Abstract
Happiness is a fundamental key to success in the twenty-first century. During the last decades, many researchers and professionals investigating what happiness is and how to achieve it have proposed happiness principles to help people to live happier lives. Despite numerous proposed happiness theories and training sessions oriented to turning theory into practice, people often fail in following the principles to achieve happiness. In an era of increasing economic, social, and political pressures and consequent stress, it seems more and more people are in need of assistance. The practice of happiness-inducing behavior risks fading more and more into the background of daily personal and professional lives.
Therefore, the Happiness Machine project of 2013 researched, analyzed, designed, and evaluated effective ways to foster a shift from unhappy or happy states to greater happiness by changing people’s daily behavior in the short- and in the long-term. The main objective of the Happiness Machine is to motivate and persuade people of all ages, all genders, all cultures, and all economic and educational levels to open themselves up more intensely towards techniques of daily practice and interaction with people, objects, and contexts, that can make their journey through life deeper, more personally enriching, and an educational experience. To make progress in achieving this objective, Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. (AM+A), planned, researched, analyzed, designed, implemented (in the form of sample screens), evaluated, documented, and prepared training documents for several versions of a mobile phone application conceptual prototype, the Happiness Machine, which combines happiness theory with information design/visualization and persuasion design, and embodies the results in a user-centered design process. The initial target market is North-American young adults, i.e., likely early adaptors.
This chapter explains the development of two versions of the Happiness Machine’s user-experience design, that is, its user interface, information design, information visualization, and persuasion design.
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Acknowledgments
For the Happiness Machine 1.0 and 2.0, the author acknowledges the primary assistance of Mr. Yu-Hsien (Jonathan) Liu and Ms. Min Lee, AM+A Designer Analysts, for their assistance in the preparation of the text and images (then a student and a graduate of the Institute of Design, IIT, Chicago); of Ms. Megan McQuade, AM+A Business Development Assistant, for her assistance in editing the text; and Mr. Kia Hwee Chew, AM+A Designer/Analyst for his re-design of visual screens for Happiness Machine 2.0.
The author also thanks Prof. Bob Steiner, Marketing Course leader, University of California at Berkeley Extension, International Diploma Program, and his graduate marketing students, who assisted on this project (Khaled Aboelwafa, Fernanda Aboelwafai, Alicia Cheng, Benitua Hung, Meghana Panth, Augustin Roggio, Cindy Suryadinata, and Basak Yolgecti. Their assistance included carrying out market research, including surveys and interviews for the Happiness Machine 1.0 and 2.0, and preparing both reports and presentations about their efforts, which they made available to AM+A.
The author also acknowledges these publications Marcus 2014a, b) that have appeared subsequent to the AM+A white paper on which this chapter is based:
Marcus, Aaron (2014a). “The Happiness Machine: Mobile Behavior Change.” Proc., Design, User Experience, and Usability Conference, Design, User Experience, and Usability 2014, in Marcus, Aaron, Editor, User Experience Design for Diverse Interaction Platforms and Environments, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 8518, 2014, pp. 258–268. Springer, London.
Marcus, Aaron (2014b). “The Happiness Machine.” Proc., User-Experience Professionals Association/China and User Friendly Conference 2014, Wuxi, China, 13–16 November 2014. Unnumbered pages available on memory stick.
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Marcus, A. (2015). The Happiness Machine: Combining Information Design/Visualization with Persuasion Design to Change Behavior. In: Mobile Persuasion Design. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4324-6_10
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