Experience Themes: An Element of
Story Applied to Design [email_address] @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

Storytelling and UX Design Frame
Communication Tool Vehicle for Engagement/ Response methods purpose value Team Building Persuasion Marketing Selling Validating Comics Storyboards Scenarios “ Concept Narrative” Shared Vision Understanding Unifying Sharing Validating Theme Comics Storyboards Scenarios User Flows Emotion Meaning Identification Immersion Coherence Fun ? Theme Scenes Structure Pacing/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… <ul><li>A design for a PowerPoint template </li></ul><ul><li>A “message” conveyed by a work of art </li></ul><ul><li>The focus of brand image or promise </li></ul><ul><li>The subject of an academic paper </li></ul><ul><li>The main administrative divisions of the middle Byzantine Empire (themata) </li></ul><ul><li>The 2000 album by Moravian ethno metal band Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy </li></ul>

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

Impact of theme on… response
decisions reader writer

So what can themes do
for user experience design?

For the design process, experience
themes can… <ul><li>put experience at the forefront of product concepts </li></ul><ul><li>unify teams </li></ul><ul><li>lead to strategy </li></ul><ul><li>inspire design solutions </li></ul><ul><li>help teams make choices </li></ul>

On the flip side, a
theme, when manifest in a product, can also induce… <ul><li>pleasure </li></ul><ul><li>emotion </li></ul><ul><li>meaning </li></ul>

What’s not to like?

A Story of How T
his 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?

If flickr had a theme…
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

“ 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 intangible emotion meaning pleasure
characters setting scenes visual design content pages flows images

The meaning of meaning… what
this is about what this will do for me how it works where this fits into my life

Pleasure, Meaning, Emotion

Three Levels of Processing Experience
reflective behavioral visceral

Donald Norman’s 3 Levels of
Processing <ul><li>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. </li></ul><ul><li>The behavioral level is about use, about experience with a product. It’s about function, performance and usability. </li></ul><ul><li>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. </li></ul>

optimal user experience function performance
ease of use beauty emotion meaning

New Elements User Experience? beauty
emotion meaning function performance ease of use intangible tangible

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 Website Film actors locations/sets music/sound editing copy/text information/content navigation interactions/system response processes animations music/sound error messages help lighting words/lines layout/content presentation coordinated in service of story not coordinated desktop widget mobile app

An example of the uncoordinated
elements of a web experience 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. 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.

theme focus design process define
product and/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… <ul><li>A feeling of excitement around the pure spectacle of a fight </li></ul><ul><li>A need to understand the complete fight story from the lead-up all the way to the post-fight commentary </li></ul><ul><li>Pleasure in knowing and possessing deep knowledge of the sport from fighters, stats, moves and past fights </li></ul><ul><li>Pleasure in feeling connected to a fighter’s hardships and challenges inside and outside of the ring </li></ul>

Where the Fight Never Ends

Functional and Content Requirements <ul><li>Analyzed
tasks and features against frequency, importance and relevance to the theme. Irrelevant features were thrown out. </li></ul><ul><li>Analyzed current content against theme. Identified gaps and created suggestions for new content ideas. </li></ul>

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 empathy theme

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… <ul><li>Fun and
Easy to Use </li></ul><ul><li>Personal </li></ul><ul><li>Direct </li></ul><ul><li>Relevant </li></ul><ul><li>Targeted </li></ul><ul><li>Getting an edge on the general public </li></ul><ul><li>Tailored to my personal taste </li></ul><ul><li>Not to be missed </li></ul><ul><li>A good match to my interests </li></ul><ul><li>Conversational </li></ul><ul><li>Upfront </li></ul><ul><li>Clear expecations </li></ul><ul><li>Helpful </li></ul><ul><li>Quick </li></ul><ul><li>Easily accessible </li></ul><ul><li>Customized service </li></ul><ul><li>Learning </li></ul><ul><li>Surprise </li></ul><ul><li>Opportunities for discovery </li></ul><ul><li>Getting value </li></ul><ul><li>Feeling safe </li></ul><ul><li>Keeps me updated </li></ul><ul><li>Understands my interests </li></ul><ul><li>Getting a good deal </li></ul><ul><li>Convenience </li></ul><ul><li>Helps me stay in touch </li></ul><ul><li>Get great recommendations </li></ul>

Experience Attributes vs. System Attributes
<ul><li>Fun and Easy to Use </li></ul><ul><li>Personal </li></ul><ul><li>Direct </li></ul><ul><li>Relevant </li></ul><ul><li>Targeted </li></ul><ul><li>Getting an edge on the general public </li></ul><ul><li>Tailored to my personal taste </li></ul><ul><li>Not to be missed </li></ul><ul><li>A good match to my interests </li></ul><ul><li>Conversational </li></ul><ul><li>Upfront </li></ul><ul><li>Clear expectations </li></ul><ul><li>Helpful </li></ul><ul><li>Quick </li></ul><ul><li>Easily accessible </li></ul><ul><li>Customized </li></ul><ul><li>Learning </li></ul><ul><li>Surprise </li></ul><ul><li>Opportunities for discovery </li></ul><ul><li>Getting value </li></ul><ul><li>Feeling safe </li></ul><ul><li>Keeps me updated </li></ul><ul><li>Understands my interests </li></ul><ul><li>Getting a good deal </li></ul><ul><li>Convenience </li></ul><ul><li>Helps me stay in touch </li></ul><ul><li>Get great recommendations </li></ul>

Re-organized list… <ul><li>Experience Attributes </li></ul><ul><li>Relevant
</li></ul><ul><li>Getting an edge on the general public </li></ul><ul><li>Tailored to my personal taste </li></ul><ul><li>Not to be missed </li></ul><ul><li>A good match to my interests </li></ul><ul><li>Clear expectations </li></ul><ul><li>Learning </li></ul><ul><li>Surprise </li></ul><ul><li>Opportunities for discovery </li></ul><ul><li>Getting value </li></ul><ul><li>Feeling safe </li></ul><ul><li>Keeps me updated </li></ul><ul><li>Understands my interests </li></ul><ul><li>Getting a good deal </li></ul><ul><li>Convenience </li></ul><ul><li>Helps me stay in touch </li></ul><ul><li>Get great recommendations </li></ul><ul><li>System Attributes </li></ul><ul><li>Quick </li></ul><ul><li>Easily accessible </li></ul><ul><li>Customized </li></ul><ul><li>Fun and Easy to Use </li></ul><ul><li>Personal </li></ul><ul><li>Direct </li></ul><ul><li>Targeted </li></ul><ul><li>Conversational </li></ul><ul><li>Upfront </li></ul><ul><li>Helpful </li></ul>

Refined Experience Attributes… <ul><li>Satisfaction from
getting an edge on the general public </li></ul><ul><li>Feeling of getting something tailored to my personal taste </li></ul><ul><li>Feeling good about staying in touch </li></ul><ul><li>Feeling good about getting a good deal </li></ul><ul><li>Excited about opportunities for discovery </li></ul><ul><li>Confidence in understanding what one’s getting </li></ul><ul><li>Fun that comes from recording one’s tastes </li></ul><ul><li>Satisfaction from being on top of things </li></ul><ul><li>Pleasure in feeling connected to a local scene </li></ul><ul><li>curious about what one might be missing </li></ul><ul><li>Trusting that ones information is in good hands </li></ul>

<ul><li>Primary Cognitive/Emotional Experience: </li></ul><ul><li>Satisfaction from
getting an edge on the general public </li></ul><ul><li>Feeling of getting something tailored to my personal taste </li></ul><ul><li>Feeling good about staying in touch </li></ul><ul><li>Feeling good about getting a good deal </li></ul><ul><li>Excited about opportunities for discovery </li></ul><ul><li>Confidence in understanding what one’s getting </li></ul><ul><li>Secondary Cognitive/Emotional Experience: </li></ul><ul><li>Fun that comes from recording one’s tastes </li></ul><ul><li>Satisfaction from being on top of things </li></ul><ul><li>Pleasure in feeling connected to a local scene </li></ul><ul><li>Curious about what one might be missing </li></ul><ul><li>Trusting that ones information is in good hands </li></ul>Final, categorized list…

analytical creative insights empathy Time
to brainstorm themes… theme

<ul><li>Your taste is our taste.
</li></ul><ul><li>We know what you like. We want you to get it first. </li></ul><ul><li>Never again will an event pass you by. </li></ul><ul><li>Get info about the stuff you want to see. Your way. </li></ul><ul><li>Keep in touch. Discover something new. Get it first. </li></ul>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 Brief
that also defines strategy…

Experience Brief: Part 1

Experience Brief: Part 2

Lessons Learned <ul><li>An experience theme
can be generated from any amount or type of raw material related to your project. </li></ul><ul><li>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). </li></ul><ul><li>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. </li></ul><ul><li>Theme can be a foundation for a strategy. </li></ul>

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

Found through insight into raw
material of design planning: business goals and requirements, content analysis, user research Found through insight into raw material of story planning Induces a longer-lasting effect on the user Induces a longer-lasting effect on the reader Produces pleasure in unity, emotion, meaning Produces pleasure in unity, emotion, meaning Manifest in product concept, strategy, content choices, layout, interactions, visual design Manifest in concept, conflict, character, setting, scene, sub-plots, story structure, climax Applied to overall design of product Applied to overall design of story elements Reflects users needs and desires Reflects author’s view of the world Decided upon by a team of stakeholders Decided upon by the vision and passions of single author Experience Themes Story Themes

<ul><li>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. </li></ul><ul><li>At its core, an Experience Theme identifies what the product/service/system is al l about from the point of view of users engaging with the product . </li></ul><ul><li>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. </li></ul><ul><li>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 . </li></ul>Experience Theme Defined…

Final Thoughts

Final thoughts… <ul><li>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. </li></ul><ul><li>We have more work to do when it comes to understanding the full impact on user’s emotion and meaning associated with a product. </li></ul><ul><li>This is only a stone from the quarry. One story element of many. This, however, is the starting point. </li></ul><ul><li>We need to develop our “craft” at applying storytelling techniques to our designs. </li></ul><ul><li>As designers, we need to access our own cognitive as well as creative yin and yang. </li></ul>

thank you. [email_address] @cchastain Cindy
Chastain