Designing Experiences

J. Robert Rossman, Mathew D. Duerden

• Publisher: Columbia Business School Publishing
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780231549516
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

In an increasingly experience-driven economy, companies that deliver great experiences thrive, and those that do not die. Yet many organizations face difficulties implementing a vision of delivering experiences beyond the provision of goods and services. Because experience design concepts and approaches are spread across multiple, often disconnected disciplines, there is no book that succinctly explains to students and aspiring professionals how to design them.

J. Robert Rossman and Mathew D. Duerden present a comprehensive and accessible introduction to experience design. They synthesize the fundamental theories and methods from multiple disciplines and lay out a process for designing experiences from start to finish. Rossman and Duerden challenge us to reflect on what makes a great experience from the user's perspective. They provide a framework of experience types, explaining people's engagement with products and services and what makes experiences personal and fulfilling. The book presents interdisciplinary research underlying key concepts such as memory, intentionality, and dramatic structure in a down-to-earth style, drawing attention to both the macro and micro levels. Designing Experiences features detailed instructions and numerous real-world examples that clarify theoretical principles, making it useful for students and professionals. An invaluable overview of a growing field, the book provides readers with the tools they need to design innovative and indelible experiences and to move their organizations into the experience economy.

Designing Experiences features a foreword by B. Joseph Pine II.

PART ONE

Understanding Experience

EVERYONE WANTS TO BE part of the experience economy these days. The word experience is added as an adjective to almost everything (e.g., dining experiences, check-in experiences, employee on boarding experiences). Simply adding the word experience, though, does not automatically make something a worthwhile experience. In this section we examine the concepts of experience and experience design and develop definitions that are grounded but pragmatic; these are definitions experience designers can use to guide their work. Our examination of the psychology of experience will help you understand the behavioral nature of experience and what makes a great one. Finally, we provide a framework of experience types from prosaic to transformational that will prepare you for comprehensive experience design. This section will deepen your understanding of experiences and give you the background you will need to develop immersive and engaging experiences.

CHAPTER ONE

Exploring Experiences and Experience Design

WHAT DO THE following companies have in common?

•USAA

•Costco

•Ritz Carlton

•JetBlue

•H-E-B

•Amazon

•Apple

•Netflix

This is a diverse group of organizations. Some offer products and others provide services. The reason they’re on this list is because they each hold the title of Net Promoter Score^® (NPS) leader for 2018 in their various industries.¹ NPS is a measurement tool developed by Bain & Company’s Fred Reichheld to assess customer brand loyalty.² The score is calculated by having customers respond on a 0–10 scale to this question: “How likely would you be to recommend [company] to a friend or colleague?” If customers answer with a 9 or 10, they’re promoters; if their answer is between 0 and 6, they’re detractors. You then subtract the percentage of total detractors from total promoters to calculate your score. In general, although benchmarks vary across industries, an excellent NPS is above 50.³

Here’s the previous list of companies along with their NPS scores:

•USAA: 79

•Costco: 79

•Ritz Carlton: 75

•JetBlue: 74

•H-E-B: 72

•Amazon: 68

•Apple: 63

•Netflix: 62

These organizations consistently convert customers into loyal brand ambassadors. How do they do it? We believe the primary driver behind their NPS success is the experience they deliver to customers. Whether it’s selling entertainment in the case of Netflix or consumer goods in the case of Costco, these companies have figured out how to design and consistently deliver powerfully positive customer experiences. Experiences matter across all industries. Companies that provide great experiences to customers and employees succeed; those that don’t, fail. Experiences matter in our personal lives as well. They shape our identities and affect relationships with friends and families. This book aims to help you understand the inner workings of experiences and how to design them. Great experiences don’t happen serendipitously—they require intentionality and planning. In this book we’re going to introduce you to the insights and tools you need to become an excellent experience designer.

You are an experience designer whether or not you realize it. You are constantly involved in authoring experiences for your customers, colleagues, friends, and family. The relevant question is, Are you doing this intentionally? Conscious and purposeful experience design is a key to personal and professional success. Although some people (e.g., Walt Disney) and organizations (e.g., Ritz Carlton) appear to have the innate ability to deliver amazing experiences, the experiences they deliver are in fact built on a foundation of meticulous and intentional design. While we can’t guarantee that reading this book will turn you into the next Walt Disney, we strongly believe that anyone can become a competent experience designer.

Experiences Matter

If you are reading this book, you’re probably already on board with the idea that experiences matter. Even so, we want to review some of the primary reasons we think everyone should pay more attention to experiences. Experiences power our modern economy. B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore have been spreading the message of the experience economy since the mid-1990s.⁴ Over the last 150 years we have moved from an agrarian economy driven by harvesting commodities like corn and coal, to an industrial economy built on manufacturing goods, to a service economy consisting of delivering services, to our current experience economy, where the central economic activity is designing experiences. It’s an economy where consumers make purchasing decisions based not simply on product features but also on the experiences they facilitate.

The companies listed earlier in the chapter convert customers into promoters in large part because of the quality of the experiences they provide. Pine and Gilmore’s classic example of this economic progression is th...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents 
• Foreword
• Preface: Thanks for Joining Us!
• Part One: Understanding Experience
• Part Two: The Experience Designer’s Toolkit
• Part Three: Creating Great Experiences: Enhancements and Examples
• Notes
• Index