Waking up to little dance of joy

preeti
preeti
Sep 7, 2018 · 3 min read

My two yrs, 9 months old boy felt warmer than usual this morning. It is quite a balancing act when you are a working mom in the big bad corporate world and I started to wonder if I can work from home today. No two days can be alike — my head whispered. You would plan your week and then it all falls apart when your toddler throws up during lunch or your team member reports a sick day at work. I took a deep breath and said to myself — tread lightly… better, dance to it.

I started my morning with my kid to a dance. A dance that meant that the universe belonged to just the two of us. A dance that says to the universe that everything that is happening is your creation and you know how to take care of it. A dance that makes you worry less about the creases on your crisp office attire or under your eyes. A dance that spreads the magic stardust around you …on people who surround you. A dance that makes you laugh at yourself. A dance that says to this world that I am ready to jump with the big wave and survive. A dance that talks of the rhythm that sings with the universe.

I realized that there is no perfect time for a little dance of joy.

What followed was that this attitude trickled down to every activity for the rest of the day.

I am usually a person who would speak-if-there-is-a-need-to at work on usual days. This morning, my eyes fell on the funny gifs that webex teams has introduced and I went ahead and posted one in general channel of a project. That gif led to new, light hearted conversations on the channel. It is quite refreshing to see casual fun becoming part of user experiences in applications that intend to provide serious stuff like news via news app QZ.Any such interaction that leads to casual fun is devoid of a fixed format. It has to be organic and natural.


News app QZ

I believe, in some ways , introduction of voice UX has led to this trend.

Voice is the most natural form of interaction and it cannot be made into a stencil or a template if one has to experience the full potential of Voice UX.

Conversational UX has increased users’ engagement and somewhere, the notion of having a logic behind every feature has faded. In the early days of digital design, it was a common question that designers would face when working with product development team during implementation of a product.Now, adding fun to interaction design sounds simple, but it is not. The experience has to make one feel that it is custom-made for him or her, does not hurt sentiments with respect to values and cultural background and does not leave users embarrassed or in loss of control. It is funny, how the need to ‘control’ still holds true in the context of having casual fun.

I felt in control of the whole situation after the little dance of joy in the morning because my son was happy and contented with the time spent with him and I was not missing real interaction at workplace. I said a good bye to my toddler and left home with a smile.

preeti

Written by

preeti

I am a designer & mum to a toddler. I design digital experiences, toys, books & love to paint.

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