Experience design is the process of planning and creating experiences for events before they occur. It involves considering the elements, essentials, environment, energy, and emotions that will make up the experience. Good experience design engages all five senses and creates meaningful experiences that people value by discovering what experiences the target audience finds valuable. It is crucial to understand the audience and incorporate experiences they have not seen before. The experience should be cohesive from start to finish and achieve the objectives of the event.

1. Experience Design
Managing and Predicting Customer Experience

2. What is Experience Design?
The design takes part just in the mind of the artist
before it is executed.
The experience design of an event is the mental
creation of the event before this one takes place,
therefore it is first in the mind of the designer and
then it is communicated for the people responsible
for its production.
Design can be described as the
plan that has to be made in order to
create something artistically and
skilful.

3. What is Experience Design?
There are five event design principles:
- The elements: all the parts that make up
the event.
- The essentials: the must-haves
- The environment: venue and style
- The energy: creating of mood
- The emotions: feelings

4. What is Experience Design?
Design is still seen by some people as a decorative activity whereby
the embellishment of the environment through food, lighting, sound,
materials and backdrops, however, experience design goes much
deeper than that.
When the event experience design becomes a state of mind, it affects
all the aspects of the event.
In order to create meaningful experience, we need
to discover what type of experiences people value,
once the event designer finds out those, then they
can be incorporated into a design and experience
strategy. The challenge of the event designer is to
come up with experiences that people value but that
also hasn’t been created and seen by the audience
yet.

5. The 5 senses
When creating a memorable experience for the attendees of an event, it is crucial to
engage their five senses. Attendees must connect with the event and feel emerged,
and there is no better way that engaging them through the five senses.
The use of visual content to stimulate the sense of sight. Social media technologies
are now very popular, by creating an engaging path, event designers ensure
attendees’ interaction and encourage them to share content of the event on their
social media.
By setting up the perfect environment for taking photos and creating a custom
hashtag, the attendees will engage with your event and will get the event out there
on social media channels in real-time.
The selection of a fragrance at the event venue is very important. Choosing the right
smell will depend on the theme, venue and size of attendees.

6. The 5 senses
Choosing the right catering is essential when planning an event, attendees are
willing to taste what the event has to offer. Take into account the dietary preferences
of every attendee and ensure they will be taken care of to show that the event
organisers really care.
It is important to create the perfect mood for the attendees by having the right kind of
sounds and music, by understanding very well the target audience of the event the
event designer will be able to create the best audio experience they can have.
The physical reality of the event. While considering the visual aspects of the decor
furniture and other physical objects, it is important to remember that the attendees
will interact with these objects somehow. Ensure that the feel is right by selecting the
best textures and the right shapes. For instance: provide carpeted flooring for feet
comfort and comfortable furniture for the delegates to network.

7. The Four Realms of an Experience
“What specific experience
will my company offer?”
Entertainment Educational
Esthetic Escapist
Active
Participation
Immersion
Passive
Participation
Absorption

8. The 6 D’s of experience: Berridge
(2007)
Decide
Depict
Detail
Demonstrate,
deliver
and delight!
Delineate
Design
Detail

9. How to
achieve
SUCCE
SSWe have devised some key tips for a successful
experience event design that suits customer
profiles. Based upon the models and our own
events experiences.
1. Identify KEY S.M.A.R.T objectives of the event during
the event planning process.
3. Consider experience through the whole start to finish
process. It doesn’t end.
5. Question Yourself: What can you bring to the table that
adds value to the event experience?
7. Event Technology: Live Polls, Q&A, Social Media
Challenges.
9. To achieve sensory satisfaction consider collaborating
with other companies.
2. Question Yourself: What do you want your guests to
walk away feeling? What is your core message?
4. Use an introduction that engages the attendees. It
must be captivating and thought provoking.
6. Include refreshment break assignments to endorse
networking. Include refreshment breaks!!
8. Include an aspect of all 5 senses.
10. Choose the perfect venue. If it isn’t use props and set
design to make it the perfect venue.

10. 11. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. So you can play on emotions, conduct surveys.
Asking them what they want directly is too general so try specific questions that
cooperate towards the event planning process. Ask for feedback after to be sure.
12. Use colour – colours effect the senses.
13. Engage and Understand your audience. Challenge new ideas, encourage active
and passive participation. Consider people go to events for different reasons so
passives may prefer connecting via social media to make it personal.
14. Tease event content before the event takes place. Small previews will pique
interest. Content marketing in the most effective visual way to date. Sharing online,
through mailing lists is most effective. Create anticipation; possibly using a
countdown.
15. 7 point plan: Cost, Creative, Chemistry, Credibility, Decision Maker, Venue, Outs

11. Diller et al (2005) on
creating a meaningful
experience that people
value from any kind of
engagement:

12. Examples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm_dOY7ZvMU: With lots of international food and drink
sponsors, a perfect venue for the genre, interactive atmosphere to engage all the senses and
widely successful with such a large amount of attendees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhcbRK17Rqk Stoke Travel’s main goal is to create
personalized events, travel expeditions and experience for people. Their main focus is
appealing to their audience which is students and they understand them well to the framework
to their event planning is with that in mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMJD53fxihU -
With manicures, massages, bedtime stories read by celebrities and sleep experts, Ikea invited
100 guests to have a sleepover in one of its stores in the UK. This branding move not only
highlighted plenty of products but got a lot of media coverage and attention for this mini event
with over 100,000 signing up for a chance to go.
To enforce the experience, actors stage live acts that pull the attendees in and allow
them to live the storyline.
http://www.cinemaroyal.cz
https://blog.sli.do/10-creative-event-concepts-that-you-will-want-to-duplicate/

13. Sources
https://www.gevme.com/blog/engaging-the-5-senses-for-the-ultimate-event-experience/
http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/beautiful-user-experience-in-events#B6J5eeXC3PwK1Fw3.99
Gilmore, J. & Pine II, B. Welcome to the Experience Economy. Harvard Business Review.
Retrieved 22 February 2017, from https://hbr.org/1998/07/welcome-to-the-experience-
economy&ab=Article-Links-End_of_Page_Recirculation
Berridge, G. (2007). Events design and experience. Routledge.
Further reading:
(good explanation of experience design)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJlfwbS0BFY
(interesting article to read about the future of event design)
http://www.bizbash.com/what-designing-events-for-the-five-senses-means/los-
angeles/story/30851/#.WK4XAxh7Hq1
(marketing campaigns that have used experience design)
https://econsultancy.com/blog/65230-10-very-cool-examples-of-experiential-marketing/

14. Food For
THOUGH
THow happy do
you feel about
your knowledge
of experience
design?
“Start with the outcome
you want and build the
experience around that”
– John Malnor