experience themes: an element of story applied to design
TRANSCRIPT
content:
What’s This About, Anyway?
Characterization of a Theme
A Story of How This Bloody Idea Came About
How Experience Themes are Applied to Design
How to Find a Theme
Final Thoughts
Design FrameCommunicationTool
Vehicle forEngagement/
Response
methods
purpose
valueTeam Building
PersuasionMarketing
SellingValidating
ComicsStoryboardsScenarios“Concept Narrative”
Shared VisionUnderstanding
UnifyingSharing
Validating
ThemeComics
StoryboardsScenariosUser Flows
EmotionMeaning
IdentificationImmersionCoherence
Fun
Storytelling and UX
?
ThemeScenes
StructurePacing/Flow
We will NOT be talking about a theme that is…
A design for a PowerPoint templateA “message” conveyed by a work of art The focus of brand image or promise The subject of an academic paperThe main administrative divisions of the middle Byzantine Empire (themata)The 2000 album by Moravian ethno metal band Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy
A true theme is not a word but a sentence---one clear, coherent sentence that expresses a story’s irreducible meaning.Robert McKee, STORY
The [theme] shapes the writer’s strategic choices. It’s yet another Creative Discipline to guide your aesthetic choices toward what is expressive of your [theme] and may be kept versus what is irrelevant to it and must be cut.Robert McKee, STORY
For the design process, experience themes can…
put experience at the forefront of product concepts
unify teams
lead to strategy
inspire design solutions
help teams make choices
The Nixon family would like to leverage their tremendous library of content in a new, engaging, interactive video-centric web property.
Story Premise: A playful, fun to use site helps people to easily manage their vast store of digital photos and share them with one another.
Theme: Define yourself with photos
If flickr had a theme…
“As experiences now span multiple media, channels & formats, we need to look to narrative, interaction, emotional elements to sustain transitions across channels and formats.” Joe Lamantia, in the Beyond Findability Workshop at IA Summit 09
Gasp!
I am the beast that is part website, part software, part product, part service, part interactive multimedia experience. What will you do with me?
user
technology product
To create a truly memorable and satisfying experience, a UX designer needs to understand how to create a logical and viable structure for the experience and needs to understand the elements that are important to creating an emotional connection with the product users.
tangible
intangibleemotion
meaning
pleasure
characters
setting
scenes
visual design
content
pages
flows
images
what this is about
what this will do for me
how it works
where this fits into my life
The meaning of meaning…
Donald Norman’s 3 Levels of Processing
The visceral level is pre-consciousness, pre-thought. It’s where appearance matters first and first impressions are formed. It’s about the initial impact of a product, about its appearance, touch, and feel.
The behavioral level is about use, about experience with a product. It’s about function, performance and usability.
The reflective level, is the level at which the full impact of thought and emotions are experienced. It’s all about message, about culture, and about the meaning of a product or it’s use.
beauty
emotion
meaning
function
performance
ease of use
intangibletangible
New Elements User Experience?
The tangible elements of experience in a…
visual design
image/cinematography
WebsiteFilm
actors
locations/sets
music/sound
editing
copy/text
information/content
navigation
interactions/system response
processes
animationscoordinated in service of story
not coordinated
music/sound
error messages
help
desktop widgetmobile app
lighting
words/lines
layout/content presentation
visual design
copy/text
information/content
navigation
layout/content presentation
processes
animations
creative
marketing
business
information architecture/interaction design
error messages
outside resource
music/sound
help
engineering
product VP’s assistant
Note: This is for illustration purposes only and not mean to be an exhaustive list of elements of a web experience encountered by users.
An example of the uncoordinated elements of a web experience
interactions/system response
If emotion and meaning can emerge from the harmonizing of elements that make up a story, then to design for optimal experiences we need a story by which to harmonize the elements of a product, service or system.
From the point of view of design, the STORY can be used as frame that defines the product, service or system.
visual design
copy/text
information/content
navigation
interactions/system response
processes
animations
music/sound
error messages
help
layout/content presentation
Story frame
Given his choice [of theme], the writer sharpens and clarifies his ideas, or finds out exactly what it is that he must say, testing his beliefs against reality as the story represents it, by examining every element in the story for its possible implications with regard to his theme.
Shared Qualities of Experience for Fight Fans…
A feeling of excitement around the pure spectacle of a fight
A need to understand the complete fight story from the lead-up all the way to the post-fight commentary
Pleasure in knowing and possessing deep knowledge of the sport from fighters, stats, moves and past fights
Pleasure in feeling connected to a fighter’s hardships and challenges inside and outside of the ring
Functional and Content Requirements
Analyzed tasks and features against frequency, importance and relevance to the theme. Irrelevant features were thrown out.
Analyzed current content against theme. Identified gaps and created suggestions for new content ideas.
Everything must be from the point of view of our users…
We’re not thinking about goals, tasks and process scenarios just yet, but the kinds of feelings that might arise out of a user’s experience as well as the attributes that contribute to those feelings.
The rules:
First rounds results…
• Fun and Easy to Use• Personal• Direct• Relevant• Targeted• Getting an edge on the general
public• Tailored to my personal taste• Not to be missed• A good match to my interests• Conversational• Upfront• Clear expecations• Helpful
• Quick• Easily accessible• Customized service• Learning• Surprise• Opportunities for discovery• Getting value• Feeling safe• Keeps me updated• Understands my interests• Getting a good deal• Convenience• Helps me stay in touch• Get great recommendations
Experience Attributes vs. System Attributes
• Fun and Easy to Use• Personal• Direct• Relevant• Targeted• Getting an edge on the general
public• Tailored to my personal taste• Not to be missed• A good match to my interests• Conversational• Upfront• Clear expectations• Helpful
• Quick• Easily accessible• Customized• Learning• Surprise• Opportunities for discovery• Getting value• Feeling safe• Keeps me updated• Understands my interests• Getting a good deal• Convenience• Helps me stay in touch• Get great recommendations
Re-organized list…Experience Attributes
• Relevant• Getting an edge on the general public• Tailored to my personal taste• Not to be missed• A good match to my interests• Clear expectations• Learning• Surprise• Opportunities for discovery• Getting value• Feeling safe• Keeps me updated• Understands my interests• Getting a good deal• Convenience• Helps me stay in touch• Get great recommendations
System Attributes
• Quick• Easily accessible• Customized• Fun and Easy to Use• Personal• Direct• Targeted• Conversational• Upfront• Helpful
Refined Experience Attributes…
• Satisfaction from getting an edge on the general public• Feeling of getting something tailored to my personal
taste• Feeling good about staying in touch• Feeling good about getting a good deal• Excited about opportunities for discovery• Confidence in understanding what one’s getting• Fun that comes from recording one’s tastes• Satisfaction from being on top of things• Pleasure in feeling connected to a local scene• curious about what one might be missing• Trusting that ones information is in good hands
Primary Cognitive/Emotional Experience:
• Satisfaction from getting an edge on the general public• Feeling of getting something tailored to my personal taste• Feeling good about staying in touch• Feeling good about getting a good deal• Excited about opportunities for discovery• Confidence in understanding what one’s getting
Secondary Cognitive/Emotional Experience:
• Fun that comes from recording one’s tastes• Satisfaction from being on top of things• Pleasure in feeling connected to a local scene• Curious about what one might be missing• Trusting that ones information is in good hands
Final, categorized list…
Your taste is our taste.We know what you like. We want you to get it
first.Never again will an event pass you by.Get info about the stuff you want to see. Your
way. Keep in touch. Discover something new. Get it
first.
Which resulted in ideas like…
Lessons Learned
An experience theme can be generated from any amount or type of raw material related to your project.
The means by which you sift through this raw material depends on the working habits of your team (you have a whiteboard culture, sticky note culture, image culture, conversation culture).
The form of the theme depends on what chimes most with your team and the stakeholders. It would be a word, or a phrase, but most important, it should reflect the core experience you hope to deliver.
Theme can be a foundation for a strategy.
Story Themes Experience ThemesFound through insight into raw material of story planning
Found through insight into raw material of design planning: business goals and requirements, content analysis, user research
Decided upon by the vision and passions of single author
Decided upon by a team of stakeholders
Reflects author’s view of the world Reflects users needs and desires
Applied to overall design of story elements
Applied to overall design of product
Manifest in concept, conflict, character, setting, scene, sub-plots, story structure, climax
Manifest in product concept, strategy, content choices, layout, interactions, visual design
Produces pleasure in unity, emotion, meaning
Produces pleasure in unity, emotion, meaning
Induces a longer-lasting effect on the reader
Induces a longer-lasting effect on the user
An Experience Theme is an over-arching statement or phrase that encapsulates the value and focus of the experience we intend to deliver to users.
At its core, an Experience Theme identifies what the product/service/system is all about from the point of view of users engaging with the product.
Once agreed upon, the theme can not only be used as a conceptual frame for design solutions, but can serve as the foundation for Product Concepts and Experience Strategy, a clear set of goals for the product/service/system design.
It serves the end to end user experience by unifying teams, framing the design and development process and by providing an added dimension to the user’s cognitive and emotional experience of the product.
Experience Theme Defined…
Final thoughts…
We need to begin thinking more about product stories and the kinds of impact they can have on our approach to design as well as the experience of the user.
We have more work to do when it comes to understanding the full impact on user’s emotion and meaning associated with a product.
This is only a stone from the quarry. One story element of many. This, however, is the starting point.
We need to develop our “craft” at applying storytelling techniques to our designs.
As designers, we need to access our own cognitive as well as creative yin and yang.