Noah Balmer

"Based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s positive psychology research, when a person totally focus into an activity and forget about time and pressure, he reaches the optimal experience, Flow. There are many conditions in order to reach Flow."
- http://www.jenovachen.com/flowingames/conclusion.htm

The game Flow which I blogged about before is based on these principles. It really is an interesting experience to play. I generally play it after 3 am on a party night to wind down. The simplicity of the game soothes my anxiousness about school and lets me think about only one thing. EATING PLANKTON!

Flow Theory

From Wikipedia

With Flow the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi names the feeling of complete and energized focus in an activity, with a high level of enjoyment and fulfillment. As Csikszentmihalyi sees it, the components of a Flow producing activity are:

* We are up to the activity.
* We are able to concentrate on the activity.
* The activity has clear goals.
* The activity has direct feedback.
* We feel that we control the activity.
* Our worries and concerns disappear.
* Our subjective experience of time is altered.

Not all of these components need to be present together for Flow to be experienced.

This is from this site
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Wow. Think about this? This 7 or so bullet points are actually a blueprint or list if you would like to creating some really engaging and amazing product designs! Let’s take a look at it point by point.

1) We are up to the activity.
The product is easy enough to use, or it is designed that our target market is able to comprehend and operate the product.

2) We are able to concentrate on the activity.
The product’s form layout or details encourage focus, ease of use and ergonomics.

3) The activity has clear goals.
This implies that there is certain simplicity in a product that is pretty important. This product is meant to do one thing and one thing only. This point could also indicate that people do not have too much of an ability to multi-task and thus convergence products could remain a niche product.

4) The activity has direct feedback.
Haptic response by buttons, sound and even lights create a certain reward or punishment for things done correctly or incorrectly.

5) We feel that we control the activity.
Any wonder why many people hate the ultimate convergence product the PC? The complexity of the product means many people lose control of it. Again this point implies simplicity in a product.

6) Our worries and concerns disappear.
In a software context this pretty means you become happy and forget about your problematic real world. In product design, this can also applied with clever perhaps quirky design. I would like to add as well, that people do have inherent fears and biases with certain products, activities and even brands. A smart designer is aware of these things.

7) Our subjective experience of time is altered.
Basically you end up using the product so much you forget to eat! (ehhem,World of Warcraft)

All in all a cognitive psychology approach to design actually can be a very powerful design tool, and should be use more often.

In today’s every more complicated and competitive consumer market, it’s nice to once and a while fall back to the thinking behind basic human’s thinking building blocks. I find this level of thinking has certain encompassing honesty to it, when you compared to all the other design movements, like form follows function, scenario based design, emotive design, or experience design etc. This is because perhaps a lot of the design movements are derived from cognitive psychology in the first place. Makes sense.
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