Experience Themes: An Element of Story Applied to Design

Experience Themes:An Element of Story Applied to Design

chastaincm@gmail.com@cchastain

Cindy Chastain

content:

What’s This About, Anyway?

Characterization of a Theme

A Story of How This Bloody Idea Came About

How Experience Themes are Applied to Design

How to Find a Theme

Final Thoughts

Design FrameCommunicationTool

Vehicle forEngagement/

Response

methods

purpose

valueTeam Building

PersuasionMarketing

SellingValidating

ComicsStoryboardsScenarios“Concept Narrative”

Shared VisionUnderstanding

UnifyingSharing

Validating

ThemeComics

StoryboardsScenariosUser Flows

EmotionMeaning

IdentificationImmersionCoherence

Fun

Storytelling and UX

?

ThemeScenes

StructurePacing/Flow

What’s This About, Anyway?

Parti & The Design Sandwich

Luke Wroblewski at interaction09

Experience Strategy

Holistic Design

Characterization of a Theme

We will NOT be talking about a theme that is…

A design for a PowerPoint templateA “message” conveyed by a work of art The focus of brand image or promise The subject of an academic paperThe main administrative divisions of the middle Byzantine Empire (themata)The 2000 album by Moravian ethno metal band Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy

the subject-matter, topic or idea on which a work of art or literature is based

A true theme is not a word but a sentence---one clear, coherent sentence that expresses a story’s irreducible meaning.Robert McKee, STORY

The [theme] shapes the writer’s strategic choices. It’s yet another Creative Discipline to guide your aesthetic choices toward what is expressive of your [theme] and may be kept versus what is irrelevant to it and must be cut.Robert McKee, STORY

readerwriter

responsedecisions

Impact of theme on…

So what can themes do for user experience design?

For the design process, experience themes can…

put experience at the forefront of product concepts

unify teams

lead to strategy

inspire design solutions

help teams make choices

On the flip side, a theme, when manifest in a product, can also induce…

pleasure

emotion

meaning

What’s not to like?

A Story of How This Bloody Experience Theme Idea Came About

Case 1: AgnesNixon.com

The Nixon family would like to leverage their tremendous library of content in a new, engaging, interactive video-centric web property.

So where does one start?

Question: What’s this site ABOUT?

Story Premise: A playful, fun to use site helps people to easily manage their vast store of digital photos and share them with one another.

Theme: Define yourself with photos

If flickr had a theme…

“As experiences now span multiple media, channels & formats, we need to look to narrative, interaction, emotional elements to sustain transitions across channels and formats.” Joe Lamantia, in the Beyond Findability Workshop at IA Summit 09

Gasp!

I am the beast that is part website, part software, part product, part service, part interactive multimedia experience. What will you do with me?

user

technology product

To create a truly memorable and satisfying experience, a UX designer needs to understand how to create a logical and viable structure for the experience and needs to understand the elements that are important to creating an emotional connection with the product users.

tangible

intangibleemotion

meaning

pleasure

characters

setting

scenes

visual design

content

pages

flows

images

what this is about

what this will do for me

how it works

where this fits into my life

The meaning of meaning…

Pleasure,Meaning,Emotion

reflective

behavioral

visceral

Three Levels of Processing Experience

Donald Norman’s 3 Levels of Processing

The visceral level is pre-consciousness, pre-thought. It’s where appearance matters first and first impressions are formed. It’s about the initial impact of a product, about its appearance, touch, and feel.

The behavioral level is about use, about experience with a product. It’s about function, performance and usability.

The reflective level, is the level at which the full impact of thought and emotions are experienced. It’s all about message, about culture, and about the meaning of a product or it’s use.

function

performance

ease of use

beauty

emotion

meaning

optimaluserexperience

beauty

emotion

meaning

function

performance

ease of use

intangibletangible

New Elements User Experience?

Writers and filmmakers design, if you will, for emotion and meaning all the time.

The tangible elements of experience in a…

visual design

image/cinematography

WebsiteFilm

actors

locations/sets

music/sound

editing

copy/text

information/content

navigation

interactions/system response

processes

animationscoordinated in service of story

not coordinated

music/sound

error messages

help

desktop widgetmobile app

lighting

words/lines

layout/content presentation

visual design

copy/text

information/content

navigation

layout/content presentation

processes

animations

creative

marketing

business

information architecture/interaction design

error messages

outside resource

music/sound

help

engineering

product VP’s assistant

Note: This is for illustration purposes only and not mean to be an exhaustive list of elements of a web experience encountered by users.

An example of the uncoordinated elements of a web experience

interactions/system response

If emotion and meaning can emerge from the harmonizing of elements that make up a story, then to design for optimal experiences we need a story by which to harmonize the elements of a product, service or system.

From the point of view of design, the STORY can be used as frame that defines the product, service or system.

visual design

copy/text

information/content

navigation

interactions/system response

processes

animations

music/sound

error messages

help

layout/content presentation

Story frame

theme

Given his choice [of theme], the writer sharpens and clarifies his ideas, or finds out exactly what it is that he must say, testing his beliefs against reality as the story represents it, by examining every element in the story for its possible implications with regard to his theme.

themefocus

designprocess

defineproductand/or

strategy

The Legacy of Agnes Nixon

The Story of a Soap

Reliving All My Children

Possible themes…

How Experience Themes Can Be Applied to Design

Case 2: Showtime Sports Redesign

Shared Qualities of Experience for Fight Fans…

A feeling of excitement around the pure spectacle of a fight

A need to understand the complete fight story from the lead-up all the way to the post-fight commentary

Pleasure in knowing and possessing deep knowledge of the sport from fighters, stats, moves and past fights

Pleasure in feeling connected to a fighter’s hardships and challenges inside and outside of the ring

Where the Fight Never Ends

Functional and Content Requirements

Analyzed tasks and features against frequency, importance and relevance to the theme. Irrelevant features were thrown out.

Analyzed current content against theme. Identified gaps and created suggestions for new content ideas.

Structure and User Paths

Content Presentation and Flash Interactions

Sketching with theme in mind…

Chronological fight storyline…told in a sequence of videos.

How to Find a Theme

analysis

creativity

insights themeempathy

Case 3: MSG Insider Program

Experience Attributes Brainstorm

Everything must be from the point of view of our users…

We’re not thinking about goals, tasks and process scenarios just yet, but the kinds of feelings that might arise out of a user’s experience as well as the attributes that contribute to those feelings.

The rules:

First rounds results…

• Fun and Easy to Use• Personal• Direct• Relevant• Targeted• Getting an edge on the general

public• Tailored to my personal taste• Not to be missed• A good match to my interests• Conversational• Upfront• Clear expecations• Helpful

• Quick• Easily accessible• Customized service• Learning• Surprise• Opportunities for discovery• Getting value• Feeling safe• Keeps me updated• Understands my interests• Getting a good deal• Convenience• Helps me stay in touch• Get great recommendations

Experience Attributes vs. System Attributes

• Fun and Easy to Use• Personal• Direct• Relevant• Targeted• Getting an edge on the general

public• Tailored to my personal taste• Not to be missed• A good match to my interests• Conversational• Upfront• Clear expectations• Helpful

• Quick• Easily accessible• Customized• Learning• Surprise• Opportunities for discovery• Getting value• Feeling safe• Keeps me updated• Understands my interests• Getting a good deal• Convenience• Helps me stay in touch• Get great recommendations

Re-organized list…Experience Attributes

• Relevant• Getting an edge on the general public• Tailored to my personal taste• Not to be missed• A good match to my interests• Clear expectations• Learning• Surprise• Opportunities for discovery• Getting value• Feeling safe• Keeps me updated• Understands my interests• Getting a good deal• Convenience• Helps me stay in touch• Get great recommendations

System Attributes

• Quick• Easily accessible• Customized• Fun and Easy to Use• Personal• Direct• Targeted• Conversational• Upfront• Helpful

Refined Experience Attributes…

• Satisfaction from getting an edge on the general public• Feeling of getting something tailored to my personal

taste• Feeling good about staying in touch• Feeling good about getting a good deal• Excited about opportunities for discovery• Confidence in understanding what one’s getting• Fun that comes from recording one’s tastes• Satisfaction from being on top of things• Pleasure in feeling connected to a local scene• curious about what one might be missing• Trusting that ones information is in good hands

Primary Cognitive/Emotional Experience:

• Satisfaction from getting an edge on the general public• Feeling of getting something tailored to my personal taste• Feeling good about staying in touch• Feeling good about getting a good deal• Excited about opportunities for discovery• Confidence in understanding what one’s getting

Secondary Cognitive/Emotional Experience:

• Fun that comes from recording one’s tastes• Satisfaction from being on top of things• Pleasure in feeling connected to a local scene• Curious about what one might be missing• Trusting that ones information is in good hands

Final, categorized list…

analytical

creative

insights themeempathy

Time to brainstorm themes…

Your taste is our taste.We know what you like. We want you to get it

first.Never again will an event pass you by.Get info about the stuff you want to see. Your

way. Keep in touch. Discover something new. Get it

first.

Which resulted in ideas like…

Discuss, evaluate, combine, refine…

Keep in touch. Discover something new. Get it first.

The best fit…

Package into an Experience Briefthat also defines strategy…

Experience Brief: Part 1

Experience Brief: Part 2

Lessons Learned

An experience theme can be generated from any amount or type of raw material related to your project.

The means by which you sift through this raw material depends on the working habits of your team (you have a whiteboard culture, sticky note culture, image culture, conversation culture).

The form of the theme depends on what chimes most with your team and the stakeholders. It would be a word, or a phrase, but most important, it should reflect the core experience you hope to deliver.

Theme can be a foundation for a strategy.

So what’s the difference between a Story Theme and an Experience Theme?

Story Themes Experience ThemesFound through insight into raw material of story planning

Found through insight into raw material of design planning: business goals and requirements, content analysis, user research

Decided upon by the vision and passions of single author

Decided upon by a team of stakeholders

Reflects author’s view of the world Reflects users needs and desires

Applied to overall design of story elements

Applied to overall design of product

Manifest in concept, conflict, character, setting, scene, sub-plots, story structure, climax

Manifest in product concept, strategy, content choices, layout, interactions, visual design

Produces pleasure in unity, emotion, meaning

Produces pleasure in unity, emotion, meaning

Induces a longer-lasting effect on the reader

Induces a longer-lasting effect on the user

An Experience Theme is an over-arching statement or phrase that encapsulates the value and focus of the experience we intend to deliver to users.

At its core, an Experience Theme identifies what the product/service/system is all about from the point of view of users engaging with the product.

Once agreed upon, the theme can not only be used as a conceptual frame for design solutions, but can serve as the foundation for Product Concepts and Experience Strategy, a clear set of goals for the product/service/system design.

It serves the end to end user experience by unifying teams, framing the design and development process and by providing an added dimension to the user’s cognitive and emotional experience of the product.

Experience Theme Defined…

Final Thoughts

Final thoughts…

We need to begin thinking more about product stories and the kinds of impact they can have on our approach to design as well as the experience of the user.

We have more work to do when it comes to understanding the full impact on user’s emotion and meaning associated with a product.

This is only a stone from the quarry. One story element of many. This, however, is the starting point.

We need to develop our “craft” at applying storytelling techniques to our designs.

As designers, we need to access our own cognitive as well as creative yin and yang.

thank you.

chastaincm@gmail.com@cchastain

Cindy Chastain