Giving people a rewarding experience in exchange for learning a complex interface is one tactic. But let's take a step back. It sounds like the strategic goals here are twofold:
-) Allow people to create their own products -) Help them get to results that are good enough to buy Maybe instead of thinking of "fun" in the context of usability and slapping engagement on a complex, flexible product (e.g. with snazzy transitions, 'cool' graphical treatments, attitudey language, etc), you could first think of ways to make the product creator more engaging and satisfying to use functionally. A potential t-shirt buyer has an idea in his/her head that she wants to make happen, e.g. "Sarah's 80s Party Bash." What if you give her the right tools to help her along? For example, templates that give her a satisfying head start, ensuring she will be happy with the results. Or a color pallette for text and accents, based on the background color of the piece (you could also let her pick her own colors, but make the suggested colors more prominent). Goading people to buy becomes an easier task once the thing they've made is sufficiently awesome in their eyes :-). - Nasir ________________________________________________________________ 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
