Designing Experiences
J. Robert Rossman and Matthew Duerden
“The more transformational an experience is, the more effort it typically requires.
What’s working
Defines experience design, which is a notoriously ambiguous field
Interesting takes on “types” of experiences, macro/micro experiences, and attributes
Short, digestible chapters
What could be improved
Lots of common models and techniques applied differently
It’s hard to understand how experience touchpoints translate into action
Would have liked to see more artifacts and how all things in this book play together into something more tangible
Synopsis
Designing Experiences is a helpful read for those new to experience design. It leans heavily into theory, and borrows from a lot of common techniques to define practice. This is good because most of the processes are valid. The authors spend most of the book outlining types of experiences, their attributes, and how to play with them to weave together a cohesive “experiencescape” that customers experience from end-to-end. The book borrows from techniques like experience mapping, design thinking, storytelling (freytag's, hero's journey), and personas to build the process- along with a “touchpoint” template that readers can use to define how experience touchpoints are designed. For those experienced in experience design, a lot of this information will not be new excluding the touchpoint template, and perhaps the breakdown of experience types. I guess while reading it I was hoping for something a little more novel (for example: how to separate macro from micro experiences on an experience map), but I would recommend it to someone who is new to the field of experience design and wants to understand the process.
Biggest Learnings
There’s a proposed correlation between experience type and experience attribute. For example, the more transformational an experience is, the more action/energy is requires from the customer.
There are three major stages to experiences: anticipation, participation, and reflection.
There are five kind of experiences: prosaic (autopilot), mindful (effortful mental engagement), memorable (emotional), meaningful (discovery), and transformational (change)
Experience attributes include impact, novelty, engagement, required energy, and results. Differences in how the experience is designed relate to differences in these attributes.
Macro experiences are over-arching experiences that extend across an experiencescape. Macroexperiences are typically made of microexperiences.
Touchpoints are the building blocks of an experience and each should be designed with a specific set of outcomes in mind. Reactions, touchpoints, frontstage contributors, and backstage contributors are all players in the experience.
Often the design of experiencescapes can be designed similarly to stories.
Experiences can be enhanced a number of ways, but often by tailoring the touchpoints of an experience to create different kinds of experiences.