meets user needs is not necessarily a wow product. Our
analysis suggests that a wow
product is one that customers
strongly desire because it also
( 1) creates unexpected needs
and ( 2) promotes a greater sense
of control over the external
world.
Creating Unexpected Needs.
Wow products do more than
simply meet user needs. They
make us realize needs of which
we may never have been aware.
In our work with PayPal’s
Button Designer, for example,
we observed this type of needs
creation when we introduced
the ability to add dropdown
menus to payment buttons
in the user interface. A payment button is a small piece of
HTML code that will redirect
a customer from a merchant’s
website to PayPal to pay for that
item. The Button Designer is a
tool on our website for creating this HTML code. In a recent
redesign of this tool, we provided an easy mechanism for merchants to associate a dropdown
menu with a payment button so
that their customers can choose
from multiple options (sizes
or colors). In usability testing
with prototypes, we observed
multiple merchants discover
this feature and realize that it
would allow them to vastly simplify their websites. For many
of these merchants, that was
the moment when they began
wanting to get their hands on
the real tool as soon as possible. The product wow of the
Button Designer came from the
way that it created and fulfilled
needs that these merchants had
not previously realized.
We often hear a similar
refrain from owners of other
wow products. Owners of cars
with keyless entry, for example,
talk about how they can “never
go back” to using a key. Despite
years of fumbling with their
keys, they were unaware that
they needed keyless entry
until they had it. In fulfilling
known needs (getting into a
locked car), wow products cause
their owners to realize other
unmet—or unacknowledged—
needs (reduce fumbling with
keys).
Control Over Things External.
Wow products give their users
a sense of greater control over
the world around them. For
example, parents using student
accounts were (not surprisingly) excited about their level
of insight into and control over
their children’s spending. A
little more surprisingly, however, their children were also
excited about the level of control this gave them over their
parents’ perceptions. Rather
than viewing parents’ access as
intrusive, many of these teens
felt it offered a way to prove
their trustworthiness to their
parents. By establishing a documented record of wise financial
decisions, teenagers felt their
parents would begin giving
them more freedom both in
financial matters and in other
aspects of their lives.
The PayPal Plug-In—a
browser-based tool that generates a MasterCard number
intended for one-time use
anywhere online that accepts
MasterCard—also offers a
unique way of putting users in
control over the world around
them. By generating these
single-use numbers, users of
the PayPal Plug-In reported feeling more in control of how their
financial information is distributed. For some, this is a way of
minimizing risk of theft. They
know their single-use credit
card number will never be a
problem if stolen. Others see it
as a way of taking back control
over “free” trials or subscriptions they wanted to try out.
This product allows them to
start these trials without having to constantly worry about
opting out within the trial
period.
In general, wow products
allow their owners to take control (or at least feel in control) of
aspects of their lives that were
out of their control previously.
Student accounts give teenagers
control over how their parents
perceive their level of responsibility. The PayPal Plug-In gives
buyers control over the distribution of their financial information. Tivo gives television
watchers control over the time
they watch certain shows. Wow
products put owners in control
over their environments.
Designing Wow Experiences
Wow experiences are about
consciously valuing the in-the-moment use of a product, not
the product’s overall usefulness. This is distinct from interactions that are so intuitive the
interface almost disappears
from consciousness. Several
design factors seem to contribute to “wow” experiences:
( 1) providing apt feedback, ( 2)
offering an invitation to play
with the interface, and ( 3) creating novel forms of interaction.
Apt Feedback. Any basic
HCI textbook points out that
feedback is an important component of a usable design. In
wow experiences, however, the
