Positive Surprises (Wows)

A key element of a good user experience is providing small surprises for the user. These can also be called wows. These surprises of course need to be positive, and they can make people think or even say the word wow. Figure 1-8 shows an advertisement with a certain wow effect.

A wow could be something like a great and logical graphical layout where the user thinks, “Wow, this looks good.” It could also be a user interaction that is designed in a playful way. Playfulness is a very essential part of wows and positive surprises.

images

Figure 1-8. Example of wow. Credits and description: Giant constrictor snake squeezing complete ...

Get User Experience Innovation: User Centered Design that Works now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.