I spent the weekend shooting and editing a film for a friend’s family. They are looking to adopt a 2 year old boy and need a video and a photo album to support their application. This is the best project I have worked on in a long time. The ‘goal’ is to give a little boy a new home and to give my friends the joy of bringing up an amazing little boy. Can you think of anything better?
I talked to them about their requirements 2 weeks ago. I went round to interview them. I organised a photo shoot the same day (3 hours), put together a story book for them (5 hours), which I will cover in my next blog.
I then decided to film a movie about their life at home. The photo shoot had a very loose script. I shot the film footage (2 hours). I learnt to use the editing software (30 minutes) and edited the film (6 hours). I published a DVD (27 minutes). Agile? You let me know…
I have the urge to make people happy in my designs right now. Happiness is the best emotion in the world.
After all who doesn’t want to be happy right?
We all ultimately want to Die happy. We hear comments like, ‘at least he died happy with a smile on his face’. We have songs like Don’t worry, be happy.
‘Happy’ makes us want to do things with a big smile on our face. We feel good, like a million dollars. If we had a choice why wouldn’t we do something that made us happy every time.
So how can we measure happiness in design? How can we use it to measure the success of an experience? How do we apply this feeling to everything we design?
We should strive to measure how successful a design is based on how much happier a person is during and after an experience? We should apply measurable KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) person happiness.
Is happiness equivalent to brand and experience loyalty? I think yes. If something makes us happy we keep coming back for more.
Let’s take the apple iphone. The iphone made me very happy because I could listen to audio books which normally I would not have had time to read. When It got it stolen on holiday, I became very unhappy.
I had to go to the library and borrow 5 books (I like to read more than one book at a time). I would have to carry all 5 books to work, on the bus, on the train, on the sub way. Real books are heavy. I also managed to lose one and had to pay a fine. Eventually, I got a new iphone and I was happy again.
I returned the books I had left, my back pack got lighter, I could listen to any book I wanted, whenever I wanted again. But was it just the audio books? Of course not, it was the way I could put it my back pocket and it did not crack. It was the, then new and unique, way you could slide through the applications, photos, screens. i loved the weight, the feel and the way it just looked so cool. Everything I used it for made me happier. Good design made me happy. I have an iPhone 4 now and I know I will get an iPhone 5, 6, 7, 8 etc.
But it is much more than repeat sales, visits, page views, time on site. I believe that we can map happiness to design to help improve learning and awareness; to ultimately shift a person’s perception. We do this by making them more comfortable.
Here is an interesting video from ted:
Dan Gilbert talks about the non-difference between synthetic happiness and that of true happiness when it comes to putting a smile on some one’s face. As human beings we are constantly trying to make sense of the world and to make things easier we tend to favour one thing over another even if it is not exactly what we want. We end up ‘forcing’ ourselves to like something in comparison to the next best thing. Cognitive dissonance.
Here is how Dilbert sums it up:
OK so dilbert hits the nail on the head, people want to be happy so they find a way to accept things for what they are. We can help them be ‘happier’ by nudging them in the right direction (Nudge by RH Thaler)
So let’s figure out how to make people happier by at least nudging them in the right direction. The world will be a happier place!
More to come…
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for July, 2010.
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