UGLY WORKS
(ASK THE RAT)
 At best,
that’s how most software tools affect
their users. Developers take this bland approach
to design and lose any possibility of
creating a genuinely enjoyable experience for
their users.
Other than acting from altruism, why bother providing
positive affect? Well, how many
people spent money to see E.T.? People
pay good money for rich positive affect.
It’s that simple.
What’s not simple is
intentionally creating specific affect. What’s even harder
is creating appropriate affect. It’s a
craft that great authors, musicians, filmmakers
and other artists have honed over decades,
and even they can’t always get it right.
The filmmakers who made E.T.
understood how and when to manipulate arousal and
emotional valence. Kids, don't try
this at home. Go out and hire artists, designers,
writers -- whoever knows
best how to create the affect that is appropriate for your application.
After
many years as advertising manager for
Goodyear Tire and Rubber, my father
started his own advertising agency in
North Canton, Ohio. One of his clients
was a local car dealer.
My degree is in Radio, Television and
Film and shortly after graduation I shot
some TV commercials for one of my
dad’s clients -- not the car dealer.
I told my father that for the same amount
of money he was spending to make the
usual crappy local car commercials, I
could deliver really slick, professional
ones. He told me this: "You
know, when people see that guy in the
parking lot telling them he’ll
personally give them a great deal, they
believe it
because
the commercial looks crappy. They figure
this guy is local, for real, and by God
he will
give them
that deal."
And he was right. If the same viewers saw
a slick commercial like so many others,
their minds would have filed it away as
some national spot that had no
immediate meaning
for them. My dad also did a lot of direct
mail work, and the same technique worked
there as well.
His hand on my shoulder, my father passed
on to me these valuable words:
"Son,
sometimes ugly works."
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