Myth X Interaction Design : the use of rituals in new-media feat. Mailchimp, PUBG, Calm and Harry Potter
Welcome to this post.
Breathing is important. Key to solving a lot many problems. However, most of our breathing is shallow. Want to feel the difference? Let’s play a very tiny game.
Take a deep breath. Inhale through the nose — hold it for a second — and exhale through the mouth.
Write in one word or a short phrase — a negative feeling that you’ve had about yourself — write it on a small piece of paper.
Fold the paper 3 times—and as you do each fold, inhale through the nose, hold it for a second, and exhale through the mouth. 3 folds. 3 deep breaths.
Now find a bin, ideally walk to it, and throw the paper away. Do this every Monday morning for best results.
The journey of understanding and practising interaction design is such a beautiful thing — mostly because of those moments when you get the opportunity to understand people through the events of their own lives, when you are bound to each other.
I enjoy creating interactive and engaging experiences. Every single time, it gives me a chance to create something meaningful and playful at the same time. As cliched as it sounds, aha! from people, with some oohs! and aahs! is what keeps me going.
A not-so-harmful side-effect is some daydreaming. But hey, what’s a good day at work without some daydreaming right?
Now designing meaningful, delightful and engaging experiences for people can be achieved if you become part of their culture. In best cases, become one with them.
But becoming part of someone’s culture is easier said than done. Many bridges need to be built. A lot of barriers need to be crossed —
- Aversion and disinterest —authentic culture is derived from intrinsic motivators and native behaviours. Imposing cultural elements in your design can easily get no response and can sometimes even be rejected strongly and backfire.
- Under the surface —cultural elements sometimes remain hidden away, hidden in the minds and homes of people, spaces you cannot gain access to. If we want to unlock culture, we first need to bring it alive.
So the challenge that lies in front of us is — how might we bring culture alive in interactions that happen in front of us, on our screens, in our hands, in our heads? How might we take it from its raw form — as energy that is shared by the collective unconscious and — and manifest it as something that you can record, see, touch, do, be present in.
Rituals
One way in which culture comes to the surface is rituals.
We all know what they are. A ritual is an act — an act done in a particular situation. It is always done the same way. It is sort of a routine, except it has special meaning.
Ritual needn’t at all be glorious and complex. It can be a 10 min meditation in the morning, bullet-journaling or even doing something small for your partner everyday.
The meaning could be anything to the person performing the ritual. If you are observing someone else performing a ritual, it might make sense to you, or totally not. The test that rituals have to pass is that of authenticity. They need embody the performer’s truth.
What is the value and benefit in rituals?
We are all trying to create new/better meaning for people all the time. From software ui/ux to organisational design, products and services are aiming to be those moments in time which create value for humans.
- Showing intention and awareness — Rituals are a great way to express and show what you care about dearly. Using it as part of your experience surfaces values which might lie underneath.
- Creating community and collective action — Rituals are metaphorical campfires around which people converge. They also create a common behaviour and action for different people using the same media/device/experience.
- Communicating the intangible and spiritual — Not every interaction needs to be transactional. Some interactions need to leave the user with a feeling, or just some positive energy which cannot be given in conventional action-incentive format. Rituals tap into the part of our being which lies beyond material or utilitarian benefits.
Going from theory to story — real applications of rituals in new-media
SAAS — Mailchimp — Hi-five from Freddie!
Sending an email to one person itself is not easy, imagine sending one to hundreds and thousands of them. It is literally like letting your words out into the universe, once said, they cannot be taken back. The more people it is said to, the more stressful it might be.
This beautiful idea has not gone unappreciated. Mailchimp users have consistently shared their love and delight in taking part in this ritual.
Mobile gaming — PUBG — Chicken dinner celebration!
I think I have studied PUBG way more than I have played it. And the more I try to know, the less I do. A popular origin story of the term is that a chicken dinner at a Las Vegas casino used to cost $2, the same amount as a standard bet. So, if you won a bet, you won a chicken dinner. However, David Guzman, author of a book on craps lingo, has said that the term comes from back-alley gamblers during the Great Depression of the 1930s. These desperate gamblers would bet whatever they had in hopes of winning a chicken dinner.
This PUBG ritual was not only intellectually stimulating, but also took me back to my childhood and adolescent days.
I used to be part of many group activities growing up— ranging from football to organising kite-flying along with other loafer kids in my neighbourhood. One ritual which connected all these very different activities with completely different set of people was — a chicken dinner! Sometimes it came as real food, and sometimes as an incentive to get a bunch of boys to do pretty much anything. It always worked. No matter how hard the challenge and how nonsensical, in the end — when you finally sat down with a full plate of spicy, flavourful chicken, hearing yourself slurping in tandem with a dozen of your mates — everything seems worth it.
Consumer mobile app — Calm — Sleep stories
The entire product is based on one of the best and oldest rituals of all time. Sleep stories does exactly what you are thinking. It narrates fictional stories in a calm and soothing way. All of this on your mobile phone for a monthly subscription.
Other applications from not-so-new media
Film — Inception — Spinning the top totem
The act of spinning the top symbolises a reality check. IF the top continues spinning, THEN you are in a dream. ELSE it is reality. What comes out of the ritual was Cobb’s (Leo Di Caprio’s) source of conflict. Every time he spins the top, the audience cannot look away.
Literature — Harry Potter — Sorting ceremony
Sorting was a ritual that everyone getting into Hogwarts went through. The hat’s choice was linked to the personality and value system of the student. It also connected them to their house which became their closest community.
Wellness — Physical products — Five Minute Journal
Journaling at the start or end of the day is a popular ritual that a lot of people follow and feel good about. The Five Minute Journal helps you adopt this ritual easily. They quote — “With a simple structured format based on positive psychology research, you will start and end each day with gratitude. Thousands who use the journal have seen increased happiness, better relationships, and have become more optimistic.”
Breaking a ritual
Since rituals are rules with meaning, another application in storytelling can be the breaking of a ritual which can symbolise a change to a value system. This can in turn guide narrative arcs such as the rebellion or redemption around the broken ritual.
How might we use rituals for designing interactions in new-media? Will be updating this post soon with a ritual design exercise. In the meanwhile, what are some of your favourite rituals in games, films or mobile apps? Let me know in your thoughts and comments.
