Starting the Adventure

A Definition:

Experience design (XD) is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions.

The New Everyday View on Ambient Intelligence by Marzano and Aarts (Uitgeverij 010 Publishers, 2003)

What Is Experience Design?

Experience Design is a term most often used by those who are creating a product, such as a mobile app. It’s true that most of the jobs classified as “User Experience Design” or “User Experience Research” fall in the technology field, and this book often uses digital examples for that reason. But the Experience Design perspective is much broader than a single product. It involves an immersion into the lives of the people you’re designing for, and building your empathy for and understanding of them. It involves a focus on what those people are trying to do, what they’ll enjoy, and their day-to-day context. A single product, like the cake at a wedding, is only one element of a person’s experience.

A chef plans the menu for an upcoming wedding. He talks to the bride and groom about their family, food preferences, and location. He finds out that most of the family is Italian, and he decides to plan a menu that includes different approaches to classic Italian dishes. There will be about ten vegetarians in attendance, so one dinner option will be eggplant lasagna. The bride has a gluten allergy, so the cake will need to be gluten-free.

Across town, the florist for the wedding is designing the centerpieces for the tables. The event space has high ceilings, so she wants something tall to complement. But, she also wants guests to be able to talk to each other without having flowers in the way. She chooses a tall, thin vase with an explosion of flowers above it.

At home, the bride and groom are trying to figure out how to best move the guests from the wedding location to the cocktail area, and finally to the main reception hall. Who should help direct people? What kind of timing is necessary? Aunt Jane is in a wheelchair. Will there be an elevator or ramp for her in each location? They’re also looking at table seating for dinner. How can they seat people in a way that makes everyone feel included?

All of the people described here are applying elements of Experience Design. The chef is designing a culinary experience, considering the preferences and needs of those eating. The florist is designing a product that is both pleasing and well-fitted to the environment of the reception hall. The bride and groom are designing a process to move their guests from one area to another in a way that’s clear and natural.

If you’ve planned a party, and made decisions that you thought would enhance the experience of your guests, you’ve done some of this already, too! In this book, you’ll learn about the techniques that professional designers use when creating a great experience for others. Maybe you’ll use them to create a new process or digital app.

But first, let’s find out a little more about YOU.

Why are you here?

Maybe you’re here to get your feet wet, trying design techniques to figure out if you want to dive deeper into a career as an Experience Designer.

Maybe you have a particular project or product in mind, and want to take it through some of the steps that designers use to envision and refine solution ideas creatively and collaboratively.

Maybe you just like your learning with a large helping of play!

Whatever the reason, you’ll be glad you’re here. There’s power in understanding the needs of others, and creating something that really engages or empowers them. And what’s fantastic is you don’t have to consider yourself a professional designer to solve problems using Experience Design.

Going through the building blocks, challenges, and activities in this book will give you a designer’s-eye view of the world. You’ll try your hand at different techniques for gaining empathy for others, come up with great solution ideas, brainstorm multiple concepts, refine the best of them, and spread the word about your creation.

So you want to travel the path of design? There are riches and dangers ahead. Your feet are on the trail now. Stretch out and get ready with a warm-up activity that will open your mind and set your sights!

You’ll Explore:

• Working with assumptions

• Asking research questions

• Basic body language

• Research in the field

You’ll Explore:

• Finding a problem’s root cause

• Quantitative vs. qualitative data

• Different solution types

• Questions that help you generate ideas

• Defining your idea

You’ll Explore:

• Sketching concepts

• Working with constraints

• Brainstorming many concepts

• Finding patterns

You’ll Explore:

• Creating design principles

• Understanding the context of use

• Planning features that delight

• Prioritizing features

• Testing your idea with others

You’ll Explore:

• The power of brands

• Expressing a brand’s voice

• Marketing your solution

• Speaking to your audience

• Photoshop

- OR a social network that lets you share pictures, such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Tumblr.

• Printer & Posterboard: Print out all your photos individually, then arrange them as directed below.

Arrange all the pics of good design in a row, so that from left to right they represent a visual timeline of your day. The row should start on the far left with the first image of good design that you took at the start of your day, and end with the last picture of good design that you captured at the end of your day. Do the same for your pictures of bad design.

• Social: Depending on which social network you chose, arrange your pics in two albums, photo streams, etc., and in chronological order.