EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Think of an experience as requiring an attraction, an engagement, and a conclusion

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• What is “attraction”?

– An attraction is necessary to initiate the experience - not synonymous with distraction

– An attraction can be visual, auditory, or it can signal any of our senses

– Needs to be sufficiently different than the surrounding environment

– Need to have cues as to where and how to begin the experience

E.g. The attraction to fill-out tax forms online is based on need…not a flashy introduction

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• What is “engagement?”

– The engagement is the experience itself

– Relevant enough for someone to continue the experience

– Easy enough for someone to not be daunted by it

E.g. the actual process of filling in the online tax forms

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• What is “conclusion”?

– The conclusion must provide some sort of resolution

– Often an experience that is engaging has no real end, leaving participants dissatisfied or even confused about the experience

E.g. on submit, taxes get filed!!!

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• So what is an experience???

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• An experience is…

– A pub launch party

– A wedding

– A roller coaster ride

– A job interview

– Paying an electricity bill

– Reading a Harry Potter book

– This presentation

• …or buying a pair of socks online

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Experience Planning is…

– The laying down of norms and guidelines for executing the user experience

– Detail planning in:• information design• interaction design• communication design• sensorial design

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Information Design / Structure

– An important component to experiences is structure

– Structure addresses the organization and presentation of data: its transformation into valuable, meaningful information

– Structure is not the first thing you perceive, but it works

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Information Design / Structure

– Structure itself has meaning, context is critical to understanding

– Information Design does not ignore aesthetic concerns, doesn't focus on them

– Information Design does not replace the visual disciplines, but is the framework through which they are expressed

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Information Design / Data

– All people learn differently and have varying skills

– Information organizations - Alphabets, Locations, Time, Continuums (Value Scale), Numbers, Categories, Randomness

– Advanced organizations – the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC - those who died are found with those they died with

– Multiple organizations – news sites-categories + locations + time + + +

– Clarity Vs simplicity - focus on one message or goal at a time, illuminate not oversimplify

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Interaction Design

– Important component in experiences is interactivity

– Essentially story-creating and telling, both an ancient art and a new technology

– Creating an immersive world

– Most learning from the performing arts

– New media offer opportunities not addressed in the history of interaction and performance

Some Interaction tools…theatre

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Interaction Design: Control and Feedback

– How much control does the audience have over the outcome or the rate, sequence, or type of action?

– How much feedback exists in the interface?

– Typically, experiences with high interactivity offer high levels of feedback and, at least, some control

E.g. games in which the game play depends directly on the player's involvement and choices, unlike television in which the experience continues whether anyone is viewing or not

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Interaction Design: Creation

– Creative experiences allow a user to make, do, or share something themselves

– Being creative and producing something are typically more interesting, entertaining, and fulfilling activities

– Creation tools are important components for creating meaningful, compelling, and useful experiences

– Creative experiences require that others participate by creating or manipulating instead of merely watching and consuming.

– Co-creation; recommendations, guidelines, advice, or actually performing operations for users

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Interaction Design: Communication

– Opportunities to meet others, talk with them, and share their personal stories and opinions, are valuable and interesting

– Because these experiences involve two or more people, they also inherently involve high levels of control, feedback, and adaptivity

E.g. The telephone, chat lines, discussion boards

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Interaction Design: Adaptation

– Technologies that change the experience based on the behavior of the user

– They change the tools and/or content involved based on the actions or techniques of the user

– They make the “device” appear intelligent

E.g. Games that become more difficult as the player becomes more proficient

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Communication Design: Metaphors

– Use metaphors to set the context

– Metaphors are especially useful when they relate well to a user's experience

– Metaphors are a means of representing things than a way to organize or present them

– Metaphors only achieve a cognitive orientation of meaning rather than one of structure

– Use familiar objects to indicate relationships by analogy

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Sensorial Design

– The employment of all techniques with which we communicate to others through our senses

– Writing, visual design techniques in disciplines such as graphic design, videography, cinematography, typography, illustration, and photography

– Disciplines that communicate through others’ senses - sound <music>, tactile <handmade paper>, olfactory <rub and smell>, and kinesthetic <reality rides>

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Sensorial Design: Media Differences

– Each medium has different strengths and weaknesses

– Each excels in different capabilities and different types of communication

– These are intricately woven into the way we perceive through our senses

– Think about our senses and how we use them, how they operate, how they relate to each other, and how to create for them

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Sensorial Design: Style and Meaning

– All style has meaning, whether it is implied, accidental, or deliberate

– Choosing the appropriate attributes and implementing them consistently is imperative to the development of a cohesive experience

– All sensorial details must coordinate not only with each other, but with the goals and messages of the experience

– A more integrated and careful synthesis of these details will result in a more compelling, engaging, and appropriate experience

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

Additional considerations…

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Element of Time

– Experiences pan time

– Experiences in Interactive Media require engagements over durations – once or repeated

– The message is usually not thrown in one shot, it “unfolds”

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Product Design Vs. Print

– Interactive Media design must incorporate what people do rather than simply how it looks

– Interactive Media design is much more like product design than print design

– Products are made to be used - they have to be functional, aesthetically pleasing and adequately constructed

– Like physical products, Interactive products have to be tested for effectiveness of use

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

The Economics of the Experience…

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Where Companies meet Customers

– The Website, the retail environment, the advertising, and the customer service offered by a company constitute the brand experience

– Experience happens anywhere companies and customers meet

– Only online presence? the experience is the brand

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Customers who leave…

– 62% online shoppers give up while searching for products – bad experience

– 42% turn to traditional channels to make their purchase – bad experience

• …what if 42% customers couldn’t shop at Walmart because the shopping carts kept breaking down???

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• What they Want Vs What they Receive

– Service X Technology

– Reach goals X Compelling features

– Simplicity X Complexity

…this is the Customer Experience Gap

• Reduced gap = Higher conversion rate = More revenues

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

Wrap up…

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Summary

– The experience is more than the design or the technology or the information

– The experience encompasses structure, communication and interaction

– A good online experience is a critical success factor for any customer facing application

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• The “experience” today…

– Irreverent?

– Unnerving? <the fear of a quiz>

– Disappointing? <the lack of it>

– Educative?

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• References

• Nathan Shedroff www.nathan.com

• Creative Good www.creativegood.com

• Donald NormanThe Design of Everyday Things www.jnd.com

EXPERIENCE PLANNING

• Thanks

• karunak@planetasia.com

applause