What is an experience

A lecture that investigates what 'an experience' actually means and how designers can approach it.

1. What is an Experience? Examining the need for experiences and what it means for designers.

2. 1. The Need For Experiences Why we crave for experiences.

3. EXPERIENCE Life As The Sum of Experiences Images Our lives are filled with moments that we remember like a concert, a first kiss, a jump off the cliff into the sea or a long trek to watch a sunrise.

4. EXPERIENCE Life it is not just a series of calculations and a sum total of statistics, it's about experience, it's about participation, it is something more complex and more interesting than what is obvious. Daniel Libeskind Renowned Polish-American Architect ‘ ’ Life As The Sum of Experiences

5. EXPERIENCE The Experience Economy Images Many of us belong in the time-starved generation where our lives are so filled with the humdrum of getting things done that we actively seek out experiences to feel alive and be a part of something larger.

6. EXPERIENCE The Experience Economy Millennials are prioritising their cars and homes less and less, and assigning greater importance to personal experiences - […] renting scooters and touring Vietnam, rocking out at music festivals, or hiking Machu Picchu. Uptin, S. (2016) Millennials Are Prioritising Experiences Over Stuff , CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/05/millennials-are-prioritizing-experiences-over-stuff.html [accessed 30.08.17] ‘ ’

7. EXPERIENCE The Experience Economy Design has moved from its origins of making things look attractive, to making things that fulfil true needs in an effective and understandable way… to the enabling of experience. Each step is more difficult than the one before each requires and builds upon what was learned before. Donald A. Norman in a commentary post from User Experience and Experience Design by Marc Hassenzahl (2011) Source: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/user-experience-and-experience-design [accessed 17.08.17] ’ ‘

8. An experience is […] as real an offering as any service, good, or commodity. In today’s service economy, many companies simply wrap experiences around their traditional offerings to sell them better. To realize the full benefit of staging experiences, however, businesses must deliberately design engaging experiences that command a fee. Pine, J. (1998) Welcome To The Experience Economy . Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/1998/07/welcome-to-the-experience-economy [accessed 17.08.17] ‘ ’ EXPERIENCE The Experience Economy

9. EXPERIENCE The Experience Economy Images Our in flight experience is one common example where a service is repackaged and marketed as an experience but is still designed from a function, logic and cost effective position rather than what customers want.

10. EXPERIENCE The Experience Economy Images The music industry is a case study of how businesses did not react quick enough to changing times and suffered huge financial losses. Now they are struggling to find profitable business models that put massive strain on their main source of income - the artists.

11. 2. What is an Experience? Examining the theory behind experience.

12. What is An Experience Experiencing vs. Having an Experience Experience occurs continuously, because of the interaction of the live creature and environing conditions is involved in the very process of living […] Oftentimes, however, the experience had is inchoate. Things are experienced but not in such a way that they are composed into an experience […] In contrast with such experience, we have an experience when the material experienced runs it course to fulfilment. Then and then only is it integrated within and demarcated in the general stream of experience from other experiences. Dewey, J. 1984. Art as Experience. (p36-37) ’ ‘ EXPERIENCE

13. KEY IDEAS IN Having an Experience An experience is the result of an interaction between a person and the world he lives in. It is undergone as a process and lived through such as that meal, that storm or that journey. An experience consists of successive events that is seamless and progressive that creates some effect or change. Events are not simply about understanding information but engage us by provoking emotions and reactions such as thought, interpretation or doing Each successive event builds to a growing sense of meaning and reaches an end where there consummation Experience is inherently personal and subjective as we all experience things differently. What is An Experience EXPERIENCE

14. Designing For An Experience EXPERIENCE Images Experience is inherently personal - you have might enjoyed a movie, while your friend fell asleep and another thought it was boring. The same content, same cinema but entirely different experiences.

15. Designing For An Experience EXPERIENCE A singular experience cannot be designed since it is subjective - everyone experiences something differently. Instead, we should strive to consider how a design can allow for an experience to unfold [1] and the type of experience we would like them to have. Hassenzah, M., (2011) Experience and User Experience Design Source: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/user-experience-and-experience-design [accessed 17.08.17]

16. Designing For An Experience EXPERIENCE The Landscape Designers of Frognerparken could never design how it’s experienced. All they can do is plan for the sculptures, pavements, benches and bridges but ultimately the users - young people, families, children, lovers, friends, runners, dog owners - all use the park differently and have different experiences. The type of experiences changes again in winter when the park is used differently than summer. Left Different uses of Frognerparken in Summer. A PARK AS ANALOGY

17. 3. Designing for Experiences Designing with the 5 senses in mind

18. Designing For An Experience - Sight EXPERIENCE Shapes/Forms Have Inherent CHARACTERISTICS Shapes can suggest meaning and has been studied all throughout design history. Some meanings are derived from our association to the natural world while others were instilled over time through cultural practices. Some notable books are Design and Form by Johannes Itten, and Square, Circle and Triangle by Bruno Munari. The general accepted ideas are: The circle signifies movement, divinity, love, harmony The square signifies tranquillity, safety, enclosure, stability, strength The triangle signifies direction, domination, power

19. Designing For An Experience - Sight EXPERIENCE Visual Quality of Shapes and Forms Visually softer forms, taking cue from the circle, are used to express soft ideas while harder forms, taking cue from the square and triangle, are used to express hard ideas. (Rasmussen - Chapter 1 Basic Observations; Mollerup - Vernacular) Hard forms can suggest power firmness conviction authority and permanence Softer forms can suggest vitality, movement, flow, conflict.

20. Forms with Meaning - Sight EXPERIENCE SHAPES AND FORMS HAVE MEANING Images Mitsubishi ad by Africa Sao-Paolo; Pirelli by Armando Testa; Unbreabkable by Seymour Chwast, Push-pin Studios; Kinetic Design by Ford; Bottle for Ty Nant by Ross Lovegrove;; Bird’s Nest by Hertzog De Meuron.

21. Forms with Meaning - Sight/Materiality EXPERIENCE Material and Qualities Credits (clockwise) Sway by Sack and Reicher + Muller; SunnyHills by Kengo Kuma; Rain Room by Random International; Susana Solano Exhibition by Cardaval & Sola-Morales.

22. Credits (clockwise) Haptic Design by Hara Kenya; Multi-touch Gestures by Gabriele Meldaikyte; Haptic Poster by Maqina; JuicePeel by Naoto Fukasawa; Gel Phone by Panasonic; Haptic Feedback by Masao Ave Haptic Design or communication through touch became popularised in the early 2000s with the work of Hara Kenya and influential Japanese designers. EXPERIENCE Designing For Interaction - touch Material and Tactility

23. Designers are actively exploring immersion as an alternative to didactic design. They question how people can momentarily leave their ‘world’ and become immersed in an alternate reality. Credits (clockwise) C8 by Void; Crystal Universe by TeamLabs; Living Digital Space and Future Parks by TeamLabs; Volume by United Visual Artists; Spectra by Ryoji Ikeda EXPERIENCE Designing For Engagement - Sight, Sound, Touch and Smell

24. Designers are changing the way we construct ownership and identity by getting the users involved in processes such participatory design and user-cantered design. Instead of designing physical results, many end up designing intangible results such as services, events or systems. Credits (clockwise) Kapoor of Stories by Participate in Design; Service Design training at AHO; Campus Martius Park, Detroit by Southwest Airlines. EXPERIENCE Designing For Participation - Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch and Involvement

25. Summary The notion of Design has fundamentally changed over the last two decades. From the creation of mass produced products based on what businesses and designers think consumers would like to have, to the design of things that are meaningful and enable them to fulfil their needs and emotions - to have experiences. The question we all are still exploring is: How then can we design for experiences to make our work meaningful?