedback as well. In this crypto app the user enters an mount to set up the alert and the application returns a success message letting the user know their input is correct.
This last confirmation example plays with microinteractions to enhance the experience and delight the user.
5. Removal of worries and frustrations of everyday life 💆🏽
The application you are designing should solve user’s problems. Everything should work harmoniously and effortlessly. Users lives should improve by using your software not feel frustration and anxiety by it.
Many software applications solve everyday’s problems. The apps I use the most are Uber, iCal, Whatsapp, Gmail, Skype, Paypal, Cash (Square), Amazon, among others. Think about what are the apps that solve your everyday’s problems.
6. Sense of control over their actions 🎨
Good software design allow users to have a say in their experience. Encourage customization. Allow users to make mistakes by editing their information and undoing their actions. Users feeling in control mean a state of security and relaxation, an absence of being lost, worried or anxiety.
A good example of this principle are editable profiles. Twitter for instance allows users to customize their page header photo, profile photo and personal information.
Another level of customization are algorithms that allow users to customize the content based on their ratings. Such as Pandora, Netflix, Spotify, Facebook, etc.
7. Concern of the self disappears but re-emerges stronger after the flow experience is over 👻
Users should lose awareness of themselves and be taken by the experience you design for them. The user experience should be immersive.
Pinterest and Airbnb achieved this with their boards user interface. Users fill up their accounts with samples of houses they will never build and trips they will never take but they live the experience through navigating the software.
When you experience flow, what seems like a minute might actually be an hour as you immerse into the experience and are not aware of the actual time being spent. There are several applications that consume our time immensely.
Nobody ever thought they spent so much time in social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc until Apple introduced their Screen Time functionality that monitors how much time you spend in each application. Social Media applications have created such an immersive experience that users spend hours and hours just browsing through their friend’s and account’s content.
Knowing and understanding the elements of user enjoyment is important when crafting user experiences. By applying them we can tweak user habits and impact the way they experience our work.
Keep flowing. ✌️
The 8 elements of user enjoyment
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