My daughter who is seven has just got a Tamagotchi for Christmas. Consequently, she spent the whole of Christmas Day pandering to its needs, playing games, cleaning up its mess, feeding it. What a bizarre effect … I mean, its a postage stamp interface, awful green-screen style graphics, three buttons and very obscure interaction design. The worst usability and aesthetics of anything I’ve seen recently, but it ‘got’ my daughter almost immediately, and its had her ever since!
Thats the raw power of generated emotion, the power of visceral psychological cues. Tapping into our deep down need to nurture and care for, is what drives and motivates our children to spend seemingly unending hours pressing tiny buttons and squinting at a grey-green line drawing. Thats the power of it, it can truly motivate to not care about usability, to not care about about beauty. By hell this effect is strong, use with care.
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