Flow
n. “Optimal experience in work and leisure” (Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre, 1989, p. 815).
In 1989, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Judith LeFevre published “Optimal experience in work and leisure.” In it they lay out a description of optimal experience, a specific type of interaction or mindset that we now know as flow.
Flow theory postulates three conditions that have to be met to achieve a flow state (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2009):
- One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals and progress.
- The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. 317
- One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and their own perceived skills.
The flow state is defined by the following six factors:
- Intense and focused concentration on the present moment
- Merging of action and awareness
- A loss of reflective self-consciousness
- A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity
- A distortion of temporal experience where one’s subjective experience of time is altered
- Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding
Flow is the holy grail of designed experience.
For Heidegger, the ‘nadir of inauthentic temporality’ is time as a sequence of instants . . . which is opposed to the lived time of Dasein, and whatever gives it meaning. (McGilchrist, 2009, p. 143)
For instance, Flow in dance is how smoothly you transition from one movement to another throughout your routine. Also known as elegance, grace, or fluidity (How to find your natural flow by Destynnie Hall).