Joy Of Use
Joy of Use describes the positive experience that a user has when they use a website. Joy of Use therefore contributes to creating and maintaining a good customer experience
Aspects of Joy of Use
Joy of Use is a continuation of usability, and describes the positive experience of a user due to an emotional design and reaching his/her goals. Significant elements are aesthetic and emotions, and visual characteristics play a vital role. However, Joy of Use is not just about creating “beauty”; it is more important that the availability of functions run smoothly and evoke a feeling of success in the user. A positive Joy of Use leads to the user feeling encouraged to continue using the website and to experience further feelings of success.
Implementation of Joy of Use
To be able to implement Joy of Use, on the one hand an excellent knowledge of information technology is required, for example to be able to create overlay without Flash. On the other hand, a good knowledge of psychology, marketing and design is required to create the ideal interaction between design, functionality and user friendliness. Joy of Use comes into being once the design is able to both stimulate the user, and create and fulfil wishes.
Necessity of Joy of Use
Joy of Use is particularly important for companies which have a number of competitors with more or less the same products. If products are similar in their characteristics, there is not much for the customer to differentiate between them. A particular image, an exclusive flair or amusing features can influence the user just as effectively as a functional and attractive design or goal-orientated marketing.
Joy of Use is also crucial considering that the use of computers and the internet is no longer necessary. Now, elements of new technologies that people use daily to their advantage, even for private use, are more important. The motives of using internet have changed and therefore so has the requirement of users regarding the functionality and design of websites.
Measures of implementation of Joy of Use
How Joy of Use can be implemented concretely depends on the product and the design. Examples for relevant measures are:
- Pictures and elements are not simply shown, but blended in.
- In loading a website, content is dynamically adapted to the needs of the user and often loaded later. The page speed can therefore be improved.
- Smart filter options make filtering without time delay possible in that the filter reacts as soon as the box is checked.
- Particularly large pictures of a product in high quality graphics offer an in-depth insight into the details of the product.
- In the category page of an online shop, small thumbnails of the product are shown. When the user travels over the product with the mouse, it turns itself so that, for example, a piece of clothing can be seen from the front and the back.
- If the user adds a product to the shopping cart, a little symbol flies in the direction of the shopping cart – it is therefore clear to the user that the process has worked.
- Product configurations make it possible to choose individual components or characteristics of a product. Here, the web designer will make sure that the design is as simple as possible so that the different options can be illustrated clearly.