4 - Design - Film
CAPTIVATE
Ensure Control by Keeping Attention Over Time
CAPTIVATE
Ensure Control by Keeping Attention Over Time
"Are you not entertained?!"
So reads an iconic line from the blockbuster GLADIATOR. In the 2002 film, Maximus Marcus Meridius, a disgraced Roman general played by Russell Crowe, is enslaved. Brought to the Collosseum, he is ascribed the role of gladiator and pitted against other warriors as they fight to the death. The purpose?
Entertaining the masses present by adding some well-needed entertainment to their lives, and - if my recollection of college history class serves me right - keep them distracted from the Caesar's abhorrent mismanagement of the empire.
As most every Roman emperor knew full well, a hearty provision of "bread and circuses" was the absolute lifeblood upon which the maintainance and growth empire depended, perhaps one of the reasons why this might civilization was able to sustain itself for more than half a millennium. But let's not get off track.
When Meridius emphatically projects his sarcastic rhetorical question at the blood-thirsty audience cheering him on in the stands, and, more importantly, at the agents in charge of holding him captive, he doesn't do so immediately upon entering the arena.
Quite conversely, he has already (however reluctantly) slaughtered more than a handful of blood-lusting warriors pitted against him at the show floor.
Only then, once he feels that he has proven his worthiness as a warrior, and hence - by extension - of reclaiming emancipation, does he begin to suggest that they should let him go.
Now, let's fast forward a good thousand years or so, putting this into a context, and into relevancy, of UI/UX.
We've talked already about the value of attraction; that is, the value of making a great first impression. But this begs one inescapable question:
What's the point of making a splash big enough to grab the user's interest if you can't stay afloat long enough to convert that interest into being captivated over time.
Unless the UI/UX project you're working on is so extremely simple that everything can be crammed onto a single screen (sometimes, even that, insufficient reason) you need a game plan that keeps the user perusing the text, navigating the menus, or actively utilizing the functionality, of your app.
Dealt a hand of visual minimalism? Put more thought into font size, weight, and type, allignment, etc. - assuming you have text to work with.
Client riding you about overcomplicating your prototype with too many pages or screens? Cut down on their frequency, and, if necessary - bake more content or functionality into each entry by hiding or compressing some of it (reference article "BE COMPLEX - Utilize Possibility Space").
Would you drive to your local movie theater and shell out fifty bucks for a ticket and snacks only to hit the exits ten minutes before the ending?
If the answer is no, don't make the user do the same when they visit the app or website you designed.
Charming their pants off at first gaze might sometimes, but doesn't always, keep them around as long as your own wishful thinking will lead you to believe.