Designing for delight Giles Colborne
cxpartners @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/waldenpond/3019558999/

This story begins when a
client asked me a question. How can we delight our customers? One way to answer it is to see what other designers think is delightful and look for common themes. @gilescolborne

One expert says this is
a ‘Delightful design’ because it uses a surprising navigation method. @gilescolborne

Click on a link and
The page doesn’t turn, it scrolls down, along that ‘road’ to the content. Cute. @gilescolborne

Another says This photography site
is ‘Delightful’ because there’s a hidden user interface trick - click the cursor keys on your computer to Flick througH the slides quickly. @gilescolborne

This online bank is ‘Delighting’
their customers by asking them to share restaurant recommendations with each other. @gilescolborne

This went round our office
like wildfire: if Google Chrome thinks a security certificate is dodgy then it displays a skull and crossbones instead of a padlock. For experts, delight is about novel approaches, attention to detail, associating yourself with delightful others, humor. @gilescolborne

What strikes me, though, is
that these examples are interesting, but they’re not delightful. One guy in our office showed the skull and crossbones thing to his wife. Her response was ‘so what?’. @gilescolborne

52 WEEKS of UX By
the way, this is an excellent blog. “ It’s hard to prove the ROI on some small moment of delight in a design that requires a little extra time and attention (although I do believe that you will see a negative ROI when it doesn’t happen). Even the best designers get rather Evasive when they’re ” asked to justify this stuff. i want stronger examples that are less subjective. And i want to be sure i can deliver ROI. @gilescolborne

When did a product or
So i started service collecting stories (about 30 of them) delight from people about You? experiences that they’d found delightful. What they told me was completely different to the experts’ view. @gilescolborne

My hairdresser told me about
the time he’d booked a flight on easyjet. As he pressed ‘buy’, the website had hung and he’d ended up with two tickets instead of one. @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishflyguy/2425063737/

He was furious. He rang
easyjet ready for a fight. Before he’d finished explaining, The lady said ‘no problem - one of those tickets cost more than the other. i’ll refund the more expensive one.’ @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishflyguy/2425063737/

He said ‘my jaw dropped.
i told her: that’s the best customer service i’ve ever had’. He was delighted. This story doesn’t sound at all like the ‘cute details’ the designers spoke about. @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishflyguy/2425063737/

A friend told me about
his o2 broadband. When his new modem arrived, he expected to find a piece of paper in the box with inscrutable technical settings to enter. instead, O2 had already set up the modem. He just had to plug it in and it worked. Delight! @gilescolborne

There’s always an Apple story,
right? One person told me about the first time they’d dropped their iPod and the headphones came unplugged. The iPod paused itself so they didn’t lose their place in the podcast. Delight! @gilescolborne

These stories follow a common
pattern. resolved anxiety delight effortlessly @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/demir/98060727/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerdurden/529028040/

They’re nothing like the examples
the resolved experts chose. anxiety delight effortlessly when people tell And me these stories, their eyes light up - they’re enthusiastic. i see real delight. @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/demir/98060727/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerdurden/529028040/

Problems, and anxiety resolved are
inevitable. anxiety delight effortlessly these stories are But about companies that were ready for the problems and saved their customers. @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/demir/98060727/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerdurden/529028040/

a friend told me about
his first time using Nike Plus. as his run ended, there was a count-down (anxiety!) and then, surprise - paula RadcliffE’s voice on his ipod congratulating him. Nike seem to be playing with that moment of anxiety. @gilescolborne

if you’re creating experiences, it’s
not always about eliminating negative emotions. Sometimes it’s about using them. enhanced ending delight anxiety surprisingly @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/demir/98060727/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerdurden/529028040/

This is interesting if you’re
delivering a leisure experience like Nike Plus - but i’m not advocating that an online bank plays with people in this way! enhanced ending delight anxiety surprisingly @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/demir/98060727/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerdurden/529028040/

Anxiety can be remembered, rather
than present. Another friend (hi, Doug!) told me about this. it’s for feeding your toddler when you’re away from home. Put the messy food in the bulb at the end, squeeze a bit onto the spoon and pop it in the baby’s mouth. A clever, easier solution. @gilescolborne

remembered resolved delight anxiety cleverly
@gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/8748128@N02/4459960663/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/biblicone/3645323788/

Another class of story sees
users delighted because they’re getting a better outcome than the herd. For instance, a traveller had her flight cancelled. instead of taking the long route home offered to her, she flew to another airport and used her rail pass from there, getting home well ahead of the other unlucky passengers. @gilescolborne

in this class of story,
it’s the users’ choices that cause delight. But there’s a ha lo effect for the company involved. They may not be aware of it, though! choices mean anxiety superior result delight to your peers @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/happykatie/2459583180/

Stories about ‘extras’ are interesting.
One person told me about a time when he tried to buy beer and a pie in the pub. He didn’t have enough money so he just got a beer!. A few minutes later the barman brought him a pie. ‘Someone left without picking up their order - and i remembered you wanted one,’ he said. @gilescolborne

Several people told me similar
stories about ‘extras’. The extras were always relevant, and delivered with a personal touch. problem relevant extras delight http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregpc/2719468143/ @gilescolborne http://www.flickr.com/photos/8748128@N02/4459960663/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/biblicone/3645323788/

All but one of the
stories i gathered followed the basic ‘problem, resolution, delight’ pattern. Why are they so different from Experts’ consensus on delight? in ‘emotional design’, donald norman gives a simple framework that’s helpful here. @gilescolborne

You can think of the
brain as three ‘layers’. The visceral brain of sensations and reflexes. The behavioral brain of doing things and feeling emotions. and the reflective brain of higher thought. @gilescolborne

Designs please us on each
of these levels. reflective An oxo potato peeler is pleasing because it feels nice in the hand. A Jaguar’s seat adjuster is pleasing behavioral because it’s laid out like a seat - so you feel in control. and a ‘binary’ wrist watch is pleasing (my visceral programer friends tell me) because it has a witty approach to numbers. @gilescolborne

reflective
behavioral
visceral
@gilescolborne

The Experts were sharing examples
of delight that work on the reflective level. reflective aficionados liked the examples, but other people didn’t always get them. behavioral other People share examples that work on the behavioral level. These stories are about problems visceral solved. They have VALUE. if people start talking about your company or product that’s worth something! @gilescolborne

not important “ It’s hard
to prove the ROI on some small moment of delight in a design that requires a little extra time and attention (although I do believe that you will see a negative ROI when it doesn’t happen). ” This type of delight has real value that’s easily proven. @gilescolborne

Discussion forums and online ratings
systems like DooYoo or Trip advisor are an easy place to find out if you’re delivering this kind of delight. @gilescolborne

I would recommend (9-10): 63%
- I would not recommend (0-6): 18% Net promoter score: 45% many companies use net promoter score to measure whether they’re getting word of mouth recommendations from delighted customers. @gilescolborne

anxiety seems to be a
useful indicator of potential for delight. resolved effortlessly anxiety surprisingly delight cleverly superior i wonder Whether people always need to experience anxiety before they can experience delight, or whether the heightened emotions in these stories led people to remember them more vividly. Either way, what matters to service designers is that these stories are remembered and shared. @gilescolborne

beauty and sensation do matter
- i buy lots of things because they’re beautiful or they feel good. But they don’t get talked about in the same way. This kind of delight is harder to sell (except to aficionados - who’ll pay generously for it). Behavioral delight sells itself through word of mouth. @gilescolborne

when my company redesigns a
product, we begin by looking for those moments of anxiety (the red triangles on this chart). They’re opportunities to change the user experience and delight customers. @gilescolborne

One last point. Yahoo’s mantra
of ‘wow, delight, love’ reminds us that delight fades over time. you need to keep upping your game. wow delight love like @gilescolborne

Designing for delight • Look
for points of anxiety - experienced or remembered • If appropriate (e.g. games), enhance that feeling • Pick one to fix now • Fix it completely • If possible, find solutions that are effortless, personal, clever, superior • Measure ROI through word of mouth: net promoter score, online chatter, surveys • Remember that delight fades away - don’t get cocky! @gilescolborne

Follow those simple steps and
i guarantee, you’ll keep your users delighted. @gilescolborne

giles.colborne@cxpartners.co.uk @gilescolborne follow cxpartners on
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