FlowRecently, i've been reading and also noticing that flow is a vital component in our lives. In everything we do, we must have a flow. What am I talking about, you might be asking???
Take a look around at your everyday actions and you'll noticing a recurring pattern. Nothing transitions in an abrupt manner; Lights do not go from green to red.
Everything and every successful action usually involves a particular flow of some sort. For example look at apples UI interface, which uses flow to excite the users subconscious. Every action performed typically results in a fade or slide or zoom or collapse action. Each of these actions guides the users eyes or satisfy the users subconscious by showing them what is happenning.
I'm working on UI right now at my company and i'm seeing something very important that needs to be implemented, and that's flow. Essentially, web pages should
not simply go from one page to the next, but instead smoothly transition to the next page. I'm not talking super fades or slide up effects... But subtle effects that excite the users subconscious and please the mind. Click a button can cause the button to slightly fade out slowly, while the page fades out in a smooth fashion and the new page fades in.
The same is said in everyday actions and in general on how and why we work.
When in a state of flow, we lose track of time, we are fully immersed in what we are doing. This is why breaking the flow causes the brain to think of other things and to have a hard time getting "back into it".
For example: You are playing a game that changes from one scene to the next. To keep the person in the game and fully interested, you will need to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible. I've seen this first hand, how a bad transition totally gets you out of your flow. I used to play Half-Life and would notice that during the transition scenes it would take several seconds to load the new scene. A "pause" would be presented on screen while it would load the next level. I went from fully immersed in the game, to thinking about other things I needed to do. Once the next level loaded, I saved my game, quit it and left to do other things.
How can you achieve flow in yourself?
1) You have to enjoy what you are doing to it's fullest extent.
2) You must feel challenged in a way that makes you feel positive.
3) You must feel skilled for what you are doing /working on.
4) You must concentrate on the "task" you are working on.
Focus strong enough and you will lose track of time, you will feel like you are in "the zone" in a sense.
This is where flow is important as once you reach this point, you can remain immersed and essentially feel a sense of happiness as you are working towards something positive that will ultimately reach an end goal that you desire.
Websites are slowly implementing this by having a nice welcome screen that shows pretty products. You want to click it and see what they have to offer. Once inside, the flow has begun and the site can now tease you and make you feel challenged to get more information on the product. Once you've reached the end point, you can be convinced that the final goal is to purchase the item, and if focused enough, you will.
...The more you know... :)
Wiki Focus