Article Idea:
Designing Flow - Architecting Emotion
suggested by Trevor van Gorp on 2006/11/30
Most of us have experienced that state where we are totally engrossed in an activity. The hours fly by in what seems like half the time. For a short while, we tend to stop thinking about our concerns and focus on the “task at hand”, whatever it may be. This tends to be the time that we do our best and most rewarding work.
The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has named this state “flow”, based on how his test subjects described the experience. The notion of flow has been used extensively in game design, but it applies equally to designing the interaction and architecture of websites. We can also connect this state with the goals and methods of emotional or affective design.
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Matt Titchener
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Posted 2006/12/10 @ 00:15AM with
Totally would like too see something on this. I personally call this experience “the zone”, much like the zone that athletes end up in before a demanding race/performance. Hours fly by, your ability seems somewhat endless and productivity just sky-rockets. But what is it that allows our brains to get into this state – environmental, physiological, psychological? I’d love to see some insight into this…