A word with you

Is this a video game? (Check it out it — it only takes a few seconds.)

I really like these little word engines. You’re asked a question — in this case “How Do You Feel About the Economy?” — and you input a one-word answer. The words everyone enters then crawl across the screen with the font size reflecting the frequency of use. The result is a real-time glance at the emotions of the user base. It gets even more interesting with the filter tabs to see words by people who are employed or unemployed.

So we have an input method and a video representation of those inputs. There is no ending, no fail state, no design to speak of. But just watching the crawls gives you a feeling, doesn’t it? Clearly, this isn’t a “game” by most anyone’s definition. But it makes me think about how even microscopic interactions are capable of evoking a reaction from me as a user.