Designed for Use

Takeaway Points

• Merely being usable doesn’t make your product fun. However, if your product isn’t usable, it’s probably not fun either.

• People experience fun if they have a meaningful challenge, a way of measuring their progress toward mastering that challenge, and the skills to master the challenge.

• Don’t provide the challenge. Your users will do that for you.

• You don’t need to set the difficulty. Your users will pick a challenge that is suitably difficult for them.

• Providing feedback on people’s progress, and allowing them to grow along with the challenges they master, makes their experience more fun.

• Try to find a way to reward exploration and positive behavior.