I have heard and seen the question in many places and asked in many ways – can a person’s experiences really be designed? It is a great question.
My thought is that we can design places, products, and interaction scripts to help create an environment where an experience can be had. The experience a person has is their individual experience – and there are many variables we cannot control. You can design all the touch points as a cohesive set of things that impact people and in that way, the person can engage in the type of experience they desire and an experience that strengthens your company’s brand and reputation.
Lets review a little about what experience design is. Experience design looks at a complete event, from end-to-end, including all of the touch points involved in that event. You can look at an entire experience like going on a vacation. Or, you can select to focus on a part of the event like booking your airplane tickets. For a more thorough definition, take a look at my earlier post that defined experience design.
You can design many of the elements of the experience, ensuring that people can easily find and use the airline website, that the check-in process flows well, and that the seats on the plane are comfortable. But, factors like the weather or traffic are outside the designer’s control. So, can you guarantee everyone will have a great flight? No. But there are differences among airlines – differences that have been designed. Those design choices can differentiate the experience.
For as much discussion about experience as there is, there is one idea I don’t yet here others saying. Experience is a verb – an action – not a noun. Focus on the activity the person is trying to do. ‘I am making a margarita’ not ‘I am using a blender’. Rather than talking about the experience of using a web site, we really should be discussing the experience from the point of view of what the person wants to do; like ‘what was the experience of buying a book’ or ‘what was the experience of taking a rafting trip on the Colorado River’?
And now, for some of the thoughts I have seen other people saying.
In his book Brand Harmony, Steve Yastrow makes some good points. First, “a brand is not simply the message a marketer intends to send to a customer. A brand is the message the customer perceives about the product.” He goes on to describe how a brand might be built while a person is shopping for a car. The person sees cars on the road, reads advertisements, talks to friends, visits the dealership, and takes a drive with a salesperson. Each of these touches affects how the person thinks about the Honda, Toyota, or VW that they are considering. For Steve, brand isn’t about getting your name out in the marketplace, it is about getting an individual customer to say ‘I want it’.
Oliver Reichenstein provides a thoughtful answer to the question on his blog. And there is a really nice follow up from Dane Peterson at Adaptive Path.
The Harvard Business Review recently ran an article that said to stop trying to delight your customers. The point of the article is that it is important to focus on basic customer needs. When they call in for support, try to anticipate other issues they might have and help them avoid problems. Meet the needs of the customer, but don’t go above and beyond. I appreciate that they are looking at solving the customer’s issue as well as anticipating downstream issues. I really do think many people prefer to be delighted. Maybe they are just using a different definition of delight.
To wrap up, there is a lively discussion on what it means to design experience. For me, I believe we can work together to make great experiences for people and that this approach can drive business success.
What do you think? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.
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