Hooked on a Feeling

In this 2015 talk at an IxDA event, Stephen P. Anderson, creator of the Mental Notes card deck and author of Seductive Interactions, asks what other mediums can teach us about crafting an experience. For all the hype around “user experience,” we often struggle with what it means to actually craft one. We ship products that are usable, attractive, responsive and reliable, and yet something intangible is missing.

What’s missing only becomes obvious when we compare our work with more established mediums: film, game design, storytelling and advertising. These mediums know how to make us feel, in deep and profound ways. Anderson asks how we can do the same, whether there are processes we can change or things we can do to create memorable and meaningful experiences, and who has already reached that level of emotional engagement.

The session explores subtle but critical ways to level up our work and bring depth and richness to the experiences we shape. Patterns such as storytelling and the peak-end rule are among the tools for doing so.