Peter Merholz of Adaptive Path has just posted a presentation on the topic “The Experience Is The Product” on slideshare, even better he has synced the recording of him presenting this in the UK. In this presentation Peter does a great job of explaining that the experience is everything, it’s the branding, it’s the marketing, and how often our approaches to design screw this up.
Peter will hate me for doing it because he tried to do the whole presentation without mentioning the ipod, but of course he had to, because it’s the best example of experienced centered design out there.
One thing I’ll add is that when people say “experience design” or “experienced focused design” a lot of people think “sensory orgy” or the “wow”. But it’s not about the wow, it’s actually about focusing on the broader experience beyond the product, beyond the use of the product, the system if you like. The experience is the system is probably another way of saying it. Way back in 2003 I wrote a post that is somewhat related called “Thinking Outside the Product”
You might also find this presentation interesting from Marc Rettig on the history of interaction design which illustrates the transition from task focused design to design that takes into account the broader experience.
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I just wrote about my experience at the Apple store on Saturday and it resonates with this post — design the experience so that it is easy for the customer and his story to be at the center and you have a product people want.
Dead right Valeria, the Apple store experience is part of the product as well. All the touch points are aligned and orchestrated to create the experience.
Can’t agree more. I’ve just had a close experience with a UGC site that has had a lot of trouble for, imo, very much this reason.
To add a bit…
Kathy of Creating Passion Users wrote a while shining some light on various aspects of the designed experience that Apple has done in their products. Most significant to me was her description of even the animation of when things slide in and out of place, it’s an animation that has physics grounded in the physical world (I’m still sad she stopped blogging)
That post is part of what originally opened my eyes to much of what you’re saying here- experience is so much in the design, from how the button feels to what sound it makes when it looks- it doesn’t stop after the visual appeal.