In part one of Happy Design with Dana Chisnell, I covered the importance of usability testing and how it is being utilized today to achieve a truly “happy design” for users during the development process. Dana Chisnell, co-author of The Handbook of Usability Testing – How to Plan, Design and Conduct Effective Tests, spoke about “happy design” at a Refresh Boston event that I recently attended in Cambridge. In part two of Happy Design with Dana Chisnell, I would like to take a closer look at the three main components that make up the “happy design,” starting with “pleasure.”

Pleasure

Designers incorporate “pleasure” by developing considerate designs that anticipate the needs of users. Essentially, the theory is that as a designer you want to create an experience that evokes infatuation from users with your design. The question is how does one achieve this goal? Chisnell used Tripit.com as an example to show designers how to develop pleasurable experiences within their designs.

Tripit.com

Tripit.com has simplified the user experience by allowing users to create their trips and provide the details that they want to provide. The forms, for the most part, have no required fields, so if a user forgets any information (e.g. flight number) while filling out a form, the user won’t have to start the process over, he or she can simply save the information and then move on with the process.

Chisnell was quick to point out that there are several things designers should avoid when trying to invoke pleasure in their designs.  The following are examples of the “don’ts” in pleasure design:

• Habituation – If a site has an engaging design, but becomes less and less engaging during each visit, then the design has failed.
• Distraction – Avoid unnecessary distractions, for example like jargon or features that take away from the overall experience.
• Disruption – Ensure the user experience does not become staggered or repetitive. Always try to avoid disruptive errors in design such as elongated sign up processes and overly complicated features.

Flow

The next area Chisnell discussed was creating “flow” within designs. She highlighted a couple of key ways to make a contemporary design flow including:

Challenge Users – It’s important to challenge users with design nuances without taking them out of their comfort zone. You want to make them feel empowered by learning a new skill without over complicating the process.

Play on Mastery and Control – Creating a design that truly captures the user’s attention over an extended period of time allows the user to gain a certain amount of familiarity with the features/components and eventually assume a high level of competence of the user interaction (UI), which can be a powerful tool.  By cultivating the relationship with the users and creating an engaging design, you are essentially empowering the user in their experiences thus heightening the emotional resonance of the site.

Define Subtle Motivations to Prompt Users

It’s important to monitor user signals that are gathered during the pre-launch testing phase and post-launch so you can pinpoint design flaws and make modifications based on how the users react to certain features within the design. We often see designs that allow users to either track their progress or in the case of Foursquare.com collect points for using the site. Users then feel they have control over the experience and that they are part of the process versus being just an end user. 

Chisnell went on to outline a checklist for determining whether your flow would be successful. The checklist is devised to provide the evidence of flow within a given design.

• Gratification
• Feeling productive
• Focused concentration
• Energized
• Stop talking
• Empowerment
• Key strengths tapped
• Don't "gamify" design

The danger of applying sophisticated physical forms to your flow is that you could lose sight of the end user.  Designers are urged to be vigilant when it comes to avoiding the urge to push their designs too far one way or another.

Meaning

The final topic within the “happy design” matrix is defining “meaning” within the design. Dana defines meaning using the following criteria:

• Connectedness
• Making a difference
• Belonging
• Virtuousness 

Creating meaning can be a difficult proposition. When designing a site, app or widget, it takes part skill and part divine intervention to convey the meaning behind it. Many businesses try and end up failing at this, but one company that does it very well is Zipcar.  The meaning behind Zipcar is based around the idea of sharing transportation, helping the environment and being more socially conscious. 

Zipcar.com

The results are that people gravitate towards the “meaning” or at least perceived meaning. Zipcar.com’s home page shows images that illustrate fun scenarios of why people “sometimes just need a car," creatively displayed just above the subtle grassy graphic that tops off Zipcar.com’s footer. It’s very smart and delivered in a subtle way. Their navigation is simple, unobtrusive and they promote their green initiative as well. The end users join for a variety of reasons, but stay with the brand because they buy into the emotive feeling or “meaning” they derive from their association with Zipcar.

According to Chisnell, the meaning of the design can be identified by the following factors:

• making a difference in a significant way
• feeling of groundedness
• must be authentic, genuine

Chisnell finished the evening answering several questions from the crowd. The evening was excellent and I’d like to thank the Refresh Boston team and Patrick Haney for setting up the event and choosing Dana Chisnell to be the speaker. For more information on upcoming Refresh Boston events go to www.refreshboston.org.