Interactive content

I opened up my Calm app to do some breath work when I noticed there’s a new type of meditation tool that was tagged New and Interactive in a category called Activities. You have my attention!

The exercises walk you through relaxing reflections which could be considered another form of meditation.

I love seeing how other product designers are pushing the boundaries of their industry through innovative, digital interactions.

When I think of other innovative and interactive app features, I immediate think of NY Times’ interactive articles. This is a new way to consume news through visually immersive, educational content.

Now that I think about it, all mobile apps are interactive content to a degree. But Calm has clued into some interesting UX psychology that I think NY Times is missing.

What NY Times is missing is an enticing “interactive” label on the content, like Calm used, to let users know this is special.

As we see in the article preview card below, it looks like any other article but with a graph instead of a photo. When you open the article, it reveals the rich content unfolds as you scroll down.

The psychology

Labeling content as “interactive” in an app leverages the UX psychology concept of framing in several ways.

The word “interactive” itself is attention-grabbing, piquing user curiosity and making them more likely to engage with the content. This plays on the contrast principle, where elements that differ visually from their surroundings are more noticeable.

Using the term “interactive” as a tag makes the content easier to discover, especially when users search for specific types of engaging experiences within the app. This aligns with the search and browse heuristic, where users often rely on keywords and labels to find relevant information.

However, it’s important to note that overusing the interactive label can have diminishing returns or even negative consequences. Too many interactive labels can clutter the interface and overwhelm users.

The term interactive is broad and doesn’t provide specific information about the type of interaction offered.

Therefore, using the interactive label strategically, considering the specific content and user context, can be an effective way to frame expectations and encourage engagement.

The conclusion

There is no ultimate definition of what an interactive feature in a mobile app has to be. Interactive labels in apps grab attention by framing the content. The Calm app’s interactive label caught my eye, while the NY Times’ immersive articles are delightful experiences that lack clear labeling.

How might the Times borrow from the Calm app to better frame their articles?

I imagined what it would be like to label all the unique features of each article to frame the attributes and give readers a taste of what to expect before opening an article. This is common practice for articles in some ways like adding a thumbnail image or providing a descriptive title. Why not go a step further and let users sort articles by features like audio availability or interactive content?

Is this label necessary to users ability to consume news? No. But the innovative approach to consuming news media brings up an interesting conversation on how we get news in the age of large language models. I won’t get into their 2023 lawsuit against OpenAI and where this debate is headed. But what NY Times has already done with their app’s interactive articles is offer content that AI cannot (yet). Isn’t that worth noting?