Last night at the STC Austin program, Dr. John Morkes (of Expero, which hosts Free Usability Advice) argued that the next stage in User Experience would be "Joy of Use", which follows [1] Usefulness and [2] Ease of Use. That is, the emotions experienced by use of software or sites become the powerful differentiator among otherwise comparable offerings. Reminding me of Maslo's hierarchy of needs, Morkes ranked UX needs like this, from "must have" to "nice to have":
useful > easy to use > code quality > trust/security > pretty > stimulating > fun
(Me, I'd tweak it a bit: useful > code quality > trust/security > easy to use > pretty > stimulating > fun)
Research: Studies in psychology, marketing, and education clearly nail the benefits of humor, for improving likeability, social glue, trust, cooperation, sociability, and lowering fear and stress. Adding humor did not cost extra time in the completion of tasks. MRI studies of the effects of humor show that it activates the brain's reward centers, exactly as occurs when we see a pretty face, receive money, or take drugs.
Guidelines: [1] Define fun specifically per your audience, such as Sun developers enjoying reading old predictions about technology ("The PC will never catch on.") or Mini Cooper prospects enjoying extreme customization of their virtual cars. [2] Test, test, test! [3] Most importantly, don't go for fun before the lower UX levels are met, such as the IRS did with its humorous site that still frustrated stressed-out visitors; the IRS had to abandon the entire site design.
Examples: weber.com/q , The Register, humor in graphic, buttons saying "Shhh... Secret sale!"
What about documentation? All of their work to date has made them conclude that there's not much you can do to remediate deep, heavy, intimidating manuals -- they recommend that all effort be put into embedded help (on-screen assistance of any kind), since users consistently report happiness about not having to use the Help, not having to leave the screen to get unblocked.
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