This series is a revised collection of extracts on topics I researched for my dissertation about e-commerce and gamification.
Oxford Dictionaries defines fun as “Enjoyment, amusement, or light-hearted pleasure”. Cognitive Flow is fun amplified. Csikszentmihaly defines cognitive flow as;
“The state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it”.
The graph below shows the cognitive process of a person participating in an action over time and how skills and challenges combine to produce distinctive cognitive and emotional states within the person:
If a person is presented with a challenge and does not possess the skills to complete it, they will become anxious. If the challenge is too easy and the person posses a skill level higher than necessary, they will become bored. If a person is presented with a challenge in which their skill is increasing proportionately to the difficulty of the task, they will achieve cognitive flow.
Csikszentmihalyi and Robinson (1991) demonstrate a shared human correspondence between flow and the aesthetic experience, concluding:
“Human beings enjoy experiences that are relatively more clear and focused than everyday life… When this heightened state of consciousness occurs in response to music, painting, and so on, we call it an aesthetic experience. In other contexts, such as sports, hobbies, challenging work, and social interactions, the heightened state of consciousness is called a flow experience”.
The parallels in creating a human state of enjoyment through challenge (flow) and art (aesthetic) not only demonstrate why games can be fun, but also that challenge is not the only prerequisite in achieving positive mental states in the user experience. In addition, it shows that humans enjoy experiences that are clearer and more focused than everyday life and importantly that this can be realised by achieving a state of flow.
Flow can also be applied to the user's journey through a game at Macro and Micro levels. Macro flow is the progression arc of a game in an incremental increase of challenge given to the player in response to an increasing level of player skill. Macro flow aims to create a constant cognitive state in-between boredom and anxiety to sustain continuous intrinsic motivation to play.
Micro flow is defined as brief and intense periods of game interaction that occur frequently, they offer repeated opportunities for a player to demonstrate and practice learned skills. Micro flow should be supported with positive reinforcement through emotional and sensory feedback, this will sustain motivation and engagement within the micro flow itself, creating a virtuous cycle.