Post on 11-Aug-2014
description
DESIGN FOR
FLOW @kshitiz #uxindia13
Talk delivered at UX India Conference, October 25th, 2013
Currently I head :
INDIA STUDIO!
Otherwise I have a few startup initiatives
Origin of this term?
Marcus Arelius in his writings 'the Meditations’, wrote a lot about the flow of thoughts and happiness and he concluded that "most things flow naturally" and in his opinion it was better to "Go with the Flow" than to try and change society.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Hungarian, Professor of psychology
Today we are going to speak about
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
How do you say his name?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Me-high Chick-sent-me-high
FLOW The psychology of optimal experience
FLOW The psychology of optimal experience
His most famous work
Was done to study happiness in people
People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy. - M Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990
Good UX à Happy people
Design for people, emotions, behaviors. Do not design for technology
But its easier said than done… So let us go a bit deeper into understanding this
What actually goes on in the human mind, when we are looking at designing for happiness
Going from this
To this
Look into a cognitive, psychological & behavioral understanding of what builds a good UX
Our mental and emotional states
M Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow, 1997
These states are controlled by CONSCIOUSNESS
These states are controlled by CONSCIOUSNESS
What is CONSCIOUSNESS ?
CONSCIOUSNESS is a Phenomenological construct
It is dependent on phenomena : Subjective experiences of the individual
Order in the Consciousness à GOOD UX Disorder in the Consciousness à BAD UX
MASTERY OVER CONSCIOUSNESS à HAPPINESS
Mastery of the Consciousness à Happiness
More than anything else, men and women seek happiness - Socrates, 2300 years ago
Optimal experience depends upon ability to control what happens in the consciousness each moment
How does Consciousness work? How is it controlled?
CONSCIOUSNESS : Where pain and pleasure both reside
Users actions are based on INSTINCT : What we feel is right, the inner voice
Information theory helps in understanding what really happens in the consciousness
What interests us, is how sensory data (what we experience through our senses) are collected processed, stored and used
Consciousness is a place for ordered information à Responds to subjectively experienced reality
The consciousness processes INFORMATION BITS
COGNITIVE LOAD : Too much information to process à Leads to CHAOS
CHAOS creates DISCONTENT: facilitated by chronic dissatisfaction and anxiety
OVERCOMING the anxiety : RECLAIMING the experience
But not everything we are presented with, is processed by the Consciousness
The processing of information by the Consciousness is INTENTION
Our INTENTIONs decide the ATTENTION spans and time we give to a task
But there are limits of Consciousness : How much information bits can the human mind (central nervous system) process ?
Shortest time it takes to discriminate between one set of information bit and other is about 1/18th of a second
One can process upto 126 bits of information per second = 7560 bits per minute = Almost half a million per hour = 185 billion bits of information in a lifetime * * Assumption: Lifespan = 70years, and 16 hours or active waking time each days
185 billion bits of information in a lifetime !!!! Seems a lot, but it is not! To understand what the other person is saying, 40 bits of information are processed each second.
Information is processed by the consciousness because we give it ATTENTION
ATTENTION is Psychic energy, that decides what information bits need to be processed and tells the consciousness what to do
The more you complicate the information, the more difficulty the consciousness has in processing it!
COMPLEXITY is a result of differentiation and Integration in Information. Differentiation à Move towards uniqueness Integration à Union of old vs new, other ideas, preconceived impressions
COMPLEXITY à Disorder in Consciousness We call it PSYCHIC ENTROPY
Removing Psychic Entropy in Consciousness, is optimal experience and it leads to FLOW
DESIGNING FOR FLOW = BETTER UX
HOW ?
Takeaway #1
Think about the Consciousness when you design
Takeaway #2
The goal is mastery of this consciousness through design decisions
Takeaway #3
How can you control the users intentions? Design for it.
Takeaway #4
Think on how much attention should be given to each task?
Takeaway #5
Think about Information Bits that the consciousness is processing
Takeaway #6
Reduce cognitive load to remove Chaos in consciousness
Takeaway #7
Avoid Complexity and reduce Psychic entropy
Takeaway #8
Overcome anxiety of the customer!
Takeaway #9
Help them reclaim the experience
Takeaway #10
Spread Happiness J
THANK YOU!
Go with the flow! Connect with me on