fun fun

A passage I thought was interesting from the article titled "How to get users to RTFM" by Kathy Sierra was...

"Change the "F" in RTFM to "Fun"

Not funny, just fun. Fun as in chess. Fun as in writing elegant code. Fun as in doing something you're good at... something that lets you have a high-resolution experience. What would it mean if you asked, "How can we make the manual a fun experience?" Don't jump to the "nobody wants humour in a manual" argument--you don't need "humour" to have fun."¹

link

I think it's relevant to design because you have to make something that is going to appeal to the user. Even the boring part like the manual should be made entertaining and fun. The directions for the game Outburst, have things included like "most people learn games from other people, not from the rules. But at some point somebody has to read the rules in order to figure out what's going on. Besides, the people you learn from rarely know what they're talking about!" and "Teams should sit together (unless you're being served chili!)" or "Team members are encouraged to yell out answers at the same time (which can really annoy your opponent who is trying to keep score)."² These simple little blurbs that are added on, make reading the instructions so much more entertaining. The user is actually turned on to the game from the instructions rather just being confused because they read the directions as fast as possible. Outburst knew what they were doing when they created their instructions.

1. Sierra, Kathy. "How to get users to RTFM." Creating Passionate Users. Available from http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/09/how_to_get_user.html. Internet; accessed 21 October 2007.

2. Hersch and Company. Outburst Instructions (Los Angeles: Hersch and Company, 2002)