Using Humour In The User Experience

The use of humour on mainstream websites has been steadily growing, compared to its widespread use in more traditional media such as print and television. The question to ask is when is it appropriate on a website? For example, if you arrived at your local supermarket trying to find a specific product, you would not expect the shopping assistant to be pretending to be a comedian and cracking jokes and not helping you with what you were trying to find?

In this article we look at how it can improve the user experience, discuss if this is the right approach for some organisations and give examples of where we have seen this in action.

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Error pages

Probably the most obvious example we have seen is on error pages or in some cases referred to as the ‘404 page’. A 404 page is the name of the custom error page a user is shown if they click on a link and the link is missing or invalid.

Effective 404 error pages communicate why a particular page couldn’t be displayed and what users can do next. Often the best error pages do not overwhelm the user with choices but indicate that something has gone wrong with the site and give them options to get back to a suitable location or state.

Take a look at the following examples of 404 pages with an added injection of humour:

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Pattern Tap – http://patterntap.com/404

When you reach the error page you are presented with the title ‘Don’t get angry, and don’t cry.’ on the right hand side of the page. This seems to patronise the user in the tone of the copy.

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Craigslist – http://sfbay.craigslist.org/404/

The error page on Craigslist is not that helpful at all with only one link back to the homepage and an ASCII art picture of a dog. The first sentence after the title reads ‘There is nothing here’.

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Kottke – http://kottke.org/404

When you reach the error page you are presented with the following title ‘404. You’re screwed.’. This is not a particularly pleasant or inviting bit of copy, and the remainder of the copy patronises the user and almost makes fun at the user’s expense when the error and blame is with the site.

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User interface

Sometimes humour has been added to elements of the interface in order to add some fun:

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Last.fm – http://www.last.fm

One you have logged into Last.fm there is a link in the top right hand interface bar in between ‘English’ and ‘Help’, which when clicked changes the standard interface from red to black in colour.

The user can change the interface back to red by clicking the link, but the link copy has now become ‘Simply Red’. This is a very playful device that may increase the stickiness on the site by playing on the fact that some users are curious by nature. This can however also increase the cognitive workload of users, and the link seems to be placed in a prominent area of the top bar before the search. Perhaps this would be better located in an area called ‘colour preferences’, or ‘my page’?

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Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/

One you have logged into Flickr the welcome message and introductory greeting often changes to a different language for example the message reads ‘Hola spotle55! – Now you know how to greet people in Spanish.’. This is another playful feature and mixes humour with learning to further engage the users on the site.

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Examples of humour working well

Sometimes humour has been implemented in a way that works well and engages the end users.

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MailChimp – http://www.mailchimp.com/

MailChimp is a leading email tool for designing and sending email campaigns and they have been praised for the humour in the interface they have created.

When designing an email campaign if you set the window width to be too wide for the recommended email campaign width, you can ‘detach’ the monkey’s arm.

This is a fun feature and humour has been part of MailChimp’s success on the web.

They do have an option for ‘turning off’ the humour elements on their website, as it is clear that the language they have used has caused offence to some users. They have acknowledged this by the creation of their ‘party pooper mode’ which turns off the humorous language and content that may offend.