Unraveling Experience
I wasn’t upset about skipping the IA Summit for From Here To There, until I saw some of the presentations on Slideshare. One that really stuck out and I wish there was audio for is Brandon Schauer’s The Long Wow, where it looks like Brandon talks about experiences that unravel through use, such as Nike +.
I have been very interested recently in products/experiences that seem to become better through use.
Good examples are games that unlock more levels as you play more and more. A recent example I ran into of this is Brain Age, a “brain training” game for the Nintendo DS. I recently bought a DS, and picked up Brain Age to try using it.
On initial use it was moderately entertaining as there were only 3 training programs. I was somewhat unsatisfied by the limited amount of programs Brain Age had. I started using it once or twice a day for a few days, and as I started using it, more and more training programs became available, and the “game” became more and more fun to use, and my usage increased.
How can we build website experiences that become more and more interesting or compelling to use as our participation increases. Conventional thinking says that personalization and customization are keys to making the experience more useful to the consumer. But what if site features only became available once a consumer uses a site a number of times. For example, what if an e-commerce site exposes features like advanced search, 1-click checkout, and maybe a different navigation, only after extended use.
I think I may have to try a bit of this on the new social shopping project I am currently working on to try and make the experience more fun…
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