I would look to D. Normans book, "Emotional Design". it is clear that adding positive emotional qualities (call it fun if you must) in a design changes the user's overall perception of the products utility and usability--PERCEPTION.
the best example I have is the context of the iPhone keyboard. As I said recently in Malmo, as a die-hard iPhone fan/user, the keyboard is flawed. Having been a Treo user for years and then a blackberry user after that I know/understand the value of a physical keyboard and moving to a virtual one is a big change. But! the rest of the phone and even some of the features of the virtual keyboard itself are so engaging that I could almost care less about the flaws of the keyboard of the iPhone. Now, a 'customizer' sounds a bit enterprisey to me. And in that world you have to be cautious as not to appear frivolous, but I have done major re-designs of enterprise SaaS software that incorporated good engagement at the expense of total usability that seemed to work for those doing the purchasing as well. -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=43092 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
