How to design an "interesting" Internet product?

Children's website and software designer Deb Gelman has published a designing Fun article in "A List Apart," detailing how to design interesting Internet products. This paper expounds the problem from the aspects of definition, research, construction and evaluation. CSDN compiles the text.

What is "fun"?

"When I see something, I know it's clear."

In the case of Jacobellis v. Ohio in 1964, the United States Supreme Court tried to ban a film called "Obscene" (obscene) in the Ohio area. Obscenity is a concept that is easy to understand but difficult to define. Judge Potter Stewart once thought that explicit obscenity was impossible to define, but "I knew it when I saw it."

For designers, we always get a lot of vague adjectives from customers, just as they tell us, "I want my site to be cool" or "exciting" and "hot" and so on. When we ask more, they say, "I can't tell you exactly what the site looks like, but when I see it, I know it." ”

"Fun" is a particularly difficult concept to define. When we design different content sites for our users, we can hear users talking about the word.

The good thing is that we all understand the word "interesting", and the bad part is that the designer, the customer, and more importantly, the same understanding of "fun" as the user often determines whether or not the site will succeed.

So what do designers do?

Fortunately, we can also make "fun" designs without relying on the "I know when I see" approach. While this has a lot to do with individuals, by definition, research, construction, and evaluation, we've summed up a long-term, effective way to incorporate "fun" into design, and the design process adds a lot of fun.

Designed for Fun

I designed products that are related to kids, and in design experience, I've summed up a few design steps that help me make a lot of "fun" designs. Although they are not perfect, they help me (and the client) cross the "I know when I see" design phase.

Here is the design step:

Definition, classification, research, design, testing

Define "Fun"

At the end of 90, I designed a website for Georgia public television for children. At the time we had perfect needs, very active clients, and a large group of kids involved in the survey and cool content. We have done a lot of research and have repeatedly evaluated the paper prototypes (monitors prototype) to ensure that our design is in the right direction. But when the client (we all called her Barbara) looked at our first-round design paper, she was frustrated, she said: "The design looks good, but it lacks a little ' fun '." We were all in shock. What if the beautiful, colorful, inviting interface doesn't have any "fun"?

We find that Barbara's definition of "fun" is different from ours. She wants to add some moving elements to the site, and our design, though lovely, is not dynamic. Later, in 1998 years, we added some vivid "GIF" pictures on the page, which solved the problem perfectly and quickly. But the bigger problem is in front of us, and we don't recognise the idea of "fun" for clients (including our potential young users).

At the beginning of the project, the first thing we need to do is to define "fun"--to propose a definition that we agree on, and to set a desired goal. The feasibility of the definition is then evaluated with the user at the research stage.

Take the children's website for example, to illustrate how we define "fun".

Appropriate definition: For this children's website, our definition of "fun" is that the site attracts 6~8岁 children and their parents in a unique way, through text, XYZ TV video display and entertainment information.

To make this site "fun", it contains the following elements:

Animation and sound;

Eye-catching color and background picture;

If possible, use images instead of words;

Short, behavior-oriented copy blocks;

Embed some video clips in the design;

Create some interesting interactions;

Try some games.

You may want to position and improve your product's objectives based on your understanding of the user. If the design begins, then the meaning of "fun" to determine, can help you go straight to success, less to take many detours.

Once you have approved a definition of "fun," you should look for positive sites, products, application cases, and negative cases that can prove the definition. Based on these cases, customers can better understand the definition and determine whether the definition meets their requirements. At the same time in the research phase, they can also give you some material for reference.

Prioritize "Fun"

From the overall assessment of the importance of interest on the site. If it's no fun, will this site fail completely? Add some interesting elements to make it very well differentiated from competitors? Will it make it more enjoyable? Here, you do not need to pass a very complicated computational process to determine the amount of "fun" in the order of magnitude, only through the rapid experience, to determine how much fun in the design process should be accounted for.

In the process of determining the weight of "fun", it can be considered from the following issues:

1. Why do you want the site to be "fun"?

2. How does an "interesting" site affect your users? Does it help or hinder users from accomplishing their tasks and getting what they need? ）

3. How does "fun" keep in line with the content, message and function of the website?

4. How does an "interesting" website affect the user's understanding of the product and its equivalent?

5. If your site is "fun", how will it compete with competitors? What if it's not fun?

Based on the answers to these questions, you can divide the proportion of "fun" into one to three, among which the first priority is high and the third is the lowest.

1. "First-class" means that "fun" is critical to the success of the site. A lot of research is done on the user to determine if the definition is accurate and to make changes if necessary. The definition is then condensed and pasted onto the wall for everyone involved in the project to watch. The definition is added to the product requirements to be supported by project participants to ensure that the design and functionality are met.

2. "Second-class" means that "fun" can enhance the user experience of the site and differentiate it from the competitor website. You can interview some users to see if they agree with your definition, and then set the definition to medium priority and add to the product requirements. This allows the team to keep the requirements in mind throughout the design.

3. "Third-level" means that "fun" can improve the user experience of the site, if there is no "fun" element, the user will not feel any discomfort. Then you can do some research to see if the user's view of "fun" is consistent with yours. Add this definition to the product requirements and make the product icing on the cake.

Investigate the definition and priority of "fun"

After you've identified the definition and priority of "fun," you should ask the user for advice and see if they agree. The method of investigation you are going to take depends on the definition and priority.

The following are alternative research methods:

Survey: Surveys can give you a good idea of how users really feel. The survey does not tell you how "fun" affects user behavior, but you can see how you and the user define "fun" in the same way. Surveys can also help you identify and categorize your users ' attitudes.

Interview: When you show your users the examples you've collected, the interview will allow you to observe the user's response. When you need more information, you can continue to ask. You may not get a satisfactory answer, but it gives you an opportunity to understand the user's thinking process and to understand their definition of "fun."

Observational studies: If you think "fun" is critical to the success of your site, you may need to conduct observational studies. It allows you to observe the process by which users use your chosen site. You can get firsthand information about how users define "fun." More importantly, you can see whether "fun" affects their behavior and the process of influencing them.

It does not matter which method is used, as long as it is possible to evaluate the definition of "fun" with potential users of the site.

Implementation

The design itself is not "fun", and how to integrate design elements and interactions into the design is the most interesting. If you think about enhancing entertainment from an "interactive" perspective, it's much easier to design your business flow.

First, think of a series of interactive ways to enhance entertainment. You can tailor these interactions to your users and your site's goals. Some good ways to interact are listed below:

1. Entertainment

2. Explore

3. Create

Then, design specific methods to implement these interactions and make the interaction the main task of the website.

Experience

We can take a look at two travel website cases: Wanderfly and Orbitz.

Wanderfly successfully added the experience process to help users find the right travel route. Instead of the previous way of entering through the Drop-down list box and text, it uses optional buttons, drag scrollbars to invite users to experience different travel route recommendations. In the experience process, users can easily choose the right to travel routes, which also experience a lot of fun.

Figure 1 Users find the best route to travel during the experience

To provide users with the opportunity to experience, for the Wanderfly site added a lot of "fun." Wanderfly through this process of experience makes it easy for users to achieve their goals, which is critical to wanderfly. It's also hard to do. In usability testing, you need to evaluate the added "experience process" design to see whether the user's task is easier to complete and whether it deviates from the customer's goal. There's only one reason users come to your site and they don't use cool tools to focus on irrelevant things.

Orbitz on the tourist route to find ways mainly focused on the functional, lack of entertainment. Users of the site can easily make travel arrangements, which is of course the main goal of the site, but in the process of the site experience is less fun.

Figure 2 By contrast, Orbitz does not experience the process

If you identify "fun" as one of the goals of the site, examine what tasks (or all of them) can be done through the "experience" approach.

Exploration

As part of the overall goal of the site, to show some users did not anticipate the functionality, you can make the site as a whole user experience more perfect.

Reuters Web site to guide the user to think and explore by showing the world market map:

Figure 3 Reuters Guide users through the world market distribution map to explore

Reuters on the world map shows the regional market data, so that users can in a relaxed and enjoyable way to obtain the current world market changes. The red circle and the green circle represent the growth and decline of the market respectively, and the data of the same color will indicate the specific number of the change. Reuters helps users get the information they need in a relaxed and enjoyable way.

We can compare and look at Bloomberg's presentation of similar data:

Figure 4 Bloomberg Market lacks exploratory factors

Bloomberg does not have any problems with the design, but it is more boring to use. I don't think users can get as much information from the site as they do with the Reuters map. Users are also unable to have a visual experience of the changes in the market area they are concerned about.

It may not be important for economic sites to have "fun", but there are some experiences and explorations that allow users to better understand the data they see.

Create

On the website, allows users to create, can create a product, a service or a website, in the design experience fun. This is ideal for ecommerce sites.

Here is a website for selling wedding rings. The groom can design their favorite ring on the Blue Nile website.

Figure 5 Blue Nile allows users to design and create their own by offering the "Create your own diamond ring" interface

Users can get a great buying experience in the process of designing their own rings. This "fun" experience not only helps users accomplish their goals, but also allows users to understand the cost of designing the ring in the design process, which can be deeply appealing to users.

Below and Kay Jewelers wedding ring E-commerce site design To do a comparison:

Figure 6 Kay Jewelers only allows users to select the diamond ring design that has been shown

Kay Jewelers only on the site to show users a page after page of the wedding ring information. Users can use the price and material two conditions to query the results of the product information, but can not design their own to meet the needs of individual, creative wedding ring. Even if Kay adds more powerful query and classification capabilities, it should add some creative and exploratory processes.

Attracting users to create on your site will not only bring them fun, but they can also easily reach their goals.

At design time, think about how these measures can better help complete the site's main tasks and goals. If you find that some kind of interaction added to your site adds to the difficulty of user action, you should reconsider changing other ways of interacting or reassess how to balance the "fun" with the success of your site.

Test

"Fun" is defined, prioritized, evaluated, and implemented, and you also plan the design that you and your customers approve. But how can you be sure you've managed to get rid of the shackles of "I know when I see"?

During task-based testing, you can evaluate the entertainment and usability of the site. But the process of testing requires very astute listening, reading, questioning and other skills.

Because "fun" is not an action, it is difficult to see, it is difficult to explain. When users perform a given task, listen carefully to what they are saying and pay attention to their facial expressions.

You don't want the site to be too fancy and hinder users from reaching their goals. Users can be asked to do a number of different but similar tasks, in which they perform the same actions to face the same design elements. If they look impatient, it may mean that the site's "fun" is preventing them from accomplishing their tasks quickly. If they enjoyed the process and were able to finish the task quickly, the design was successful.

After these are completed, you can start from the overall site to ask questions and listen to their overall views on the site. They may give positive comments, such as: Very interesting, cool, easy, attractive and so on, they may give negative or neutral evaluation, such as annoying, good, as expected, very ordinary and so on. Of course, these evaluations are not very comprehensive, but can reflect the user's overall design of the site a view.

It is also a good way to publish a questionnaire and publish it 3-6 months later. The questionnaire may include questions such as the frequency of participants ' monthly, weekly and monthly use of the site. With this approach, you can get initial feedback from users about the "fun" of the site.

Conclusion

"Fun" always contains some exciting elements. No matter how properly you implement the process mentioned above, there will always be people who disagree with you, including the definition of "fun", the decision to prioritize, and the design decisions. Even so, by thinking carefully about what "fun" means to the site, take some time to define, evaluate, execute, and test "fun", and you'll be able to cross the "I know when I see it" and "I believe you can design a website that I think is interesting".

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