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Websites or software can be classified as HCIs, “Human Computer Interactions”. By definition those “interactions” are cold and impersonal ; you do talk to a computer and therefore don’t expect anything else. And usually that’s a good thing, those UIs should be straightfoward and do their job.

While this can be a rule of thumb when designing UIs,  I really think that software could act more as a human and should trigger some emotions, like: “Woooh, that’s magic!” or – and that is even easier – a smile on your users’face.

Of course don’t try to be funny by using smileys all over the place . Be subtle and use them in specific contexts such as forms or waiting screens… It makes the wait / operation more enjoyable!

Here are some examples.

Yahoo forms

"Are you really from the future ?" Some fun in boring forms

Highrise iPhone app

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2234-launch-highrise-for-iphone

Play while waiting, that's genious!

Vega coming soon

Also have a look at our own website. If you register twice, then you will have this little funny message!

"You will be notified twice as fast!"