A subtle and key function of Blossom is motivating the user to maintain productive behavior. Some of us need a bit more motivation than just seeing a list of checked-off todos or an empty inbox as sufficient reward.
Blossom can keep users motivated toward nurturing their virtual plant by providing a lot of variety in response to criteria, especially on the ‘healthy’ responses. I imagine these responses could be partly from a pre-programmed library of animations, or could also be algorithmic, dynamically generated from a ‘language’ of animated segments.
Along the same train of thought, humor is a great motivator! Perhaps an animated bee flies up and sneaks a blossom from the plant, and the plant responds by sprouting several more blossoms.
Also thinking about the brain-based approach to motivation, Blossom can emphasize reward with animated growth and activity. The result of poor productivity (based on user prefs) should result in no reward, and slow wilting… nothing cool to watch while wilting (otherwise people will try to see these animations!). Unless you can think of some cool reverse psychology here or something. Let me know!
Watch your productivity Blossom!
