Designing for Smiles
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Presented Feb. 17, 2015 as part of World IA Day Chicago. WIAD 2015 focused on the theme of architecting happiness.
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Designing for Smiles
- 1. Designing for Smiles Will Hacker @willhacker
- 21. Designing for Smiles Will Hacker @willhacker
- 22. Appendix: Sites Used ๏ Alchemy Digital: http://www.alchemy- digital.co.uk ๏ Carbonmade: https://carbonmade.com ๏ Freakify 404 Page: http://freakify.com/no- page ๏ Google Plus: https://plus.google.com ๏ Hipmunk: https://www.hipmunk.com ๏ LearnVest: https://www.learnvest.com
- 23. Appendix: Sites Used ๏ Lost World’s Fairs: http://lostworldsfairs.com ๏ Mailchimp Voice & Tone: http://voiceandtone.com ๏ Our Baby Box: https://www.ourbabybox.com ๏ Tapbots: http://tapbots.com ๏ Tap Tap Tap: http://taptaptap.com ๏ Wufoo: http://www.wufoo.com
Editor's Notes
- In design happiness can come from many places: copy, visual design, interaction design. We can learn from the Mardi Gras Indians, who are marching today in the great city of New Orleans, that a smile-producing design can came from many triggers, which is what I want to share with you tonight.
- Landing pages, often the introduction to a brand, can be fun and make people smile through creative imagery and copy, as we can see on the online portfolio site Carbonmade.
- TapBots makes personality part of its brand and its products, making these fun utilities to use. The robot artwork from the brand finds its way into app icons and other parts of their design.
- Speaking of apps, Tap Tap tap does that with its app menu’s clever imagery and layout. Product listings don't need to be dull and boring. So be clever, and have fun.
- Most of us remember this guy. Failures are pain points for users, but error messages can include levity when it's not a seriously troubling situation. Use your judgment to know when this is appropriate approach to design.
- Notifications also can be light and have personality, based on the content of the message. Google+ has a little fun when you’ve caught up on all your notifications.
- Likewise form feedback can be fun and clever, especially during enrollment, which is normally a very dry experience. Don’t be afraid to have fun with this kind of screen, just make sure it’s appropriate for the situation.
- Creative use of typography and layout can make people smile when it conveys a fun tone that invites exploration. Jason Santa Maria achieved that brilliantly in his contribution to the Lost World’s Fairs project. This whole design makes me smile.
- Playful copy and typography also make Frank Chimero's Lost World's Fair site a smile-inducing experience. As you scroll down the page toward 20,000 leagues beneath the sea the updated messages are witty and engaging.
- Playful, smart, copy writing is also part of creating a design that makes people smile. The power of MailChimp’s brand comes as much from the tone of its application messaging as it does from its powerful feature set and cute monkey mascot.
- Clever copy writing also gives personality to Carbonmade, and makes people want to smile. “Themes so nice you’ll think they’re Canadian”. Nice.
- Combining upbeat copy with fun and unexpected imagery is a great way to bring delight and a sense of happiness to a brand. Instead of a dry, standard business-type image, Alchemy Digital uses this animated laboratory image to communicate its focus on experimentation.
- Your choice of words and imagery can invoke happiness. Note "Safe” and "Made by parents for parents". And cute baby photos never hurt if one of your goals is to make parents smile.
- Wufoo is another example of using fun imagery and playful copy to create an experience that goes beyond functional and can people smile. It uses a light-hearted tone to make a task-focused experience more pleasurable and seemingly less burdensome.
- And we know some online transactions, like looking up airfares, can take time. But progress indicators don't have to be deadly, dull, and boring. While the searching on Hipmunk, people can focus on the cute chipmunk doing his famous teeter-tauter dance.
- Hipmunk also lets people make meaningful selections based on what matters to them. In the case or air travel, the agony of connecting flights or the time of day may be the most important factors. Hipmunk makes Agony the default sort order when searching for flights.
- Speaking of agony, Freakify has fun with its 404 page, making a failure situation a little more lighthearted while offering a clear path out of the maze. This is not your father’s 404 page.
- And they even get a little more playful with it than most websites after you click the “shoot me” button. You’re still not on the page you were looking for, but you may be laughing.
- And speaking of laughing, Fat Cow Web Hosting understands that while we may not be happy when we can't find a site we're looking for, who doesn't love a flying cow. It’s about making an unavailable pain a little more bearable.