Christopher, Very nice, thoughtful response. Thanks for taking the time.
I completely agree with this: == I can agree that an "experience" is a personal thing that can no more be designed than love can be architected or happiness blueprinted. But we *can* create the affordances that suggest, coax, and guide users towards experiences we designers can reasonably *hope* or even *expect* to occur, experiences that our own experience tells us are *likely* to occur. == I descibe what I do to clients as designing "experience frameworks" or designing "experience scafolds", and I make the above point over and over again. JK -- http://interactions.acm.org http://www.thoughtsoninteraction.com -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Fahey [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 6:17 PM To: list IXDA Cc: Jon Kolko Subject: Designing (for) Experiences Re: the debate over whether experience can be designed: Jon Kolko wrote: > If I claim to "design a rollercoaster", I intend for it to be > duplicated - > exactly as I created - over and over. > > If I claim to "design the experience of using the rollercoaster", it > follows > that I intend for that use to be duplicated - exactly as I created - > over > and over. > > If I claim to "design the experience framework in which the > rollercoaster is > used", it leaves room for people to experience it in their own way. I've always thought that the term "experience design" can also be a shorthand for "designing *for* experiences". That is, that we design systems that invite interaction. We create contexts that include opportunities for certain designer-selected activities. I can agree that an "experience" is a personal thing that can no more be designed than love can be architected or happiness blueprinted. But we *can* create the affordances that suggest, coax, and guide users towards experiences we designers can reasonably *hope* or even *expect* to occur, experiences that our own experience tells us are *likely* to occur. So yes, we can absolutely design the "framework" as Jon says. But if we do the job right we will also create the experience itself -- we can permit and even direct users to have almost precisely the experience we intend. In the rollercoaster example, every user's experience will surely be a little different, but not so very different that the designer can't be said to be designing those experiences. Most users will experience damn near the same feelings of fear, excitement, and fun the designer intended them to feel. If a rollercoaster passenger feels melancholy or sleepy, they are likely a rare exception. I hate to make distinctions between art and design, but in expressive art forms it's generally more acceptable to allow 'users' to have a broad range of potential experience than we are willing to accept from artifacts of design. To that extent, then, how can we say that designers aren't creating experiences when even artists can? Is communication not, at its core, the creation of shared experience? As designers, are we not communicating when we design for experience? We have to have the confidence as designers that we *can*, in fact, create designs that directly affect the psyches of our users in approximately predictable ways. [On a philosophical level, of course, there may exist an unknowable quality to human experience. Two rollercoaster riders may describe their experiences in exactly the same words, and MRI scans may show identical heat maps during their voyages, and yet the essential metaphysical *experience* for each rider may be entirely different. I accept this possibility. But because this sort of understanding of experience is, as I said, unknowable, I suggest we should only discuss that aspect of experience that we can actually describe or measure. And those aspects of experience can, I think, be designed, or at least "designed for".] Cheers -Cf Christopher Fahey ____________________________ Behavior biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com me: http://www.graphpaper.com ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
