Sunday, March 9th 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Kathy Sierra CreatingPassionateUsers
What did (do) you want to be really, really good at?
How do we help our users be really really good at something – give that feeling to our users.
To make better apps, we must compensate for the missing “humanness”
Which is better: the product or the company?
Make the user experience more “high-res” richer – the more you know about something the better the experience. Being better is better… nobody is passionate about something they suck at.
What is the difference between fantastic and average? It is much less about natural talent and more about a talent for practicing… works for anything. It is actually your fault for not practicing. You just have to put in the time. “We need a rage to master”
What do you help your users do well?
Book: The 4-hour workweek
You figure out how to devote more of your time to other things you really and there is usually some (if you’re lucky) overlap to this and your worklife.
1. Use telepathy
there are mirror neurons – inference – faces meanings
you have to see people’s faces when doing usability
resolution of the simulation depends on your experiences – need to have felt your user’s pain
2. Serendipity
brains look for and match patterns – “ipod shuffle is psychic”
add randomness (psuedo) to create serendipity
3. The dog ears design principle
real physics in the iphone scroll (bounce) – subtle little real things help – things feel more alive
4. Joy
make products that produce joy – joyful experience – playing – learning – enjoying
not necessarily fun or funny – joy
5. Inspire first person language
shouldn’t be about you – your testimonials should be about the users not about the company
6. Tshirt first development
what does it say about someone that they are one of your users?
it should say something that a user wants to announce they are one of your users
7. Easter Eggs and other treats
little extras for users to find
“a smile in the mind” book
8. Tools for evangelism
give your users away to woo other users – that helps them be better when they are getting better or becoming passionate about your product
help users defend your product to other people
9. You area a…
stage fright – picture everyone as prey animals (bunny) – the fear goes away
help your users manage stress
10. Exercise the brain and improve their body
brain age video game is a best seller – exercise that best helps brain is plan old exercise
11. Give them superpowers quickly
swift.3d – user must do something cool in a short period of time
do experts know more? yes – are there shortcuts?
patterns patterns patterns
12. Make your product reflect feeling
give folks a way to reflect how they are doing (WTF button)
let them off the hook – NOT an idiot
how do they feel about the confusion?
15. Help with reinvestment of mental resource into new problems
expert never shrinks the size of their list – just add new interesting things
allow people to focus and devote all of their attention to certain things
16. Create a culture of support
user as a hero and becoming experts – helps them become mentors at the end
want to get them mentoring early and encourage to help users
no dumb questions and comfort in asking questions and no dumb ANSWERS
encourage people to start answering questions and get the community asking and answering
Do NOT insist on inclusivity
don’t wait for the experts – jargon: passionate users “talk different”
don’t throw everyone together make sure there are places for expert and beginners
18. Practice seductive opacity
mystery anticipation curiosity – loved by the brain
suspense followed by an important reward relaxes body etc.
digital world has raised the value of real tangible things
unboxing photos – the experience of opening your new geek physical thing
think about physical objects – they matter
19. Atoms are NOT old school
senses are very important – think about it with a product
petted rabbits had lower cholesterol – touch important
19.5. Do what this guy does
briansolace.com
Gary Vaynerchuk – Wine Library TV
getting people talking about wine and themselves – taking the difficulty out of wine
Gary is making his users entertaining and helpful/useful at a party