I drove up to Dallas tonight to attend Stephen P. Anderson’s presentation entitled Creating Pleasurable Interfaces: Getting from Tasks to Experiences, and it was more than worth the 5 hour drive. In a well researched and highly entertaining presentation, Stephen pitted Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid against his own “Designing for Pleasurable Experiences” pyramid. Now that (as designers and developers) we seem to have the basics and the fundamentals of user centered design down (i.e. Functionality, Usability, Good IA, Aesthetics, etc), it’s time to push the envelope. Now we need to start considering how we can make the experience of using a website “pleasurable”. This is difficult for two reasons:

1. It is difficult to define a “pleasurable” user experience?
2. It is hard to measure the “emotional” appeal of a website?

We have tests that check for functionality, usability, and accessiblity. But how do you measure a site’s desirability? And isn’t that really a subjective question, like trying to determine whether something qualifies as beautiful or a work of art?

One very important point that Stephen made, is that people need to be challenged to find an experience pleasurable. If it’s too easy they get bored, too hard and they get anxious. How does this apply to design and user interface? Well, put very simply - we need to make things clear to our users…but also challenge them to grow and push past their own mental boundaries. In a way, I think that would be a better title for this presentation. How to create user interfaces that pleasurably push the envelope. LOL. Kidding.

In the end, Stephen’s presentation gave me a lot to think about — both personally and professionally.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!