The nature of experience is still a mystery despite being both universally shared and a highly personal feature of human makeup. Dedicated academic research into the science of emotions only began about three decades ago, and theories about the relationships between perception, emotions, and thoughts continue to evolve, shedding new and often surprising light on human motivations and behaviors.
What is known for certain is that we have an innate desire to expand and repeat positive experiences and an innate urge to shorten and shun negative ones. These behavioral preferences have real consequences for companies, and provide the guiding rails for experience design. Organizations are increasingly motivated to invest in design, design is becoming an integral part of product development, designers own a central responsibility for product success, and people are more aware of the role of design in their lives, and they demand better experiences.
For some practitioners, experience design is just a job, something to do in exchange for a paycheck. Others enjoy problem-solving through design, or want to express their passion for imagining the most innovative, user-friendly experience as a means to help people interact with products. For some, experience design is a way to influence, and for others, it is the mysterious fusion of art, science, and technology. Finally, many people who are not design practitioners have little awareness of the degree to which experience design shapes a great deal of their daily life.
Experience design is not an object, such as a car, house, or refrigerator, that can be clearly defined. It is the practice that helps make these items desirable and usable for those who use them. It is a set of evolving practices and methodologies fused tightly into the psychology and physiology of individuals and societies.
Many new products today are portrayed as 'innovative', 'disruptive' or 'revolutionary'. But, as the quote attributed to Igor Stravinsky goes "a complete revolution... you'll come exactly to the same point" - the origins of experience design can be found in antiquity, and from there, we can trace the continuity, references, and renewal of early ideas in modern life.
The image above shows the command center of the USS Enterprise from the TV series Star Trek (A), and the cockpit of the Super Jumbo Jet Airbus 380 (B). The command controls of the Enterprise flight deck were imagined in a Hollywood studio at about the same time that the Airbus 380 was conceived, nearly 30 years before computing power existed to support the modern jet's sophisticated controls. In computing time, 30 years are like eternity, and yet there are a lot of common experience elements that the two airborne vehicles share, such as data visualization on digital displays and interactions via voice commands and touch screens.
The relationships between people and the intelligent machines they build, has occupied the imagination of science fiction writers for generations, and now it is supported by actual science and commercial reality. Products that are endowed with powerful chips, fast algorithms, and the label "artificial intelligence" mark a shift from an interaction experience model in which the user guides the product, to interactions in which the product can predict our needs and fulfill them before we know them.
The following is a quote from a recent e-mail I received from a company regarding one of its predictive analytics offerings:
The idea that a corporation, organization or government can "understand" what people want before they know it, is disturbing when we think about the abuse of technology, and compelling when we think about putting it to good use. Herein lie the darker aspects of experience design, which are clustered in its powers of influence.
Currently, the bleak possibilities are restricted to dystopian fiction and action movies, but it is not too difficult to imagine "Big Brother" dystopias becoming a reality. Some would argue that we are already there.
Manipulating people's emotional states of mind by anticipating their needs, pales in comparison to the possibilities DNA manipulation, which can produce specially formulated babies or organs.
Experience design can hardly be more personal or more impactful than the design of one's physical appearance. The roots of cosmetic plastic surgery can be traced to ancient Egypt about 5,000 years ago. The "father of plastic surgery", the Indian physician Sushruta made important contributions to the field about 2,800 years ago. Until recently, surgery was about modifying existing limbs and the use of prosthetics has been limited to people who have lost their own. However, it is possible that in the future, people would replace their natural eyes by iEyes from Apple or acquire bionic ears powered by Amazon's Alexa. After all, these products will surely promise and deliver a much superior experience than our natural organs, and they will be tailored to the unique specifications of the individual customer.
It is very entertaining to think about the commercial potential. With the iEyes bionic eye, you could change your eye colors to fit your attire, your mood, the furniture in the room, and so on. You will have great eyesight with zoom and macro capabilities, and the ability to stream movies. Better yet, with the iEyes you could replace the boring reality your natural eyes see, with a perfect, beautiful landscape, filter out stuff you don't want to see, and so on. The iEye will be easy, fast, and painless to install and upgrade every year or two for a better model. Admit it--who would not want the iEye 8?