i am marko, this is my first post on the list.

got the yahoo group link from the live fixed ppt ;)

the reason i post is to say thanks for the inspirational presentation and
tell you some of my thoughts about it.

>> The presentation on Emotional Design and Flow at IDC was nothing less
>> than
>> Ozzy Osbourne biting the head of a dove on stage in cold blooded animal
>> brutality. In other words, it went well as predicted.
>>
>> Appa, Anna, Dude had an audience of about 50 people out of which few
>> were
>> from IDC and a few from IIT. The rest we suspect were there just for the
>> air
>> conditioning.

most were pure computer science guys. didnt surprise me, that they weren't
much interested in interface issues and their emotional appeal. as you
might know coding of algorithms is straight functionality, the only beauty
and aesthetics involved is slick modularity.

>> Atul "Appa" W., the more authentic looking of the Tridev because of his
>> overactive holandric genes, started the presentation.
>>
>> He made sure the "disclaimers" and "fine print" were sounded off before
>> we
>> got to the "controversial issues". Atul also presented some established
>> papers that pointed towards emotional design. Check ppt for the details.

i missed that part.

>> Then Vikram "Dude" C stepped in to explain the concept of Emotional
>> Design
>> (ED) and Flow.

excellent lecture. it made me smile that he did what he taught: going with
the flow

>> He started by saying how his sister wanted to know: "Why
>> would you want to lecture in IDC on putting emotions in interfaces? Why
>> were
>> emotions taken out in the first place." Good point, Sis.
>>
>> Vikram blamed it all on Don Norman's Design Of Everyday Things, which
>> waxed
>> eloquent on usability, unfortunately downplaying on other aspects of a
>> human
>> being.

don just took up the zeitgeist. its no good blaming him

just like only a brain with a nicely filled stomach can start
philosophizing, only a wealthy market can afford to focus on anything
besides pure functionality.
or to put it in a different way: when there is no more urgent need for a
new tool to save survival, we can start about improving usability and
looking at its pretty looks.

>> Vikram, however, did point out that Don was quick to redeem
>> himself
>> with an apology in his next book, Why Attractive Things Work Better.
>> Though
>> a decade later.

zeitgeist again, the social flow of common judgement of things and concepts

>> Emotional Design according to Don Norman's latest book is divided into
>> Visceral, Behavioural, and Reflective.
>> See the ppt for more details.
>>
>> Then Vikram moved on to explain the concept of Flow. Flow is a state
>> where
>> you are so involved with the activity that nothing separates you from
>> the
>> activity. Time seems to pass away, you lose a sense of self and your
>> physical space.
>>
>> It's like a climbing a mountain with no harness. Remember Tom Cruise in
>> MI
>> II? When one is involved in such an intense activity, banal thoughts
>> like
>> "I
>> shouldn't leave my girlfriends in the freezer" should fade away. Nothing
>> should distract you. The dance should not separate itself from the
>> dancer.
>>
>>
>> Flow was substantiated with online examples of where Flow can be found
>> on
>> the Net. For example, an interface for a budget traveler is different
>> from
>> the interface of a backpacker. And also how Amazon has immersive content
>> when you search for a book. But the check out process is patented
>> 1-click
>> so
>> that the Flow is not broken.

I liked your graph a lot. Imensity of flow is correlating to the danger
one identifies with and the reward you get from taking the challenge.
And I totally agree with you: utilising the flow skills of a user is the
smoothest way to interact with his emotions because she keeps on
optimizing her very own conceptual model of the interface mechanisms. Also
the flow of a user is much easier to predict than random clicks on
anything that looks like a button.
The only remaining question is: how in hell can you create a sense of
danger with WinWord?

>> Atul "Anna" Joshi explained other ways of how ED and Flow can be
>> achieved
>> online. According to him, one such way is the use of narrative content.
>> He
>> took examples from movies and music to explain the same, ending most of
>> this
>> statements with vegara vegara (etc etc) that made Atul W and me snicker
>> like
>> little girls.

I had my share of experience with narrative flows. And I found, that the
further away I take the audience(!) from any given task, the more they let
themselves loose to come along. However, it is only entertainment, gaming
or education. With any interaction, where user input is the essence of the
action, it is highly difficult. Even very successful creativity-supporting
applications like photoshop, maya, cubase, intellij, etc allow for flow
only once the user is an expert.

>> We had some interesting questions like: The trade off of usability for
>> Emotional Design. We observed that the audience often ends up thinking
>> that
>> we are pitting usability against Emotional Design. But that is not the
>> case.
>> Emotional Design and Flow is not about making interfaces unusable. It is
>> about looking at other aspects of a human being for a more holistic
>> experience that is not only high on emotions but also usability. It is
>> about
>> successfully marrying the two so they walk hand in hand in to the
>> sunset.

Its a nice dream. But I rather believe that designers can only come up
with a nicely balanced mix, ever fighting any severe trade off.

*dream well and in true color*
marko