Personal and enterprise goals

Understanding the differences between personal goals and actual goals is crucial for interactive design.

A person's personal goals can include:

(1) do not think you are stupid; (2) do not make mistakes; (3) do a proper amount of work; (4) be interesting (at least not boring ).

Personal goals are always true and have an effect on everyone.

Personal goals are more important than other goals. They are precise because they belong to individuals, although they are rarely fully satisfied. However, any system that damages personal goals will fail even if other goals are well met.

For example, if the software is designed to make users feel stupid, their self-esteem will be frustrated even if other goals are met.

The essence of a good interaction design is to allow users to achieve their actual goals, but at the same time, they cannot undermine their personal experience goals.

For example, my colleague Ted bought a TV. He had to read the operation manual for more than an hour before setting the parameters of the TV. He was very angry.

Obviously, Ted wants to watch TV programs and enjoy all the new features of the TV. Such an actual goal is closely related to setting up the new TV.

But we can't forget that he is also a person. His strong personal feelings can also be expressed with his own goals: Ted doesn't want his new TV to make him feel ashamed, he doesn't want to feel stupid, you do not want to make any mistakes on your business trip. He hopes to have a sense of accomplishment as soon as possible and enjoy it. These personal goals are extremely important. From the perspective of Interaction designers, these goals are even more important than their actual goals.

In the process of interacting with the TV, he made mistakes from time to time. It took him more than an hour to find his sense of accomplishment from the power supply, he also found that the process of designing parameters had no fun at all. In the end, Ted achieves the actual goal, but the process of setting parameters for the TV breaks the most important personal goal for Ted.

Ted's personal goals are sacred, so we must consider designing a very different interaction interface for the TV as much as possible.

First, to make Ted feel fulfilled as quickly as possible, we must ensure that the TV works properly immediately after the power is plugged in.

The TV doesn't have to do everything, but it must do something and do well. We can assume that some initial parameters allow the TV to perform initial settings, and postpone the settings of other advanced functions. We must break down the parameters. This is not a technical problem. We only need to make a simple adjustment to the priority set for the parameters.

Now, our design is in line with the definition of a sense of accomplishment: Ted pulls the TV from the chassis, plug in the power, and comfortably switch the TV channel from the comfortable sofa. Basically satisfies his actual goals without undermining his personal goals.

Of course, after a while, Ted wants to achieve all the real goals in order to fully enjoy the new functions provided by the TV. At this time, Ted may have watched TV programs for several hours, and it is no stranger to new TV sets. It is willing to spend more time playing around.

Now TV sets make him feel stupid. He will have more patience to deal with TV sets and know what else he needs to do.

If a person cannot achieve his or her individual goals, he or she cannot achieve the enterprise goals well.

A simple fact: happy and satisfied employees are more efficient.

This situation has become more serious in the modern information economy, because the real enterprise assets have changed from machines to adults.

Enterprise goals: (1) increase profits; (2) increase market share; (3) defeat competitors; (4) employ more employees; (5) provide more products and services; (6) go public.

From the perspective of the enterprise, the enterprise's goal is very important. However, the enterprise only has a bunch of financial statements and does not automatically do the work itself. The enterprise actually works for people, therefore, the fulfillment of individual goals will take a leading role in achieving enterprise goals.

For example, a person will not work because of good lighting, but if there is no light, people will not work.

On the other hand, if you ignore the actual goal of an enterprise and only serve the individual's goal, personal work may be just a personal game for society.

Personal and enterprise goals