Adaptive Path Blog

Few people like visiting a booth at a conference. That’s why we saw it as a great opportunity for a redesign experience.

We set up a conversation space at the recent Forrester Customer Experience Forum, alongside the handful of other exhibitor booths. Our talented designer Trina Hancock envisioned it as a serene oasis in an otherwise chaotic space, bringing our love of experience design to the conference room floor.

Here’s the thinking we brought to the space:

• White space beats screaming — Hotel carpet is already complex enough. Add glowing lights, flashing signs, and a bunch of schwag and you’ve got Times Square on steroids. Nothing gets through. So we started with a palette of white. White carpet, white furniture, white backdrop.
• Let people in — Just as a web page or a printed page need negative space to improve the clarity of communication, environments need negative space too. We offer plenty of space to walk in and sit down in our booth. This is a common technique in retail environment design. The Gap, for example, ensures there’s plenty of open room at the front of the store so nothing blocks you from entering and wandering deep into the store before you stop to explore the displays.
• Less information is more — We could try to tell attendees everything we know about experience design on a sign, or we could let you ask what you want to know and let us respond. We picked some of our brightest folks to go represent us, and we gave them an iPad and iPhone apps to share work and ideas to answer people’s questions. But most important, we were just there to listen, be smart, and have exciting conversations.
• End strong — A memorable experience ends on a high note. Everyone who visited left with fun but relevant evidence of their visit to our space. Will attendees remember that we can deliver unique and delightful experiences? We think so.

Okay, we admit it. Presenting our ideas and services in this way is a little weird for Adaptive Path. It’s not the kind of thing we typically do. So it was super important to everyone involved to figure out what our version of a conference booth should feel like. We gave it love.

We also admit there were a couple of things we didn’t think of in advance and we had to solve on the fly:

1. People didn’t think it was a booth, so they we’re more likely to just have a seat — we turned this into an opportunity, making people feel at home in our space is quite different from other booths
2. We had to quickly educate ourselves on lighting — a quick run to a neighborhood lighting store and some up-lights borrowed from the hotel fixed a dim environment

So we went to the Forrester Customer Experience Forum knowing that folks with Customer Experience problems and opportunities would be present — people that might not have thought of a firm like us as someone who could be a partner in moving forward. Our redesign of the conference booth was just another way of showing how experience design can create delightful results.

Last week I attended the three-day Customer Experience Summit and became acutely aware of a left-brain/right-brain divide in the field of customer experience. In my practice and writing, I discuss customer experience as an evolution of user experience, and is largely addressed through customer research and design activities. At this conference, customer experience was seen primarily as the evolution of customer service, the majority of attendees had call center backgrounds, and the conversation was very “business-y” in tone, dominated by discussion of metrics, customer satisfaction surveys, and Six Sigma “Voice of the Customer”.

I was dismayed at the lack of vision and heart displayed in most of the presentations. “Customer experience” is seen as something you simply engineer into a system, and when you have “breaks” in your customer experience (identified through surveys conducted ad nauseum), you isolate the problem and address it. The discussion was very bottom-up, and the importance of a big picture vision for these activities to roll up to was never stated. This is an approach that might raise the metaphoric floor, but will never raise the ceiling.

That said, I realized that as the design community increasingly addresses the broader customer experience, designers need to get more comfortable with this level of analytical rigor. Designers are often satisfied to come up with the big picture and let others figure out the details. Designers need to recognize that they are not just designing the experience at touchpoints that customers have with a company, but they also need to appreciate and design for the internal realities within companies. The “front-line” is perhaps the key component in delivering a great customer experience, and if our design work neglects this, we are missing a sizable component. This is something that service designers have already been grappling with, and UX folks who find themselves crossing channels would do well to seek out their ideas.

My single biggest positive outcome was hearing and meeting Rick Otero. He is currently Executive Vice President, Services and Customer Experience at Capital One Bank, and definitely gets the left- and right-brain aspects of CX. He’s posted the slides of his presentation, “The Branded Associate Owner”, on his personal blog, which has a bunch of his thoughts “in pursuit of the great customer experience.” He, too, cites Southwest Airlines in his presentations, and showed this video of a ramp agent being able to articulate Southwest’s customer value proposition as evidence of the importance of everyone in a company feeling responsible for the customer experience.

In the comments, I’d love to hear stories of left-brain (bottom-up, analytical) and right-brain (top-down, big picture) collaborations leading to great holistic customer experience delivery.

From Microsoft comes two nifty product demos emerging from their Labs.

Blaise Aguera y Arcas showed off Bing Maps, with new technologies that allow you embed Flickr photos and even live video in “street view” mode.

Gary Flake walks you through Pivot, a tool for data analysis and exploration through realtime visualization.

In an earlier post, I referenced Daniel Kahneman’s presentation on experience versus memory, and now you can his talk. For my money, perhaps the single best presentation at TED 2010.

The recent TED Talk that most surprised me as relevant to experience design actually comes from TED India, and I think has been overlooked in the blogosphere. Sendhil Mullainathan talks about the “last mile” problem when dealing with social problems — convincing people to do what’s best for them, even when it conflicts with their mental models. A fascinating discussion of addressing psychological challenges to making positive change, and the one that I’ll embed here:

Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman was the first speaker on the main stage at TED 2010. I had been introduced to his ideas by Brandon, who cites the “Peak-End Rule” in our book Subject to Change. In his presentation, Daniel explains the internal conflict that your experiencing self (the one that lives in the moment) has with your remembering self (the one that looks back). Using colonoscopy as the example, it turns out that people can have quantifiably worse experiences (lasting longer, with more misery throughout), but will remember the experience more favorably if it ended on a less miserable note. When people choose what to do, they don’t choose between actual experiences, but memories of those experiences. So, as experience designers, it’s crucial for us to keep in mind to not just deliver great experiences, but deliver experiences that allow people to tell happy stories about that experience. And to remember that your experience must finish strong.

In other news, it was great to see friend of Adaptive Path (and upcoming MX 2010 speaker) Margaret Gould Stewart present at TED University on what YouTube does to manage digital copyright, and how companies with open policies can realize unexpected value. The case in point was Chris Brown’s song “Forever,” suddenly reaching #4 on iTunes 18 months after it had been released, thanks to the viral popularity of the (in)famous wedding march that used the song.

Can you imagine an alternate reality? We talk about alternate reality games, but what if an alternate reality exists for others on a day to day basis. Take a second and imagine what it would be like if you couldn’t’ think in the abstract, but instead had a brain that thought by referencing tons of concrete images. Like if we said “think of a church steeple”, and you thought of lots of examples from around the world of church steeples — instead of just a general church steeple. At UX Week this year, Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University, talked about her experience having Autism and designing for the livestock industry. She shared how important her abnormal focus on detail, ability to think in pictures, both common to Autism, enable her design for livestock in a way that ‘normal’ people can’t. Professor Grandin’s talk opened our mind to how different peoples’ brains work differently and that this alternate reality is not so uncommon for people in the design industry.

Temple Grandin PART 1 of 2 | UX Week 2009 | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Temple Grandin PART 2 of 2 | UX Week 2009 | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Next week I’ll be speaking at the 2009 MEX Conference in London. Marek Pawlowski invited me to create a talk around point number three of this year’s mobile user experience manifesto: Customer research methodology must be enhanced to close the reality gap.

My talk – Failures of Imagination: The Role of Research in Creating Compelling Mobile Experiences – was inspired by an NPR segment I caught recently on a road trip in Arizona. Admittedly, talk radio can be mesmerizing and the mind can forge seemingly unrelated relationships between disparate topics amongst the monotony of the desert landscape. However, I believe there was an important message about the role of imagination in the piece Where Were The Media As Wall Street Imploded? that strongly correlates to the primary reason why mobile research often fails in the mobile design and development process. A failure of imagination.

Why didn’t journalists warn us of our impending financial doom? Didn’t they see it coming? Folkenflik’s story gives some compelling and logically sound reasons as to why business and financial journalists were as dumb-founded by the recent collapse of the US financial system as the rest of us. However, it was these words that left my mind a buzz as miles of desert unfolded before me:

“If everything we had said and written came true then we might have expected some of this to have happend. But I think there was a failure of imagination among economists, policymakers, as well as journalists.”

Imagination. It’s not a word we often associate with economists and policymakers… and it’s not a word we easily associate with mobile research, either. These are professional activities that require rigor around the fact finding process. However, the evidence of the impact of facts without foresight is clear. Facts do us little good if we lack the imagination necessary to embrace the futures facts can steer us towards. I’ve seen the impact of a lack imagination with regard to research play out countless times in initiatives I’ve been involved with both inside organizations and as a consultant. Too often research is used to reinforce existing agendas, instead of informing a compelling vision of the future.

At MEX, I’ll share my ideas for how to inject imagination into mobile research and design through defining a clear and informed hypothesis for research studies. I’ll also share three case studies on mobile design research methods developed at Adaptive Path that have proven effective in the creation of compelling mobile experiences.

There’s a stellar line up of speakers planned for the conference, including:
Robert Fabricant, Executive Creative Director, Frog Design
Hampus Jakobsson, Co-founder and Vice President of Business Development, TAT
Sian Townsend, User Experience Researcher, Google

Hope to see you there!

Here are a few of the highlights from day two of PopTech!, a fantastic conference hosted in Camden, Maine on October 22-25. The theme of the conference was scarcity and abundance; apt themes in such turbulent times.

Digital Freedoms
The day kicked off with a trio of great thought leaders in the digital space; Chris Anderson, Clay Shirky and Matt Mason spoke about Digital Freedoms. The Long Tail author, Chris Anderson spoke about economics as framed by Adam Smith as the science of choice under scarcity. Chris outlined that there’s more to economics than money and how economies can form around the following scarcities: time, money, happiness, attention and reputation. Chris shared that non-monetary economies are inherently:
1. Measurable
2. Finite
3. Convertible to other economic systems.

Chris gave several examples of how non-monetary economies are taking form on the web. He spoke about reputation economies and how “http://” is an expression of reputation and that “linking” to someone is like a gift of reputation. Links are a currency. He also cited page rank in Google’s search results as an economy unto itself. What’s great about the web is that it is relatively open, however there are also examples of closed non-monetary systems in the digital domain in games like Second Life and Spore that serve as examples for how these cashless economies form and take hold.

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, delivered thought-provoking content on how to design for generosity. Clay reminded us how in 1999, Napster was the fastest growing software in history… and it was a system that relied almost entirely on generosity to function. He then cited two examples – Grobanites for Charity and Howard Forums - as examples of powerful online systems that inherently understand intrinsic motivations around generosity. Clay explained that sharing knowledge fulfills an intrinsic human desire to be competent, to share our values with others, and to be appreciated.
Shirky says that there is no sure-fire way to design for generosity, but he offers these four tips:

1. Design for intrinsic motivation
Design systems where people can share knowledge and feel appreciated.

2. Recognize that love and fame are different
But being loved by a small group of people is different than being recognized by lots of people. Most folks simply want to be loved and appreciated.

3. Autonomy
Clay stressed that allowing communities autonomy and control are essential for the long-term survival of these community-based systems.

4. Find the sweet spot between completely open and closed systems
Close a system and it will die; keep it too open and the trolls will decimate it.

Matt Mason, a former pirate radio DJ and author of The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism, claimed, “Piracy isn’t really a bug, it’s a feature.” Piracy, he explained, is simply evidence of a market failure and that it’s not all bad. Piracy can be used as a marketing tool and has proven fertile ground for new and innovative business models that incorporate the consumer as a key element in the process.

Matt also reminded us how piracy doesn’t just affect digital stuff; there’s examples in other sectors of the economy such as pharmaceuticals and physical goods like electronics. He said there’s a lot to learn from pirates because pirates create solutions – which got me thinking that pirating is, in many ways, a form of cobbling.

Project Masiluleke
Next, a team of folks presented their work for Project Masiluleke, a PopTech! initiative that was inspired by a talk given by HIV campaigner Zinny Thabethe at Pop!Tech 2006. The project is centered around KwaZulu-Natal, a province in South Africa that is the epicenter of the HIV pandemic in Africa. The stigma associated with HIV causes most people in South Africa to only seek testing and treatment when there is a crisis or when they are about to die. The goals of the project were to design systems that promote testing and provide post-test support regardless of results.

The first solution was a text message information campaign. With the support of MTN, South Africa’s largest mobile network, a million messages with information on HIV testing and support are sent for free every day. The texts are broadcasted in the unused space of “Please Call Me” (PCM) text messages – a special, free form of SMS text widely used in South Africa and across the continent. Pilot projects have seen phone calls to the National Aids Helpline increase from 1,000 a day to 4,000, largely from the communities that most need help. And it’s a model that could be expanded across the rest of Africa.

The second solution shared was the design of a free, home testing kit. Created in collaboration with Frog Design, these packaged kits have simple instructions that rely on minimal literacy to use and provide mobile phone support throughout the process. Analogous to a pregnancy test, these diagnostic tests provide a free, private and reliable way for people in South Africa to take the critical first step of knowing their status.

I am constantly amazed by the ways mobile technology is being used to promote positive social change in the world. This is truly an inspiring project.

Hello Health
Dr. Jay Parkinson shared how systemic problems in the health care industry inspired his company, Hello Health. He asked the audience, “What is the fundamental reason that relationships fail?” The answer = poor communication. This is true of marriages, friendships and … health care.

Jay uses the web to streamline and improve communication with his patients – everything is online – from making appointments to accessing records to paying through Paypal. He’s also reinvented the payment model for his business, charging a $35 a month subscription fee in addition to flat rates for things like answering emails and video or IM chats.

What was particularly exciting about the model is how it can promote a more holistic view of one’s health – both for the patient and the provider. The system is open and transparent, allowing for better communication between patient and doctors, and doctors and other health care providers.

Finally, I couldn’t resist mentioning the performance of dreamy Amos Lee. Inspired, humble, and moving. Really great stuff.

PopTech! appealed to me because I was interested in getting outside of the user experience/design echo chamber. The event exceeded my expectations. Attending this conference was truly uplifting and I left inspired. PopTech! has done a great job of sharing content from the event on their web site. Videos of the entire day’s programming made their way to the PopTech! web site and more summaries of all the speakers are available on the PopTech! blog. Next year’s theme is America Reimagined. Hope to see you there!

Scarcity and Abundance was the theme of this year’s PopTech! conference in Camden, Maine. The fall leaves were aglow and the weather made it difficult to stay inside, but the content was stellar and the speakers were truly inspiring. Here are some of the highlights from day one.

The day started off with a presentation by Saul Griffith, an Australian engineer, environmentalist and inventor based in San Francisco. I found Saul’s talk particularly interesting because like many folks, I am aware of the global problem of climate change, but often feel powerless in truly understanding how my personal behaviors impact the environment. Saul shared how he conducted a micro-level study of the power he uses to maintain his life in a given year. The result? “I started off thinking I was good – now I find out I’m a planet fucker,” he says.

So he created Wattzon, an online tool that allows users to track their energy consumption, compare it to others’ and understand its consequences in order to discover how to reduce their role in climate change. Saul said that what is exciting about the discussion around climate change right now is that people are willing to listen.

I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s work and in his presentation on the capitalization of human potential, Malcolm outlined his theories on what limits people in successfully achieving their potential.

Malcolm’s theory is that there are three conditions that suppress Cap rates (the rate that people within a society are able to realize what they are capable of).
They are:
1. Poverty Constraint
2. Stupidity Constraints
3. Cultural Constraints

Humans like to believe that there are innate reasons why some people achieve while others do not. Malcolm argues that is simply not true – achievement and people’s ability to capitalize on their own potential is dependent on how well they can overcome these constraints.

“We have a scarcity of achievement in the US because we’re squandering it. But it’s not bad news, it’s good news – because it’s not scarcity we have to live with: we can do something about it.”

I’m looking forward to reading more about this topic in three weeks when his latest book, Outliers: The Story of Success is released.

I was truly inspired by the last three speakers of the day: Marian Bantjes, Chandler Burr, and Ben Zander.

Marian Bantjes shared how early in her career as a graphic designer, she became depressed when she came face-to-face with her own mediocrity. “It’s depressing to live your life making landfill,” she said, and at that point, resolved to create work that would transcend garbage.

She started to create work that was meaningful to her, and interestingly enough… it was meaningful to others. Marian’s work is a rare and beautiful mix of art, graphic design with amazing embellishment and detail. A common question admirers of Marian’s work ask is, “How long did that take you?” Marian described how she realized that detail is a form of honor because it is a manifestation of time – and people equate value with time. When you create something from a place of love, it shows — and it will intrinsically have value to others. “When we spend time on something, we dedicate a part of ourselves to it…. it takes a lot of energy and love to do what I do, but when I create something beautiful, I know it has value to the world.”

Chandler Burr is a man unabashedly passionate about scent and his interactive presentation on searching for the perfect scent was truly a treat. I had no idea scent could be so interesting – but when you are in the presence of somebody who clearly loves a topic so deeply, it’s infectious. Chandler explained how a chance meeting with perfumer on a train in Japan ignited his interest in scent. Perfume sticks were passed out to the 600 attendees throughout his talk, as Chandler asked people to identify eight distinct scents. He took us through an olfactory journey, sharing tales of each of the eight scents and describing why each was either scarce or abundant. “There is a story – a world of climate change, bad economic policy, smuggling, and greed – in every bottle of perfume.” I’m buying my bottle of Coco Mademoiselle and Estee Lauder Pleasures today.

The day ended with a truly electrifying talk by Ben Zander on the power of possibility. Ben is a celebrated author and the music director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. He started his talk by asking the audience to sing happy birthday to a fellow audience member. He then guided us through improving our delivery by infusing it with emotion and nuance. He then reinforced this lesson by coaching a young, local cello student through a cello lesson. Ben shared that in any adverse situation in life, we have three choices: to be resigned, to be angry, or to see possibility.

Anger and resignation are choices of scarcity. They are choices that are downward spirals where one will always see the glass as half empty. Ben shared that the choice to see possibility is a choices of abundance – it allows for an expressive life and conversation. Great leaders recognize the downward spiral and lead people to conversations of possibility.

Zander closed by saying, “I have a bigger dream – that every one of you in this room will be leaders in seeing abundance. That you will live the rest of your life in possibility. That is my dream.”

Videos of the entire day’s programming will be up shortly on the PopTech! web site and more summaries of all the speakers from day one are available on the PopTech! blog.

I’ll be presenting Mobile User Experience, What Web Designers Need to Know at WebDirections North in Denver, Colorado this February. In addition to a stellar line up of speakers presenting content on designing and developing for the web, there’s also a group of folks presenting content that’s sure to be relevant for mobile:

Brian Fling of Fling Media will be presenting The Mobile Web: A Crash Course and hosting the workshop Creating Mobile 2.0 Web Applications in less than a day.

Ryan Sarver will be presenting Building Location Aware Web Applications, which will give folks insight into the tools available to bring location to their web site or mobile applications.

And who could resist joining me in heckling my former colleague, Dan Saffer, now of Kicker Studio, as he presents and hosts a workshop on Tap is the New Click, timely content on designing gestural interfaces.

WebDirections North looks to be a great conference in the Mile-High City February 5-7.

Use this code: WDN09DRH when you register and save $50 before December 15th.

I’m in Camden, Maine this week attending PopTech! It’s a conference that convenes a network of 600 remarkable thinkers, doers, leaders and global change agents in science, technology, social innovation, business, environmentalism, globalization, media, education, and many other fields for a four-day exploration of ideas shaping the future.

I’m honored to be in the company of such smart and inspiring people and will be writing about the highlights here throughout the week.