Surprising Longevity

In everyday language a surprise is a sudden or unexpected event; psychologically though the emotions of surprise is the reaction to the sudden or unexpected event. Surprise is one of the six primary emotions and it heightens attention to prepare us to react. If the surprise happens to be a positive one that positive emotion will also be heightened by the surprise and the surprise will make the event more memorable.

The way we interpret the world is tied to narrative; we not only remember and recall events as stories, but we interpret them as stories as they are happening. In a similar way, product experiences have a narrative element because the series of events that make up the experience happen in time, and narrative helps us to make sense of time. Adding a surprise to a product experience creates a timeline of before and after the surprising event, and this can help to structure the experience as a story in our mind. In addition this story is emotionally charged because of the surprise, so it will stay with us longer, and the object itself will evoke that emotion and that narrative, and it will be an object we become more attached to and are less likely to dispose of.

Analysis of design examples help to show how this works from a user perspective, and a design technique to incorporate meaningful surprises into the product experience is described. The chapter concludes by showing how surprise, when designed into the product experience, can contribute to the longevity of a product.