WEEK 3: WHAT IS EXPERIENCE-CENTRED DESIGN?
- Joe Breen
- Mar 1, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: May 5, 2020
This week’s lecture was focused on experience-centred design. Experience is defined as an event or occurrence which leaves an impression on someone (1). Experience-centred design involves putting yourself in the somebody else's shoes in order to solve a problem.
There are several other definitions that define experience-centred design. Some of these definitions are listed below.
“User experience is about creating design focused on people’s personal growth, so they can live in harmony with each other and with their natural and artificial environment.” - Stefano Marzano, CEO of Philips Design
“User experience goals differ from the more objective usability goals in that they are concerned with how users experience an interactive product from their perspective rather that assessing how useful or productive a system is from its own perspective.” - Interaction Design (Preece, Rogers, Sharp, 2002)
“User Experience Design fully encompasses traditional Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design and extends it by addressing all aspects of a product or service as perceived by users. HCI design addresses the interaction between a human and a computer. In addition, User Experience Design addresses the user’s initial awareness, discovery, ordering, fulfilment, installation, service, support, upgrades, and end-of-life activities.” - IBM website (2)
Many of the different design types are more subjective and that as a product designer, you need to be aware of the different directions in which a design process can be carried out. This is because any design you encounter is the result of several different decisions made by one or more different designers, and almost every individual decision that went into that design has its own level of subjectivity. (3)
Prior to this week’s lecture, we were tasked with a reading assignment based on experience-centred design as dialogue. In this reading, there were detailed descriptions of different examples of experience-centred design. The one that I found most interesting to read about was the Digital Jewellery. One reason why is because the designer moves from a predominantly subjective design style to an inter-subjective design style by using fine-art practices as inspiration and helps to invite a creative response from others.
An exercise that we did in this lecture was focusing on the experience of being a bat. We had the choice to either sketch or write for this exercise. Both methods are equally effective. Writing helps you to give a very detailed description of what the experience of being a bat can be like. Whereas, sketching a picture is worth a thousand words and most people prefer to show than tell.
Another exercise that I really enjoyed was when we were put into groups and were assigned different situations to do a presentation on in relation to personal experience, regarding the idea of threads of experience or the idea of sensemaking. The topic that my group had to discuss was “Choosing between using Amazon/Penney’s vs a smaller, local or independent shop” and breaking it down into the different categories of sensemaking. Sensemaking is the process by which people give meaning to their collective experiences. In design, sensemaking is a communal and collaborative process and is used to create one or more working design frames. The sections of sensemaking are as follows; Anticipation, Connecting, Interpreting, Reflecting, Appropriating and Recounting. I really enjoyed this exercise because I liked adding my own personal experiences into this project and getting an insight into other’s personal experiences in different situations too.
Overall, I found this week’s lecture very beneficial in relation to dialogue in experience-centred design. We learn that by listening to others telling their stories, by trying to tell our own stories ourselves and refining our telling in response to the hearing that we get from our listeners, and by participating in the practice and performance of storytelling in relation to experience-centred design.
References:
1. Calvert, L. (n.d.) 'Developing the Product Experience: 7 Creative Online Research Methods in Action' , Flex MR [blog] (Accessed 4th April 2020) ; https://blog.flexmr.net/developing-the-product-experience-7-creative-online-research-methods-in-action
2. Cunningham, L. (n.d.) 'Experience-Centred Design Dhaval Vyas Room: T-304' , SlidePlayer [website slideshow, slide 6] (Accessed 4th April 2020); https://slideplayer.com/slide/5954726/
3. Rees, B. (n.d.) 'Design Process: Is it Objective or Subjective?' , Toptal [blog] (Accessed 4th April 2020); https://www.toptal.com/designers/ux/design-process-objective-or-subjective
Picture Reference:
123RF (n.d.) 'Experience word concept banner' [website] (Accessed 4th May 2020);
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