Design of Experiences

An extract from Tim Brown’s Change by Design.

When we sit in an airplane or shop for groceries, we are not only carrying out a function but having an experience. That function can be compromised if the experience attending it is not designed with the same mindfulness a good engineer brings to a product or an architect to a building.

Three themes that make experiences meaningful and memorable:

  1. We now live in an experience economy in which people shift from passive consumption to active participation
  2. Best experiences are not scripted in HQ but delivered on the spot by service providers
  3. Implementation is everything

A GOOD IDEA IS NO LONGER ENOUGH

Innovation is “a good idea executed well.”

The hierarchy of value (basic needs to emotionally satisfying experiences) — corresponds to a fundamental shift in how we experience the world, from the primarily functional to the primarily emotional. Understanding this shift, many companies now invest in the delivery of experiences. Functional benefits alone are no longer enough.

FROM CONSUMPTION TO PARTICIPATION

Just as Web 1.0 blasted information at prospective customers whereas Web 2.0 is all about engaging them, companies now know they can no longer treat people as passive consumers. The shift in participatory design is fast becoming the norm in the development of new products. The same is true of experiences.

Design has the power to enrich our lives by engaging our emotions through image, form, texture, colour, sound, and smell. The intrinsically human-centered nature of design thinking points to the next step: we can use our empathy and understanding of people to design experiences that create opportunities for active engagement and participation.

EXPERIENCE ENGINEERING

The drive to lower prices — through such industrial processes as packaging, chemical preservatives, refrigeration, storage, and long distance transport — not only removed much of the natural quality from food but also dehumanised an experience that lies close to the origins of human society. The growing popularity of farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture, the slow-food movement, suggests that consumers crave a different experience of food shopping.

From Disneyland to Mayo Clinic, experiences can be created in the most playful and the most serious of categories.

TO CHANGE BEHAVIORS

Getting people to change is difficult under the best of circumstances and all but impossible in the face of resistance. One way to get people to try something new is to build on behaviours that are familiar to them. Case Study: “Keep the Change” program of Bank of America.

BUILDING AN EXPERIENCE CULTURE BY MAKING EVERYONE A DESIGN THINKER

Exceptional experience starts with your own people.

Creating an experience culture requires going beyond the generic to design experiences perceived as uniquely tailored to each customer. Unlike a manufactured product or a standardised service, an experience comes to life when it feels personalised and customised.

A real experience culture is a culture of spontaneity. That is why the training program at Four Seasons include improvisation rather than drilling the staff with canned scripts.

EXECUTING THE IDEA

For an idea to become an experience, it must be implemented with the same care in which it is conceived.

THE EXPERIENCE BLUEPRINT

Just as a product begins with an engineering blueprint and a building with an architectural blueprint, an experience blueprint provides the framework for working out the details of a human interaction.

The difference is that an experience blueprint also describes the emotive elements.