Fun: An Exploration in its Relevance to Interaction Design

When you are having fun and creating something you love, it shows in the product. So when a woman is sifting through a rack of clothes, somehow that piece of clothing that you had so much fun designing speaks to her; she responds to it and buys it. I believe you can actually transfer that energy to material things as you’re creating them- Tom Ford

The graduate design thesis I chose to review is called “Fun: An Exploration in its Relevance to Interaction Design” by Elise M. Woolley, B.S. from the University of Ohio. In the paper the author provided designers with a relevant definition of fun through her research. The basis for which was “funtinuum,” a qualitative scale of the dimensions of fun. A series of surveys, case studies and discussions were also conducted in the process. I like the authors point that “We can create fun by design and not by chance.” What was intriguing in the paper was how the author addressed fun- a human emotion which is not quantifiable and varies from person to person.

I think her research paper postulated funtinumm in a simple and effective way. I like the way the author used the results from her research methods, previous research methods and placed them in the funtinumm graph. That made the funtinumm graph more self explanatory and interesting. Also the way she explained at places where fun cannot be used. I think the author knew that it was broad subject matter but she did a very good job in defining, explaining and articulating funtinumm.