Delighting Your Users – How to Design Joyful User Experience into Websites and Applications

2011-08-30  |  Category: Blog  |  View Comments

We’ve all visited a website or used an app that’s made us grin. Whether we were delighted with a bit of clever humor or captivated by a perfectly executed jQuery animation, it’s clear that more and more designers are looking to add joyful experiences to their web and mobile applications.

But adding joy isn’t just about making your users smile – apps that properly delight users are more engaging and more likely to be recommended than those that don’t. Delightful experiences can also become part of your brand, helping users associate your company with positive experiences.

Why apps should be designed with Game Mechanics

2011-06-26  |  Category: Blog  |  View Comments

Here’s a great TED talk from a few years back. It’s worth a watch for anyone who designs web or mobile applications. In the talk Jane McGonigal explains that when we’re playing games we are actually more engaged and effective problem solvers than during our real life activities. It’s no wonder that game mechanics are showing up applications all over the place.

The Rise of the Tour Page: Best Practices and Examples

2011-02-15  |  Category: Blog  |  View Comments

These days it seems that new services and products are popping up all over the web. Many of them have great websites that include a “Tour” page. These pages exist to give an overview of the product and show off basic features. Like any other page, the best tour pages are simple to understand and engaging to draw users in.

Tour pages come in many forms. In my research I found several ways of naming tour pages. The most common were Tour, Take a Tour and Features, but others exist as well. Tours can also exist in different areas of a website. They can be displayed on their own page, on the homepage or other parts of the site. Regardless of the name or location, a tour page is an important tool for acclimatizing your users and building trust in your product. Let’s take a look at some best practices for designing Tour pages.