Stephen P. Anderson - Seductive Interaction Design: Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences (Voices That Matter)

Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences

Seductive Interaction Design:
Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences

Stephen P. Anderson

New Riders
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
510/524-2221 (fax)

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New Riders is an imprint of Peachpit, a division of Pearson Education.

Copyright 2011 by PoetPainter, LLC.

Editor: Michael J. Nolan
Development Editor: Margaret Anderson/Stellarvisions
Production Editor: Tracey Croom
Copyeditor: Gretchen Dykstra
Indexer: James Minkin
Proofreader: Jan Seymour
Book Designer: Stephen P. Anderson
Compositor: Kim Scott, Bumpy Design
Cover Image: Richard Cote, courtesy of iStockphoto

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact .

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.

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ISBN 13: 978-0-321-72552-3
ISBN 10: 0-321-72552-2

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

For Erin, my love...
my half of the world belongs to you.

Writing a book is a painful process. And then you start the even more painful process of revisions, editing, and layout! But like all things that stretch and challenge us, when you reach the end, you find the pride and joy of accomplishment. For this, I have many people to thank.

In no particular order, my thanks go to...

Kathy Sierra, whose writings have been an inspiration to many of us. It was her post on cognitive seduction that helped form my initial musings on seductive interactions.

Matt Jones and Matt Biddulph for bringing Dopplr into the world. This Web app proved, in many different ways, that there is room for delight in the services we use.

Joshua Porter. While Joshua is certainly not the first person to talk about design and psychology, his book Designing for the Social Web and the many posts on Bokardo have been instrumental in advancing this bridge between the academic and industrial.

Kevin Cornell, for contributing his brilliant illustrations. Without them, this book wouldnt be nearly as classy nor as fun.

My friend and mentor Robert Moore, whose remarkable approach to designone that focuses first and foremost on human insightsforever changed how I approach design.

Jesse James Garret, Jared Spool, and Andy Budd, for believing in me and giving me a platform to spread this message at their respective events.

Lou Rosenfeld and Michael Nolan, for seeing that there was a book ready to be written. Also to Margaret Anderson and the entire development team at New Riders. Im certain youre ready to throttle me, after this process. But I think wed all agree weve created something beautiful to see and read.

Giles Colborne, Trevor van Gorp, BJ Fogg, Aarron Walter, Buster Benson, Adam Connor, Garrett Dimon, and Ruben Gazki for kindly sharing your thoughts in interviews. While we had cut a lot of content, including several interviews, rest assured, that content will be seen by the world.

Jared Christensen, Christian Bradford, and John Gibbard for stepping in at the last minute to help me get across the finish line.

Pattis Place, for offering the most wonderful environment one could possibly dream of for writing a book (not to mention the best soups and hot tea in Dallas).

Mrs. Zehentmayr and Karen Heid-Cooke, for igniting curious young minds and fanning the flames.

My family for, well, everything!

It goes without saying that a book demands a lot of time and energy. Being a parent to four wonderful boys, Gabriel, Liam, Elijah, and Jonas, demands even more time and energy. Without my wife Erins support, this book would not have been possible. Its not easy for her to be married to an obsessive personality, and this project only exacerbated my worst tendencies. Shes taken on more than anyone should ever ask, and even stepped in to rescue me when things got most difficult. For her enduring support and for being the center to our family during this time, I owe more than Ill every be able to repay. Thank you. I love you.

This is an undertaking I would not have pursued had there not been an overwhelming desire to hear more about this topic. For everyone who attended one of my talks, downloaded my slides on SlideShare, or otherwise indulged my interest in human behaviorI thank you. C.S. Lewis once wrote that We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand. While this passion for learning is certainly true in my case, the learning has been a whole lot easier with so much interest and support. Thank you all.

And finally, thanks goes to Christina Wodtke, Cennydd Bowles, Richard Dalton, Donna Spencer, Rahul Choudhury, Kelsey Ruger, Kevin Cheng, Nick Finck, Livia Labate, Travis Isaacs, Jeremy Dunck, Jeroen van Geel, Whitney Hess, Chris Pall, Chris Fahey, Dan Lockton, Dan Brown, Jeremy Johnson, Peter Merholz, Sebastian Deterding, Amy Jo Kim, Luke Wroblewski, Bill Scott, Todd Zaki Warfel, Russ Unger, Jay Morgan, Chris Bernard, Wade Winningham, Paula Thornton, Dave Gray, Alex Bischoff, Dirk Knemeyer, Peter Boersma, Bill DeRouchey, Carolyn Wood, Brandon Schauer, Kaleem, John Moore, Candy Bernhardt, John Weiss, Matt Heard, Aaron Martin, Matt Donovan, Thomas Vander Wal, Andrew Hinton, Matthew Milan, Erica OGrady, Jay Fichialos, Ken Starzer, Jess McMullin, Matt Donovan, and the dozens of other people Im certain Im forgetting. Your work, conversations, and encouragement have truly been a blessing.

, Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Richard Cote, Image 10745904

, Increasing Motivation graphic, Joshua Porter

, Photo Kate Tegtmeyer

, Shell station gas pump, Sean Munson

, Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Reuben Schulz, Image 8348251

, Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Faruk Ulay, Image 5642231