Productive and Creative Experiences |
Productive experiences usually have some practical
goal in mind like learning how to use a new computer
application or how to improve your golf game.
Creative experiences aim at allowing users to
create, make, entertain,
or do something themselves.
Some experiences can be used more productively than others (such
as learning experiences), and productivity is traditionally of more
concern in education and business products than entertainment products--but
being creative and producing something are typically more interesting,
entertaining, and fulfilling activities.
Creative experiences require the presence of tools
in order to be meaningful. Requiring users to implement these tools
take them away from the passive end of the Interaction Continuum
towards the active and creative end. If users are merely
watching and consuming, they will not have a proper interactive
experience.
Offering creative experiences is the best way to engage your users
constructively, however, it is not without its dangers. Anxiety
may arise in those people who are new to the tools and technology
you are offering. To offset anxiety, offer good assistance in the
form of feedback. This can take a variety of forms
such as, recommendations, guidelines, advice, even performing some
complex operations for users (wizards).
Advanced Creative/Productive Experiences
Advanced interactive experiences allow users to make new tools
and add them to a predefined set. Such is the idea behind Adobe
Photoshop's "make new brush" command. This level of customizability
is a component of the very best interactive experiences.
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