Flow in Web Design

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Chapter 2 Flow in Web Design. “Flow is a sense that humans have developed in …. To find out more about flow, speed, and web design, I talked to Dr. Mihaly …

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Flow in Web Design
2
Imagine that you’re doing your favorite activity-let’s say, sailing. You’re skimming
along the waves, when suddenly the breeze freshens. You hike out to compensate,
leaning back into the wind to keep the boat upright. A wave splashes your face. You
shake your head and trim the main sheet for more speed. You are entirely focused on
the movements of your body, the water rushing past, and keeping the boat right
side up.
You’re really flying now, just on the edge of control. You’re so fully immersed in this
activity, there’s no room left in your awareness for distractions. Otherwise, you might
catch a wave and capsize. You’re having so much fun that you want this moment to
last forever. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls these exceptional moments flow
experiences.1 Flow can occur in practically any activity, including browsing the web.
1. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (New York: Basic Books,
1997), 29.28 Chapter 2 Flow in Web Design
This “optimal experience”2 is “intrinsically enjoyable.”3 Time seems to stand still, and we
lose our sense of self. We feel playful and are willing to try (and presumably buy) new
things. Although flow can occur anywhere, certain activities like rock climbing, performing
surgery, chess, and sailing lend themselves to this optimal state of focused attention.
Responsive, well-designed web sites can also induce flow in their users.
On Flow and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor and former chair of the Department of Psychology
at the University of Chicago, pioneered the study of flow. He wrote that flow is the
“holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total involvement.”4
Csikszentmihalyi wanted to understand the experience of enjoyment. He asked, what
motivates people to perform better? Extrinsic rewards like money and prestige are limited
resources that ultimately are about comparisons between people. Status is a zerosum
game; so something else must motivate us humans. Intrinsic rewards, doing
activities for the sheer joy of it, are the key to understanding flow.5
In order to understand intrinsic motivation, Csikszentmihalyi studied self-rewarding, or
autotelic, activities. Csikszentmihalyi…