Immersion and confusion
Carina E. I. Westling · 2013
The traditional position in human-computer interaction usability studies is that confusion is anathema -- an entirely undesirable experience. But in art, gaming, and experience design, confusion can be a contributing factor to immersion and engagement. For this to occur, the prerequisites are some of the properties of play: agency, delineation in time (and space), and the potential for resolution. In the continuum of experience from total confusion to manifest resolution, there is a range of responses from lack of interest to anger and/or fear, via enjoyment and excitement. Artworks that create confusion (disorientation and/or uncertainty) tend to elicit polarised audience responses that broadly fall into two categories: frustrated denouncement and enthusiastic approval.