Tobias Ahlin
Where'd all the feelings go?
Video URL: https://www.ustream.tv/recorded/118228527
Discussion: Issue #7
When we quantify the success of design we obsess over utility and task completion; retention, monthly active users, and conversion. But what about having fun? Delightfulness? Being inspired? When the current dogma is to describe good design as “clean”, “minimalistic”, and “effective“, how much room is there left to express emotion in design?
In this talk we’ll dive into the details of how UI design is approached fundamentally differently in games and apps, and what the two camps can learn from each other.
Our notes
- It was a really fun presentation, highly recommended.
- As usual, here’s a quadrant: categorize apps by expressive <—-> utilitarian and complex <——> minimalistic
- There are very good, very popular pieces of software in all quadrants.
- “Simple is better” and “Utility over everything” are design/UX dogmas. And dogmas are not always good – they prevent you from making good predictions and, consequently, good products.
- Usable product does not equal good product –> make sure feelings are part of the spec.
- If you don’t care about experience and feelings, you don’t allow yourself to make really great products.
- Design process can be on the spectrum of measure nothing <——-> measure everything. Both extremes have advantages but also huge drawbacks: you need to find where you need to be in your product and when designing different parts of your product.
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