can you wireframe 'delightful'?

Delight is that word we use to describe those pleasurable moments in digital and offline products, that make an experience just that little bit more fun.

CAN YOU WIREFRAME DELIGHTFUL?

BEN TOLLADY @tollady

BEN ROWE @benhyphenrowe

DES TRAYNOR

Our inspiration for this talk camefrom this article : Some things can’t be wireframedhttp://insideintercom.io/things-cant-wireframed/

An example of delight that the author mentions is Squarespace, which makes great use of beautiful imagery and typography …

…but if we were to wireframe this page?It doesn’t convey the same feeling of delight at all.

Another example the article mentions is the Keezy app. !

Keezy may never have been as delightful if it had been “wireframed”.

RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS HELP SHOW YOU THE WORKFLOWS, USABILITY PRINCIPLES ENSURE IT’S CLEAR AND INTUITIVE, BUT

HOW DO YOU GET TO DELIGHTFUL? YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN THERE.

The article concludes by saying that designing for delight is difficult, risky and messy, and that there is no real trick to it. !

Which left us asking more questions.

DESIGNING DELIGHT

So we wanted to take this opportunity to investigate further… !

Is there actually a formula to adding delight to the things that we’re creating?

WHY SHOULDWE CARE?But first things first - Why

should we even care about Delight? !

Isn’t it just a meaningless buzzword anyway?

ACQUISITION • Great First Impression • Memorable / Sharable

!

RETENTION • Happy Users = Loyal Users

Well, maybe. !

But Delight is what makes your users fall in love with your product. There are clearly benefits to offering a delightful experience.

AARRON WALTER - DESIGNING FOR EMOTION

Of course - delight isn’t the be all and end all. !

As Aarron Walter has said, our products need to Functional, Reliable, and Usable first.

MINIMUM VIABLE

DELIGHTFUL PRODUCT

That said, Delight isn’t something that you can just tack on. We need to be creating minimum delightful products, that bake in Delight from day one.

BEAUTIFUL UI

Let’s have a look at some examples of delight. !

A beautifully designed interface, like AirBnB, is a common and obvious way.

MICROCOPY

Microcopy helps break down any barriers that might exist between human and computer, reminding users that there are real people behind a product.

ANIMATIONhttps://www.campaignmonitor.com/monitor/

Captivating animations like those used to create parallax scrolling effects is another common way to add delight. !

Campaign Monitor’s mobile app website does a great job of this.

TRANSITIONS & INTERACTIONS

We mentioned Keezy before - it’s a wonderful example of how tactile transitions and interactions can make something delightful.

SOUND

Done well, sound can also be used to delight. Like that lovely twinkling bell sound when you tick off a to-do item in Wunderlist.

SURFACE DELIGHT

These examples are what we call ‘Surface’ delight. They are often very obvious and visceral.

DELIGHT FADES

Surface delight can be very effective. But the problem with these types of delight is that they fade over time.

DEEP DELIGHT

So we were interested in exploring if there was a deeper level of delight, beyond this ‘Surface’ level. So we explored a little further…

INVISIBILITY “IT JUST WORKS”

A delightful user experience is often about Invisibility. Getting out of the user’s way. Or something that “Just Works”.

FLOW

MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALY - FLOW

Deeper delight is also about getting users into a state of ‘flow’; that feeling of being completely absorbed in what you are doing, where nothing else seems to matter.

iA Writer is a super simple writing app, and a great example of a product that gets you into a flow state.

PAIN POINT DELIGHTGILES COLBORNE - CX PARTNERS

Pain points in an experience that are resolved effortlessly can actually become moments of delight. !

This is something that Giles Colborne has spoken about.

VISCERAL ENGAGEMENT AND DELIGHT

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BEHAVIOURAL HOW THE THING PERFORMS

!

REFLECTIVE WHAT THE THING EVOKES IN THE USER

DON NORMAN

Don Norman talks about a “reflective layer” of a design - Which isn’t about the product at all, but more what the product evokes in the user.

PLEASURE SURFACE DELIGHT

!

FLOW REMOVE THE UNNECESSARY

!

MEANING INTEGRITY & AUTHENTICITY

DANA CHISNELL

Dana Chisnell describes a third level of delight - “Meaning”. !

This is where a deeper level of delight is felt through an organisation having values that align with the user’s.

SAMUEL HULICK - USERONBOARD.COM

We realised that Deep Delight delight isn’t about your product at all, it’s actually about your user.

IT’S NOT GAMIFICATION

VS

But let’s not confuse true delight with gamification. !

Delight isn’t about ‘badges’. It’s about helping users improve their skills, their health, and their lives …

KATHY SIERRA - THE KICK ASS CURVE

…It’s about helping users “Kick Ass”, as Kathy Sierra put it. !

So we need to help our users get from “suck” to “awesome” as quickly as possible.

• How do we get out of a users’ way? And into Flow?

• How de we over-deliver at the pain-points • How does our product align with their values? • How dow we help them “Kick Ass”?

GETTING TO DEEPER DELIGHT

So deeper delight is about understanding our users. !

It’s about knowing who they are, what’s important to them, and what progress looks like in their life, not just on their screen.

SURFACE DELIGHT

DEEP DELIGHT

Delight isn’t just a simple, single, one-dimensional thing. It’s much more complex an operates across multiple levels.

SURFACE DELIGHT

DEEP DELIGHT

is visceral

is often invisible

SURFACE DELIGHT

DEEP DELIGHT

is novel

has a higher purpose

SURFACE DELIGHT

DEEP DELIGHT

is fleeting

is ongoing

SURFACE DELIGHT

DEEP DELIGHT

is the first date

is the relationship

SURFACE DELIGHT

DEEP DELIGHT

is product focussed

is user focussed

DELIGHT IS AS MUCH ART AND ‘FEEL’ AS IT IS LEARNED SCIENCE

Delight is part science (where our UX skills come in) and part art. The art is about knowing when to apply just the right amount of delight, and at what level.

A great example of an organisation has really nailed it is Simple bank. !

They manage to delight customers on multiple levels.

SURFACEOn the surface, their UI is gorgeous and their microcopy is lovely and fun.

DEEPBut at a deeper level, they understand what people really want from a bank.

They create Meaning, and a deeper level of delight, by disrupting the ‘fees and charges’ model of most other banks.

THANKS

BEN TOLLADY @tollady

BEN ROWE @benhyphenrowe