Things that are enjoyable will be easy to use and efficient.

The ALA article is defending the case that beautiful and aesthetically pleasing UI designs increase functionality because they’re perceived to be easy to use and efficient. What we’ve been practicing here is the theory that you can have an interface be more enjoyable through the implementation of functionality. That is, if a piece of functionality is fun, the user will perceive it as intuitive. Now there are limits to this; you can’t have something that is super fun and not functional what so ever. But, generally speaking, the more fun you can make a user interface to interact with, the more forgiving your users will be of any shortcomings.

Coverflow

Be honest, when coverflow was announced you thought, “Cool, but it’s useless.” Coverflow is one of the biggest successes of “fun” in UI design. It has some great functional uses when browsing folders on your mac full of images, but past that, it’s a stretch to say it’s a great way to browse files. There are far more efficient and more usable ways to browse cover art in iTunes, or to browse visual files on my mac, but I still find myself using coverflow more often than I thought I would. That’s because it’s fun to use. Moving that slider and seeing my files or album covers rotate and move in 3D space is a delight. On the iPhone the fun is amplified by swiping your finger and having it respond in real time.

Time Machine

Apple is the master of adding fun to user interfaces. If you look at why or how their user experience is so successful, 9 times out of 10 you’ll find their solution is just plain more fun than the competitions’. Time Machine is another example of this. Backup software is a fully developed genre, but Apple decided to step in and make a big splash. They made Time Machine completely unlike any other backup software out there. Using 3D and a crazy time portal background that you manipulate with an actual time line makes using backup a joy. In fact, I would argue that it was Apple’s primary focus when designing the UI for Time Machine. It’s like healthy chefs making food that’s good for you actually taste good. Apple made the important, mundane task of backup fun to use.

Adding Fun to Your UI

It’s no doubt that Apple churns out some of the most fun to use software out there, but we can all start doing a better job at making our UIs more enjoyable, particularly on the web.

Sliders

Sliders are a great alternative to the standard form elements like drop down menus or text inputs.

Animated User Feedback

Giving feedback to the user for their interactions is critical to good UX, but you can take it further. It is now easier than ever to surprise and delight users with javascript frameworks like jQuery and Scriptaculous.

Drag & Drop

Another great way to spice up a UI is to give it more drag and drop functionality.

These are just a few ideas of what you can do to make your user experience a little more fun for your users. Some of the best solutions involve innovative interactions like the swiping to unlock an iPhone, the motion sensor controls of the Nintendo Wii, or that first time you realized you could pan around Google Maps without reloading the page. Of course, you can’t always have an amazing breakthrough in user experience, but if you make it one of your goals to let your users have fun, you’ll find that their emotions will be more positive and thus their user experience will be as well.