The World's Most Satisfying Checkbox

In trying to get a particularly tricky habit to stick, I tried dozens of apps and nothing worked for me. Recording an action felt like yet another chore. None could approach the most basic satisfaction of simply crossing out an item on a list. Could you design a simple action that felt as satisfying and infuse it with as much symbolism? Were we abo... See more

These moments of feel aren’t reserved for big moments. In fact, they’re most important for routine actions you perform over and over again. [...] In reality, it’s the mundane, everyday interactions that need our attention most.

In Design, we often strive for minimalism—using as little as needed to get a job done or a message across. A key tactic in that aim is to avoid redundancy. [...] But adding game feel requires just the opposite. Our digital products are trapped behind a hard pane of glass. We use the term “touch”, but we never really touch them. To truly Feel a digi... See more

The most overlooked sensation in product design may be haptics—the physical vibrations you feel. While sounds are easily thwarted by the mute switch, haptics can play in any environment. It’s like sound for touch. And just like sound, haptics can be designed.

Unsurprisingly, this is a solved problem in a field we Product Designers often ignore—video games—where “feel” is often addressed with a little industry secret called “game feel.” [...] In video games, the button you press to make a character jump is often a simple binary input (pressed or not), and yet the output combines a very finely-tuned chore... See more

If we can add Feel to the humble checkbox, imagine what it could do for apps that aid in personal connections or creativity. Many of us make the mistake in thinking of the apps we design as public spaces—drawing inspiration from the rationality of airport signage or the deference of an art gallery. We completely forget that these experiences are al... See more

All of these attributes didn’t come together at once. We finished each in steps—each adding a new dimension to the feel. In sum, they work together to transform the basic into something epic.

Designing for Feel: Feel is not something we talk much about as digital product designers. It’s difficult to quantify in metrics or even describe in words, so it tends to fall to the bottom of a priority list. But we know it’s important. [...] The industrial designers talked about contours that felt gratifying in the hand and actions that provided ... See more

To avoid accidental presses and to make the moment more deliberate and meaningful, we went with a long press. The challenge with a long press is always discoverability—How does one know they’re supposed to hold? The answer is to provide instant feedback with an animation that builds anticipation. [...] Another choice we make to improve discoverabil... See more