The Transmedia Design
Challenge: Technology that is
Pleasurable and Satisfying
Donald A. Norman

Nielsen Norman Group, Northwestern University, and KAIST | [e-mail]
[ 1] Jenkins, H.
“Transmedia
Storytelling: Moving
Characters From
Books to Films to Video
Games Can Make
Them Stronger and
More Compelling.”
Technology Review
(2003); http://www.
technologyreview.com/
Biotech/13052/

I agreed to give a keynote address
at the 21st Century Transmedia
Innovation Symposium (www.21ctis.
or.kr/). Traditional dictionaries do
not include the word “transmedia,”
but Wikipedia does. Its definition
introduced me to many other words
that neither I nor my dictionaries had
ever before heard (for example, “nar-
ratological”). Strange jargon aside,
I do believe there is an important
idea here, which I explore in this
column. (Intelligent discussions
can be found in the books and
articles of Henry Jenkins [ 1, 2]).

January + February 2010

[ 2] Jenkins, H. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

interactions

We live in exciting times.
Finally, we are beginning to
understand that pleasure and
fun are important components
of life; that emotion is not a bad
thing; and that learning, educa-
tion, and work can all benefit
from pleasure and fun. Up to
now, a primary goal of product
and service design has been to
provide useful functions and
results. We should not lose track
of these goals, but now that we
are well on our way to doing
that for an amazing variety of
goods and services, it is time
to make sure they are pleasur-
able as well. Not only does this
require emotions to be a major
component of design think-
ing, but we must also incorpo-
rate actions; actions that use
the whole body in movement,
rhythm, and purpose.