“It’s about maximum output for minimum input.”

Brad Woods offers an insightful analysis of the concept of “Juice” in software development, including a formidable approach to notions such as “Game Feel” (“Game Feel taps into the human nature of performing actions that have no purpose. They just feel good”), the significance of certain sounds and effects, or the priority of emotional requirements over functional ones whenever we design something that is nonessential, and yet serves a deeper purpose:

Emotion is essential to being human. It’s why music exists in every culture in the World. It’s why some of the great works of humanity are artworks. Not because of their function, but because how they make us feel. […] To create software with soul, ask yourself how do you want the user to feel? Look outside the software industry for inspiration. Find what makes you feel, ask why and use that to shape your work. The greatest crafters in our world across art, design and media do this. They base their work on feelings, opinions, experience, taste, subjectivity and ideas. Nothing averaged out or neutral. Their works built by people for people. They contain hand-crafted touches. They feel like the world around them. In the past, interfaces drew on real-life metaphors to help the user understand them. Steve Jobs took influence from Zen Buddhism and calligraphy. Disney exaggerated physics, developing the 12 basic principles of animation to breathe life into cartoons.