QuoteProject
A Web site that promotes flow is like a gourmet meal. You start off with the appetizers, move on to the salads and entrees, and build toward dessert. Unfortunately, most sites are built like a cafeteria. You pick whatever you want. That sounds good at first, but soon it doesn't matter what you choose to do. Everything is bland and the same.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Good web design engages users progressively, akin to a well-structured meal rather than a chaotic buffet.

This quote by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi highlights the importance of a well-structured web experience that captivates users through a thoughtful progression, much like a gourmet meal. Instead of offering a random selection that can lead to a sense of monotony and disengagement, a site that promotes flow encourages users to immerse themselves in an enriching journey, enhancing their overall experience and satisfaction.

Themes

Web DesignUser ExperienceEngagementFlowStructure

In practice

Example use cases

In a presentation on web design, you might say, 'As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi illustrates, a website should engage users like a gourmet meal rather than a bland cafeteria.'

More from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The germ of an idea doesn't make the sculpture that stands up... so the next stage is hard work
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
It is not the skills we actually have that determine how we feel but the ones we think we have.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
To know oneself is the first step toward making flow a part of one's entire life. But just as there is no free lunch in the material economy, nothing comes free in the psychic one. If one is not willing to invest psychic energy in the internal reality of consciousness, and instead squanders it in chasing external rewards, one loses mastery of one's life, and ends up becoming a puppet of circumstances.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
To live means to experience-through doing, feeling, thinking. Experience takes place in time, so time is the ultimate scarce resource we have. Over the years, the content of experience will determine the quality of life. Therefore one of the most essential decisions any of us can make is about how one's time is allocated or invested.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
It is as if evolution has built a safety device in our nervous system that allows us to experience full happiness only when we are living at 100%-when we are fully using the physical and mental equipment we have been given.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead
Our jobs determine to a large extent what our lives are like. Is what you do for a living making you ill? Does it keep you from becoming a more fully realized person? Do you feel ashamed of what you have to do at work? All too often, the answer to such questions is yes. Yet it does not have to be like that. Work can be one of the most joyful, most fulfilling aspects of life. Whether it will be or not depends on the actions we collectively take.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead

Similar quotes

A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.
Edward SnowdenRead
I have always been convinced that the only way to get artificial intelligence to work is to do the computation in a way similar to the human brain. That is the goal I have been pursuing. We are making progress, though we still have lots to learn about how the brain actually works.
Geoffrey HintonRead
Most of the time spent wrestling with technologies that don't quite work yet is just not worth the effort for end users, however much fun it is for nerds like us.
Douglas AdamsRead
No matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behavior for national advantages to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades.
Zbigniew BrzezinskiRead
Overnight the digital age had changed the course of history for our company. Everything that we thought was in our control no longer was. But within a year we had invested in social media and digital experts. Now Starbucks is the number one brand on Facebook.
Howard SchultzRead
Our whole role in life is to give you something you didn't know you wanted. And then once you get it, you can't imagine your life without it. And you can count on Apple doing that.
Tim CookRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.