This was showed at the Oslo local meet up of IxDA group. Ends makes a compelling case that demonstrates how, over centuries, our changing relationship with death has led to the loss of our relationship with endings. Giving rise to guilt-free consumers, an overly-blamed business sector and a society which finds itself at a loss when it needs to grapple with responsibility. Drawing on a plethora of sources in history, sociology, psychology and industry, he argues that we are taking the wrong approach to challenging the impacts of consumption and that we need to create coherent endings in our product, service and digital experiences so as to rebalance this.

1. Ends.
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod @ClosureExp
closureexperiences.com
Why we overlook endings for
humans, products, services and digital.
And why we shouldn’t.

2. 1. 2. 3.
Any consumer experience can be
broken down into 3 stages
On-Boarding Off-BoardingUsage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

3. On-Boarding Off-Boarding
Usage
Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
The start of the relationship. It is the conclusion of the relationship.
engagement
time
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

4. Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
The start of the relationship. It is the conclusion of the relationship.
engagement
time
Advertising
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
On-Boarding Off-Boarding
Usage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

5. Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
The start of the relationship. It is the conclusion of the relationship.
engagement
time
Advertising
Marketing
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
On-Boarding Off-Boarding
Usage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

6. Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
The start of the relationship. It is the conclusion of the relationship.
engagement
time
Advertising
Marketing
Packaging
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
On-Boarding Off-Boarding
Usage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

7. Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
The start of the relationship. It is the conclusion of the relationship.
engagement
time
Advertising
Marketing
Packaging
T&Cs
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
On-Boarding Off-Boarding
Usage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

8. Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
The start of the relationship. It is the conclusion of the relationship.
engagement
time
Advertising
Marketing
Packaging
T&Cs
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
On-Boarding Off-Boarding
Usage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

9. Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
The start of the relationship. It is the conclusion of the relationship.
engagement
time
Advertising
Marketing
Packaging
T&Cs
Emotionless death
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
On-Boarding Off-Boarding
Usage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

10. Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
The start of the relationship. It is the conclusion of the relationship.
engagement
time
Advertising
Marketing
Packaging
T&Cs
Emotionless death
Lingers forever
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
On-Boarding Off-Boarding
Usage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

11. Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
The start of the relationship. It is the conclusion of the relationship.
engagement
time
Advertising
Marketing
Packaging
T&Cs
Emotionless death
Lingers forever
Denial
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
On-Boarding Off-Boarding
Usage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

12. Why don't we create
consumer endings?
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

13. A brief history of
endings

14. Life was hard
El Ángelus. Jean-François Millet. CCJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

15. Death was familiar
Ars Moriendi. Meister E.S.Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

16. Heaven a reward
Belshazzar’s Feast. John MartinJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

17. Funerals meaningful
A Burial at Ornans by Gustave Courbet. CCJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

18. Plague arrived
Michelangelo [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

19. Meaningless death
Scène de la peste de 1720 à la Tourette by Michel SerreJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

20. Mis-managed
Raphael's Portrait of Leo X with cardinals Giulio de' MediciJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

21. Protestant uprising
Julius Hübner [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

22. Fasting
Christ in the Desert. Ivan Kramskoi. 1872Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

23. Jobs
Eisenwalzwerk. Adolph von Menzel [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

24. Investment
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com By Cafferty, James H., and Rosenberg, Charles G. (Scanned from here) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

25. Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com By Lion, Flora [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Work less? Buy more?

26. Medicine & science
manages death
By Thomas Eakins,American, 1844 - 1916 (1844 - 1916) – Details of artist on Google Art Project [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

27. We hid it away
Gross Clinic on display at the Army Post Hospital. See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

28. Consume Heaven on
Earth without end
American Abundance for allVintage ad Wheaties sweepstakes 1958Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

29. Endings had
value and a
vocabulary
Endings are hidden,
overlooked and
unwanted
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

30. Modern endings
hidden, overlooked and unwanted

31. Hidden ending.
Canon Ink Cartridge
On-Boarding Off-BoardingUsage
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

32. Consumer Electronics
Some packaging
avoids the real end.
Starting experiences wrapped
up as long term responsibility
Closure experience overlooked
as important or actionable
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

33. Revenge porn
The un-ending
nature of digital
assets expose us.
One in ten young women
have been threatened
with public posting of
explicit images in US.
Data Society and the Centre for Innovative Public Health Research
Kevin Bollaert being prosecuted. http://www.news.com.au/Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

34. services
products
digital
…the consequences
we see in
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

35. The
Psychological
Impact of
Closure

36. Ernest Becker
“most human action is
taken to ignore or avoid
the inevitability of death”
Denial of Death
Terror
Management
Theory
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

37. Terror Management Theory
Kasser and Sheldon
2000
Researchers attempted to
connect consumption to
Terror Management Theory
Liberation. M.C. Escher 1955Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

38. Terror Management Theory
Kasser and Sheldon
2000
“suggested that concerns
about mortality, although sub-
conscious, strongly influence
our behaviour and aspirations
about material goods and
economic status”
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

39. “people judge experiences
based on their Peak (an intense
moment of the experience) and
at their End”
Peak End Rule
Daniel Kahneman. 1990
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com
Thinking fast
and slow

40. time
feeling
in-different
agony
joy
+peak
end
-peak
Peak End Rule
Daniel Kaheman. 1990
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

41. Peak End Rule
Daniel Kaheman. 1990
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

42. Ends in
Digital

43. 95millionuploads daily to Instagram
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
socialpilot.co. 2017
42 billionlikes daily on Instagram

44. Storage
Source : Matthew Komorowski
Chart Last Updated: March 9, 2014 - This graph of hard drive cost, over 35 years.
$0.043 per giga byte
$0.000043 per photo
Source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/average-cost-of-hard-drive-storage/
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

45. The three seconds it takes to
choose has become too
expensive for people to use.
Delete.Viktor Mayer-Schonberger
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Storage

46. Digital Hoarding
BMJ. Picture of patient’s living room, published with his permission,Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
“He had four external hard drives containing
the original pictures and four external hard
drives containing backups. He never used or
looked at the pictures he had saved, but was
convinced that they would be of use in the
future.”

47. Lingering assets
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

48. Zombie Apps
Zombie App is an app that
doesn’t appear in the top
three hundred of any of
Apple’s twenty three different
genres lists.
Adjust
Last year zombie apps
doubled from 657,778 to
1,136,5021. Out of 1.4 million
on the app store.Lingering products on
the app store
Over 80 percent of Apps on
App Store are Zombies
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

49. 32bit death from Apple
Users not off-boarded
A technical death.
Lacking an emotional funeral.
32 bit Apps no longer
function
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
App store provide no
guidance to off-boarding
32 bit developers fail to
support the off-boarding

50. Terms & Conditions
T&Cs that only
allow the user
to fail cannot
end amicably
20,000 words
12 mentions of “Termination”
6 mentions of “Until”
2 mentions of “Opt out”
All reference Apple as decision maker in any
situation. User has no apparent power
Closure should be a… fair, just conclusion
without negative consequence.
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

51. Terms & Conditions
“Apple reserves the right to disband a Family
in accordance with the “Termination” section
of this Agreement.“

52. Terms & Conditions
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

53. Closure in
Services

54. Government
The only service your born into.
Petr Kratochvil. CC
To leave; vote, move or die
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

55. Ars Moriendi
Ars Moriendi ("The Art of Dying")
Launched in 1415.
50+ years after Black Death
Guided users on the art of a ‘Good Death’
Bridwell Library.
One of the most successful books of 15 century
was a service hand book about endings.

56. By English: Gerry J. Gilmore [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Divorce
Never ending story
£205 Billion
Divorce rates doubled between 1970
(58,239) and 1980 (148,301)
Marriage/Divorce
Marriage ended by husband
by saying “Talaq" 3 times
5 reasons considered
grounds for divorce in UK
1. Adultery,
2. Un-reasonable behaviour,
3. Desertion,
4. Lived apart for 2 years and agreed to
get divorced
5. Lived apart for 5 years without
agreement
UK Government
Divorce with
Blame
Immediate
Divorce
JanVan Eyck.Arnolfini Wedding Portrait
Russian revolution in 1918.
• Helped people leave abusive
relationships.
• Lowered the incidents of wives
committing suicide by 8-16%
• 30% decrease in domestic
violence
Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers
No Fault
Divorce
• 1 in 11 Muslim women are
survivors of triple Talaq
• Vast majority receiving no
compensation.
Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA)
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

57. Pensions
Pensions need to connect
a Starting experience and
a Closure experience over
decades.
1 in 4 of these pension
pots goes missing through
lack of contact.
Age Concern
Average of 11 employers in
our lifetime.
Department for Work and
Pensions UK
20s 65s40 years of v i s i b i l i t y
lifespan
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

58. Thad Zajdowicz. CCJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Credit cards
US household debt as of Q1
2016, is $132,086
www.nerdwallet.com
Credit cards US average $15,310
Consumer rewarded for more debt.
Never rewarded for paying back.
Gaming debt.
Not celebrating
good debt payers.

59. Gyms
Attrition rate of gyms 30-50%.
Even the best gyms are losing 30% each year
www.ptdirect.com
2 in 5 people had trouble canceling contracts.
1 in 4 people had a notice period over 1 month.
1 in 5 found they couldn't leave due to being
tied in for minimum term.
which.co.uk
Gyms deny endings
with contract lock-ins.
Opportunity to create a best in class Closure
Experience - celebrate the ending.
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

60. Mortgages
Jameslwoodward
There should be a period of
reflection and celebration.30 years of
payback shouldn't
end in a moment
Sadly debt is only celebrated, when more debt is added.
Paying off debt is not celebrated,
avoiding a Closure experience for the user.
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

61. Why do
emotional
endings?
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

62. “Closure in narratives attempts to
preserve the moral and social order
which would be threatened by endlessly
erring narratives.”
Elizabeth MacArthur. Extravagant Narratives
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com Raiders of the Lost Ark

63. Richard Neupert. The End, Narration and Closure in Film
“Solid closure in conventional narratives
and histories satisfies individual and social
desire for moral authority, a purposeful
interpretation of life, and genuine stability”
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com Raging Bull

64. The narratives of
consumer endings are…
“endlessly erring narratives”
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com Don’t Look Now

65. Endings add moral and
social order to narratives.
Do we need this in our
consumer society ?
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com Shane

66. A good
Closure Experience
will be…

67. A good Closure Experience will be…
Consciously Connected to the
rest of the experience through
Emotional Triggers that are
Actionable by the user in a
Timely manner.
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

68. Consciously Connected
Consciously Connected to the
rest of the experience through
Emotional Triggers that are
Actionable by the user in a
Timely manner.
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

69. CCO by Ryan Stone
Epson’s PaperLab
Visible ending and rebirth.
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

70. Emotional Triggers
Consciously Connected to the
rest of the experience through
Emotional Triggers that are
Actionable by the user in a
Timely manner.

71. Starting Experience
= 98% Closure Experience
= 2%
Starting Experience
= 90%
Closure Experience
= 10%
Starting Experience
= 40%
Closure Experience
= 60%
Starting Experience
= 0%
Closure Experience
= 100%
Starts to have
emotional meaning
1972
1995
2006
2012
30% on front,
90% on back
All brand elements
removed - colour,
typography, logo.
Positive emotional
message gone
Emotions can be
triggered to
recognise closure
Plain Cigarette
Packs
Research shown plain packaging makes
the packets less appealing and helps
reinforce health messages. BBC
Darker colours - olive green is proposed
- are favoured ahead of white, as they
are perceived to signify more harm.”
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

72. Marie Kondo Tidying Technique
New York Times
An emotional goodbye brings reflection.
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

73. Actionable
Consciously Connected to the
rest of the experience through
Emotional Triggers that are
Actionable by the user in a
Timely manner.

74. Trov Insurance
On demand
insurance.
Challenging the blanket
time based insurance
commitments
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

75. Timely
Consciously Connected to the
rest of the experience through
Emotional Triggers that are
Actionable by the user in a
Timely manner.

76. A planned death in 7 years,
brings opportunities for Kia.
CCO by Ryan Stone
Kia
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod closureexperiences.com

77. What can you do?

78. 1. Think about it.
2. Talk about it.
3. Audit.
4. Map it.
5. Design it.
6. Plan it.

79. Think about it.
!

80. Talk about it

81. 81
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Q1. Do we have a conscious ending?
Q2. What type of ending do we have?
Q3. Are consumers happy after the End?
Audit
Ask yourself some questions.

82. Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
engagement
time
Starting Experiences Closure Experiences
Reflection
Commitment
Last use
Map it
Break up
First use
Projection

83. 83
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Design it
Consciously Connected to the rest of
the experience through
Emotional Triggers that are
Actionable by the user in a
Timely manner.

84. 84
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
5 x 55% of your project time
5 years out
To reveal your products
off-boarding needs…
Plan it
When developing new products and services
don't forget to plan the end in.

85. Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod. @ClosureExp www.closureexperiences.com
End.

86. Ends.
Get the book on
Amazon.
Get the ebook on
Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod. @ClosureExp www.closureexperiences.com