Issue 9: Surprise

Imagine that you’re travelling on a bus, on your way to your next destination. You're bored, or perhaps a bit tired. All of the sudden, your favorite song begins playing from the radio, and the bus driver begins singing passionately along!

Today, we are exploring surprise, and its use as a design tool in some of our most delightful products. Surprise is a powerful emotion- one that has been shown to increase recognition, focus, attention, and recall. When used smartly in products, surprising design elements bring joy and delight. But when used poorly, usability suffers and frustration increases. How do we as product builders and designers find the right balance?

In the 1980s, falling prices of personal computers (PCs) led to a shift in tech design from functionality to usability. Before this point, computers were typically very expensive, centralized pieces of complex equipment, used by highly educated specialists. However, with the rise of PCs in the workplace, it became more likely that PC users would not always have the same in-depth knowledge of software and operating systems. In order to make PCs easier to use, terms like "user friendliness" were coined, and companies, such as Apple Computer, Inc., began to focus heavily on usability. More on this history here.

However, as Don Norman noted, in his well-known book, "The Design of Everyday Things", "usable designs are not necessarily pleasurable ones." As technology evolved through the 1990s and into the 2000s, the definition of usability expanded to include visual aesthetics and emotional factors.

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