Today, let’s look what blocks “optimal experience.” In our first post, we gave an overview of “flow.” Basically, right-sizing challenges enables a person to engage fully with a task, as awareness of one’s self and the wider world drop away.
Many if not most user experience professionals, game designers, and product people are familiar with flow. Insiders can even pronounce the name of the field’s founder, Csikszentmihaly (hint: Chic-sent-me-hi). ‘Happy Design’ has been theorized as requiring 3 elements: Flow, Pleasure, and Meaning. (More here by Dana Chisnell)
Obstacles that contribute to a pessimal experience include:
Excess cognitive demand
Confusing options
Choice Overload
Exceeding a chooser’s cognitive load is the fundamental sin of all flow-blockers. Short term memory holds only about 7 chunks (i.e., approximately the number of digits required to dial a phone). Unfamiliar, technical terms tax the memory buffer. Interrupting one mode of interaction to require a shift (e.g., demanding someone retrieve their ID or credit card number) also creates a snag.
Confusion inevitably breaks flow. The reader can quickly generate their own examples, just by recalling the last time they were stumped by options available on a screen. No human ever remained in flow while searching an FAQ.
If flow is a bike ride for the mind, a moment of confusion causes a metaphorical flat tire, form which most will never recover.
“Choice overload,” the third hindrance, occurs whenever a product proliferates options. Behavioral economists frequently cite the real world instance of 401Ks, as mishaps here cost thousands of dollars. As employers add more investment choices, enrollment drops. The more options offered, the more employees defer making any choice whatsoever.
Is there a magic number of choices? It’s far smaller than the 7 items held in short term memory, since A must be compared to B, C, and D, and then B to C, D, and A, etc. McKinsey consultants, experienced in addressing a CEO’s tiny sliver of accessible attention, reportedly limit their presentations to offer no more than 3 options on a slide. When decisions are more complicated, choice architects should respond by hierarchically organizing branching choices, with no more than 3 options at any node.
In our next post, we’ll consider ways to contour an experience to sustain engagement and flow.