Goldilocks and the 3 Pups, originally uploaded by *Tiny Dancer*

I heard a clever dictum from an entrepreneur this past week.  He said, ”I like to call it the Goldilocks experience - not too hard, not too easy.”  Got me thinking about what should be a “Goldilocks experience.”  After all, in the media business it seems nothing can be too easy.  UI experts sweat every detail to drive friction out of the user’s experience.  A world of infinite content channels and short attention spans demands too easy. 

Challenge, however, has its place.  Consider gaming, where “difficulty” has become an experimental playground:

For example, Unreal Tournament’s practice mode offers an auto-adjust setting that causes the bots to attempt to match the player’s skill level, keeping a more consistent level of challenge for different players; this is negative feedback. On the other hand, in StarCraft, a player who has a small advantage in resources will be able to build more units, enabling them to seize more resource-rich territory and so gain a much larger advantage in resources; this is positive feedback. [source]

A distinct correlation exists between perceived challenge and sense of accomplishment, or derived pleasure.  Recalling my academic endeavors, it’s the ones that most tested my mettle that created the fondest memories.

Gaming and academics are obvious, though.  Where else do we want Goldilocks experiences?  Is any form of media that demands interaction a Goldilocks opportunity?  Here’s a couple thoughts:

• Wikipedia benefits from a “not too hard, not too easy” interface which at least deters the tech-illiterate content rogues while enabling mass participation.
• Healthcare information services companies aimed at driving behavioral change rely on engagement and learned habit formation which demand “not too easy.”

I’ll be on the lookout for more of Goldilocks.