Eye candy. A very subjective word, much like beauty. To make the difference between eye candy and beauty, I’d say the first one is something that is strictly aesthetically pleasing — function might be there or it might not be.
As part of creating an experience for your user, I’d say finding whatever this group of people finds eye candy becomes more and more important as the utilitarian layer of value becomes thicker and thicker.
Now, the fact that you need storytelling is not a new concept. You’ve heard it before, but once again I’m trying to dig deeper into that and see why that is the case — mindset vs simply following advice.
Once something solves our problem, we wish there could be more. We like stories and myths are as old as the world. Sure, “be nice to people” and “saving those in need of help” are good ideas — however, last time I checked it was the stories that they came packed with that survived thousands of years.
I’d say there’s a reason why reality tv shows are successful and why gossip newspapers exist. Or maybe why people are interested in the personal life of a celebrity. Once this celebrity (say a singer) brings a certain amount of value (through their music), people are looking for stories.
I know, maybe you’re not one of these people who are looking for stories in celebrities — but surely you’re looking in other places for stories. We all do.
It’s how we survived as a species.
Back to the singer example, the usual discussions about Beyoncé or Jay-Z
Once they put out good music, people got interested in their stories — and I mean personal stories.
Lifestyle.
More lifestyle.
And a question about lifestyle. We can go on and on forever.
Is that different for a company?
Say the almighty Apple. Once tremendous amounts of have been delivered time and again, the myths, legends and stories started to appear. And I don’t mean just as gossip. I mean stories from their side and you’ve probably seen them.
Apple is 43 years old though, so it might be a long shot to compare your company to them.
However, I think more often than not founders/CEOs draw a fuzzy line between the product’s utility and the story. To be more precise, they’re tempted to say “Yes, the value is not there yet. Let’s get that first and then worry about story”.
Let’s talk practical now
I’ve started talking about eye candy and got to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
Here’s what I had on my mind when I started writing:
What are some rewards (psychological, physical, social etc.) that your users are incentivised by?
And if that sounds vague, here’s what generation Z people are incentivised by: Snapchat streaks.
For some reason, the commitment to keeping a relationship alive day by day through social interaction is rewarding. Not only does keeping the ball rolling reward you but it’s a two-way contract.
When I say “for some reason” it’s very likely to do with: serotonin and social status, mental health overall and the need for entertainment (the idea of the mini-game).
For a mature audience though, probably Snapchat streaks are useless and hilarious. However, golf clubs might be interesting — and most gen-Z people have a matching opinion about golf clubs as their counterparts.
Designers like very dense eye-candy, the type that would make most people say “Oh it looks nice” and they’d leave it at that.
Programmers get their eyes pleased when they see clean code.
Accountants and financial people do that when the number add up perfectly.
What is it for your audience?
About Ch Daniel
I run Chagency_, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.
If I’ve brought you any kind of value, follow me and get in touch here: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email | Quora | YouTube (same content but in video)
I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app
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Illustration Credits: Pavel Mishkin, Nathaniel Rueda
