For all the attention given to design and UX in recent years, here’s the truth: Most companies are not set up to truly deliver an experience. Consider the rich, nuanced experiences we’ve come to expect from more mature mediums like film or game design. These experiences makes us feel, in deep and profound ways. But pulling this off requires a constant orchestration of things at the systems-level and a laser focus on incredibly fine emotional details. And speaking frankly, things like “feelings” “experiences” and “emotions” — these are intangible things. Businesses are trained to prioritize, quantify, and measure tangible things, that promise a clear payoff. We pit belief–about what will create a great customer experience— against data. Is there a reconciliation between these two mindsets?
In this session on design leadership, speaker Stephen P. Anderson will share his experiences, both as a consultant and as part of an executive team, trying to balance the needs of the business with needs of the customer. He’ll share a model — adapted from game design — that offers to balance theses kinds of “art and science” issues, promising to bring together cross-functional teams and reconcile competing interests. Taking cues from game design, this new model will give you a constructive way to think about everything from designing for emotional needs to tracking key metrics to discerning between “little e” experiences and the “Big E” experience. Walk away with a framework you can use to balance what’s right for the business with what’s right for the customer.
1. Speaking up for
Experiences!
Stephen P. Anderson
THE ORIGINAL TITLE OF THIS TALK WAS
“GAMES, SYSTEMS, AND DESIGNING FOR EXPERIENCES”
CXO, BloomBoard
2. Speaking up for
Experiences!
Stephen P. Anderson
THE ORIGINAL TITLE OF THIS TALK WAS
“GAMES, SYSTEMS, AND DESIGNING FOR EXPERIENCES”
CXO, BloomBoard
14. “Everything changed for me over the weekend when I took the time to
write a blog post on Medium.”
“As someone who writes a lot of stuff and has used a lot of different
writing software, I'm telling you that I was blown away by the quality
of the product as a writing tool.”
“The entire process is a breeze. And once published, the article looks
pretty good too in terms of typography and appearance.”
“Intuitive enough to seem psychic.”
“Because it is such a pleasure to work with, Medium has become
something of a fetish object for writers.”
“It does not take a user experience designer to publish a
professional story.”
“A joy to use!”
“It’s so damn beautiful. Medium has removed all the cruft that gets
between the reader and the message…”
“Clean design, great concept, full of potential treasures to be read.”
“The best writing tool on the web.”
19. How do you…
…create a culture that values quality above all else?
…drive focus on the whole, not just the parts?
…create and maintain a shared vision of the future?
…create widespread empathy for our users & customers
…get everyone to embrace the aspirational brand & design tenets?
…create a principled organization, that sticks to values—
especially when it means losing revenue?
26. http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/
The key was to go down a level deeper. At work, we were
doing a branding exercise for a product, and we listed off the
adjectives we wanted to describe the product. I realized that a
similar exercise would work here…
I mulled over all the feedback on the mechanics: what type of
experience were they creating on their own? What adjectives
did players use to talk about the mechanics? Players described
the game as simple and elegant. It was calming and relaxing to
play. They were surprised and delighted by the richness of the
decisions. They said it flowed smoothly, that they could play it
over and over again.”
— R A N D Y H O Y T , G A M E D E S I G N E R / P U B L I S H E R
“
27. http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/
The key was to go down a level deeper. At work, we were
doing a branding exercise for a product, and we listed off the
adjectives we wanted to describe the product. I realized that a
similar exercise would work here…
I mulled over all the feedback on the mechanics: what type of
experience were they creating on their own? What adjectives
did players use to talk about the mechanics? Players described
the game as simple and elegant. It was calming and relaxing to
play. They were surprised and delighted by the richness of the
decisions. They said it flowed smoothly, that they could play it
over and over again.”
— R A N D Y H O Y T , G A M E D E S I G N E R / P U B L I S H E R
“
28. This image captured perfectly the feeling that the playing
the game produced, and I knew a theme and narrative
woven around this could work to produce a great experience.
http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/
Tangled
48. “Designing a product is keeping five thousand
things in your brain and fitting them all together
in new and different ways to get what you want.
And every day you discover something new that
is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit
these things together a little differently.
And it’s that process that is the magic.”
— Steve Jobs
56. QUESTIONS
20
Pair up with one other person.
OBJECTIVE:
One person thinks of a thing and the other person must guess
it by asking no more than 20 yes-no questions.
RULES:
Rule #1: Questioners can only ask Yes-or-No questions
Rule #2: Answerers can only respond with a Yes or a No
--The two exceptions to Rule #2
"I don't know."
"I can't answer."
Note: Questioners may guess the mystery object at any time,
by phrasing their guess as a question, such as “Is the mystery
object a leather purse?” Count this as one of the 20 Questions.
Rule #3: Only 20 Questions are allowed.
57. QUESTIONS
20
Pair up with one other person.
OBJECTIVE:
One person thinks of a thing and the other person must guess
it by asking no more than 20 yes-no questions.
RULES:
Rule #1: Questioners can only ask Yes-or-No questions
Rule #2: Answerers can only respond with a Yes or a No
--The two exceptions to Rule #2
"I don't know."
"I can't answer."
Note: Questioners may guess the mystery object at any time,
by phrasing their guess as a question, such as “Is the mystery
object a leather purse?” Count this as one of the 20 Questions.
Rule #3: Only 20 Questions are allowed.
You may ask an unlimited number of questions, but you will
have only 90 seconds to correctly guess what the thing is…
58. QUESTIONS
20
Pair up with one other person.
OBJECTIVE:
One person thinks of a thing and the other person must guess
it by asking no more than 20 yes-no questions.
RULES:
Rule #1: Questioners can only ask Yes-or-No questions
Rule #2: Answerers can only respond with a Yes or a No
--The two exceptions to Rule #2
"I don't know."
"I can't answer."
Note: Questioners may guess the mystery object at any time,
by phrasing their guess as a question, such as “Is the mystery
object a leather purse?” Count this as one of the 20 Questions.
Rule #3: Only 20 Questions are allowed.
You may ask an unlimited number of questions, but you will
have only 90 seconds to correctly guess what the thing is…
59. QUESTIONS
20
Pair up with one other person.
OBJECTIVE:
One person thinks of a thing and the other person must guess
it by asking no more than 20 yes-no questions.
RULES:
Rule #1: Questioners can only ask Yes-or-No questions
Rule #2: Answerers can only respond with a Yes or a No
--The two exceptions to Rule #2
"I don't know."
"I can't answer."
Note: Questioners may guess the mystery object at any time,
by phrasing their guess as a question, such as “Is the mystery
object a leather purse?” Count this as one of the 20 Questions.
Rule #3: Only 20 Questions are allowed.
You may ask an unlimited number of questions, but you will
have only 90 seconds to correctly guess what the thing is…
Time’sup!
63. The concepts & materials that
forma!y specify the game-as-system
(everything needed to play
the game)
Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
64. what happens when people
play the game
The concepts & materials that
forma!y specify the game-as-system
(everything needed to play
the game)
How players feel when they
play the game
Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
65. what happens when people
play the game
The concepts & materials that
forma!y specify the game-as-system
(everything needed to play
the game)
How players feel when they
play the game
Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
67. what happens when people
play the game
The concepts & materials that
forma!y specify the game-as-system
(everything needed to play
the game)
How players feel when they
play the game
Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
70. Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
[Offering] Behaviors
what people do when they use
our product/service
Product Design, Development,
Marketing, Sales, Support,
Partnerships—Everything
we make, sell, and
support!
71. Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
[Offering] Behaviors Experience
what people do when they use
our product/service
Product Design, Development,
Marketing, Sales, Support,
Partnerships—Everything
we make, sell, and
support!
How people feel when they use
our product/service
85. [OFfering] Behaviors Experience
1. Focusing on the outcomes…
2. …Changes what
we do here
REASONS I LIKE THIS FRAMEWORK:
Itshiftsthefocusfromoutputtooutcomes
88. Medium
Blogger,
Wordpress
• Designed more like a magazine.
• Designed a social system to create a
built-in audience for new authors
• Launched with published authors
(which set really high bar for content)
• Hired former Wired.com editor Evan
Hansen as an editor for the site
• Bought the long-form journalism
startup Matter
• Created what is arguably the best
writing tool on the planet
• Promoted contextual comments
• Focused on typographic UI details
that compete w/ centuries of print
(vs other web platforms)
• Focused A LOT on quality content
• Offered pre-publishing feedback
93. Thinking about the player encourages experience-driven (as
opposed to feature-driven) design. As such, we begin our
investigation with a discussion of Aesthetics, and continue
on to Dynamics, finishing with the underlying Mechanics.
94. “One of the things I’ve always found is that
you’ve got to start with the customer experience
and work backwards…”
— Steve Jobs 1997
95. “To build great products, you need to
start with what people are experiencing.”
—Robert Brunner
http://www.idsa.org/news/member-news/start-what-people-are-experiencing
101. “Untilmyplayersfeel__________,Iwillnotship”
“Games often ship late because they ship based on exit
criteria, not deadlines… Either you ship something tiny
before you run out of money, or you ship late something
that is sufficiently fun. The first are higher risk, but if
the core works, they’ll make it.”
—Christina Wodtke
112. How do you…
…create a culture that values quality above all else?
…drive focus on the whole, not just the parts?
…create and maintain a shared vision of the future?
…create widespread empathy for our users & customers
…get everyone to embrace the aspirational brand & design tenets?
…create a principled organization, that sticks to values—
especially when it means losing revenue?
113. How do you…
…create a culture that values quality above all else?
…drive focus on the whole, not just the parts?
…create and maintain a shared vision of the future?
…create widespread empathy for our users & customers
…get everyone to embrace the aspirational brand & design tenets?
…create a principled organization, that sticks to values—
especially when it means losing revenue?
…justify investing in what is fundamentally intangible?
116. “If you can quantify something,
you can rationalize it.”
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-work-nitya-mallikarjun?trk=prof-post
—Nitya Mallikarjun
122. However, when a team manages to get a KPI that
sticks, the power it brings to the organization is
remarkable. It helps everyone focus around the
experience, giving a common language and
understanding to how great design makes a great
business.
What Goes Into an Effective UX KPI?
Behavior based: The team was measuring the
customer-service representative’s behavior with the
product. As they change the design, they get new
behaviors. If those new behaviors reduce tool time,
then the team can tell they’ve improved the design.
https://articles.uie.com/kj_technique/
UIE c. 2004
123. However, when a team manages to get a KPI that
sticks, the power it brings to the organization is
remarkable. It helps everyone focus around the
experience, giving a common language and
understanding to how great design makes a great
business.
What Goes Into an Effective UX KPI?
Behavior based: The team was measuring the
customer-service representative’s behavior with the
product. As they change the design, they get new
behaviors. If those new behaviors reduce tool time,
then the team can tell they’ve improved the design.
https://articles.uie.com/kj_technique/
UIE c. 2004
134. ShortTermGainsvsLongTermOrganicGrowth
Amazon
Routinely takes beating
from investors who
want quarterly returns,
but the company
continues to grow with
a vision that looks out 7
years
Apple
Upon Jobs returning
the late 90s, he
certainly focused on
keeping the
company alive but
also made notable
bets on a future
several years out
[Stock Market]
That value of quarterly
earnings reports gets
questioned all the
time…
147. Howmightwemeasuretheexperience?
Biometric Data?
(Galvonic skin responses, facial
Recognition)
(surveys)
Sentiment analysis
(and similar) on written
text?
Natural Word-of-
Mouth / Social media?
In the moment “How do you feel” surveys
(pick a face reactions)
NPS?
“HEART”
Customer Effort Score?
SUS
Gallop CE11
ASQ (After Scenario Questionaire)
SMEQ
UME
SEQ
SUPR-Q
BERT
158. Happiness
Measures of attitudes, often collected via survey
Engagement
Level of user involvement
Adoption
Gaining new users of a product or feature
Retention
The rate at which existing users are returning
Task Success
Efficiency, effectiveness, and error rate
159. 4Ds
Diversity
With how many people are they collaborating?
Depth
How much of the tool are they using? (features)
Density
Frequency of use (MAU), usage in general (2
dimensions — person/team)
Delight
NPS/satisfaction score / SUS (10 question
scale),Usability Scale, satisfaction vs loyalty
161. CLosure?
•We need better ways to measure experiences
•A translation of the MDA model might be
useful in a non-game context
•There’s a lot we can learn from game design.
162. Designing a game is in itself an
addictive endeavor. The most
valuable takeaway is our
transformed perception of our
daily work. If this short round-up
caught your interest… we
strongly recommend giving
game design a try.
https://ia.net/know-how/game-design