The Joy of Telephony: Designing Appealing Interactions

While developing EasyCom, we learned that stimulating fun and pleasure is a noteworthy factor to be considered as an integral part of the conceptual design as early as possible to achieve “designs that engage and empower users [to] increase their enjoyment and encourage them to explore” (Nielsen, 2002). We hope, our observations produce further evidence for the thesis that fun and enjoyment is an important issue even for software products mainly used professionally. With the widespread use of mobile devices and services, the clearcut distinction between business and recreational tasks increasingly becomes blurred. People will use the same tools and applications in different usage contexts and environments. Thus, designing for both workable and enjoyable user interfaces will be a vital challenge in the near future. Have fun!