MINDMATTER

As designers, who wish to create experiences for our users, we first need to influence the companies we work for, so that they better understand that experience design is more then just a splash page that veils promotional material in some social media camouflage. Rather experiences are the emotions that the users feel, the delight in something unexpected and new, or the frustration in something that may turn them off forever, to only end up in their product graveyard. To create these memorable experiences we need to think about the values of our users. Through connecting to and understanding who they are, how they identify themselves, we can see patterns based on these values of identity, that help guide the creation of principles that will maintain the integrity of “this is our user”. Through these principles we create experiences first, then products that facilitate that experience. More then ever, users are looking for co-creation, real uniqueness (unique is chic), and connections and they reject products that lead with the material good, projecting onto them a undesirable identity of “someone else”. Experience design, based on seeing, experiencing (research), thinking (about), and creating (+iterating) helps companies create these products that leave positive lasting impressions. Now as designers, go out and create something memorable!

Case study on Lulu Lemon being a company that is beyond product and focused on creating experiences that are outside the traditional retail client relationship, but rather being a part of the lives and identities of their customers through the hobbies of their lives.

Case study on New Belgium Brewery being another company that goes beyond product by sharing the passion of cycling with their customers. By connecting to the passion of cycling, New Belgium Brewery is also sharing their own personal story, the story of Jeff Lebesch riding through Belgium on a fat tire bike and visiting breweries along the way. New Belgium is an example of a company creating a sense of co-creation and connection between the company and their customer.