Designing Experiences From the Inside-Out
Creating a more civilized web through emotional intelligence
I’m caucasian. I’m a male. I drive a SUV. I watch football. I drink beer (IPA’s, usually). I’m heterosexual. I’m a remarried father of two kids. I grew up in a middle-class religious family, to an Economics professor father and stay-at-home mother. I’m a college graduate. I take my coffee black.
Based on these surface-level labels, you might think: “He must be an insensitive white guy. He must be entitled. He’s probably one of those a-holes with a giant truck. He grew up in a religious, conservative household, so I bet he’s right-wing. He’s never been discriminated against about anything. He’s grew-up middle-class, so he doesn’t know what it’s like to struggle.” I admit, I see why you might come to those conclusions. If someone read off my outward description, I’d likely make the same generalizations. It’s easy to take a 10,000 ft. view of individuals based on what you see, just like the cursory glance at a Where’s Waldo picture of a mass of beach-goers. Looking more closely, you see individual stories: an old guy having a cup of coffee in a speedo (really?), two people playing with a beachball in the water, and Waldo smiling back at the reader.
Those easy surface-level labels are not me at all. In reality, I enjoy well-crafted beer and coffee (yes, I have a beard). I’m a lifelong Seattle Seahawks fan. Yes, I’m a male and my ethnicity is Caucasian (Middle Eastern and European descent), I love my wife and am heterosexual, but I am not homophobic. I do drive a Honda Pilot, because my wife and I rescued three dogs and we need the ability to load up our little fur-family. I’m a (very) liberal Democrat. Yes, I have been discriminated against and have felt the sting of being categorized because of my gender, race, and religion. I’m a feminist, and will go toe-to-toe with anyone who feels they are superior to anyone based on race, gender, etc. That is who I am on the inside. That is my background and filter that shapes the context of my interactions, offline and online. Now you know me below the surface of my demographic data points.
Just like fingerprints, the world is comprised of 7.4 billion unique individuals (March, 2016). Each person has their own background, perspective, values, pains, joys, that shape their perspective on the world.
“I hated labels anyway. People didn’t fit in slots — prostitute, housewife, saint — like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.” — Janet Fitch, “White Oleander”
Before I slag-off the readers of this article (and humanity) for being awful people because we all generalize, I’ll start by saying, “I understand.” It’s human nature to group people together. We don’t do it because we are lazy, we do it to save time and survive.
This unconscious practice is an evolutionary advancement, developed over eons of human existence. It is in our nature to generalize and make quick judgements. If humans didn’t develop this, we would curiously approach every animal with sharp teeth and claws for a snuggle; we would eat everything in-front of us, regardless of how it looked or smelled (much like my three dogs). Humans generalize and make assumptions to get through life.
“Out of ignorance or expediency we give all snowflakes the same name.” — Marty Rubin
As content strategists and UX designers, it is our job to empathize with users and communicate based on what those users need to take action and engage with our brands or products. We work to create meaningful, helpful experiences that are received and processed through the lens of each individual user’s perception and values. The way we typically undertake a communication and experience design project is by doing thoughtful research through existing data, experiments, user testing, interviews, and the development of frameworks such as personas/profiles and journey maps. The challenge in creating thoughtful experiences is rooted in the assumption that individuals within an audience cohort have the same needs and values as their adjacent group members. Yes, there are likely behavioral trends and cultural norms that explain behavior, but trends don’t show the full, contextual story of each individual.
“The plural of anecdote is not data.” — Frank Kotsonis
With all evidence pointing to the fact that the web needs to be more understanding of each user’s individuality and knowing that there is the daunting task of creating experiences for many of individual web users, how does a content strategist and user experience designer propose to begin the task of communication design? The answer may come from looking at your design from a different dimension, from the inside-out. To borrow from one of my heroes, “Ask not what [your users] can do for you, ask what you can do for [your users].” Too often as product designers, content strategists, and UX designers, we think about the product experience first, then try to figure out how to get it in-front of our users more effectively, instead of thoughtfully understanding how we’d like to create experiences that help others based on the context of their needs and wants.
Shed the Labels
Individually, we need to get out of the practice of labeling people based on their demographic data. As designers, this is a professional necessity. I’m not [just] a white male; I’m Joel. Just as you’re not defined by your gender, race, religious affiliation, sexual preference, ability, education level, or heritage; you are your own person. The web experiences we create are also for individuals.
I recently worked on a web project for a company that develops medical devices used by parents to help correct their infant’s head shape. The researchers and brand strategists on the project frequently generalized that the web visitors were defined as “she” (i.e. mothers) and did not acknowledge the likelihood that fathers also interact with the product. I coached the team to be aware that we were addressing parents (both mothers and fathers) who were concerned about their child’s head shape. By removing gender labels, the team confidently created experiences that wouldn’t alienate 50% of their potential visitor-customers.
Think From the Inside-Out; Not the Outside-In
Web experiences without labels takes work. Our culture trains us to think from the outside-in, and not the inside-out. The best way to approach content strategy more thoughtfully is to focus more heavily on the why someone is visiting your website or using your app, and not the who. It is your job, as a content strategist, to be a voice for more contextually thoughtful communication design and to create experiences for each individual based on how their culture communicates. As we speak with individuals, address each person as a human being and be mindful of the variety of reasons they want to interact with you.
Understand Context
As a kid, one of my favorite things to do on drives, was to look over at each person in their own cars and wonder, what is that person’s story? What is their life like? What are their struggles? Are they happy? Do they feel loved or lonely? Why are they driving; are they going to work, or doing something fun? Each person has their own story to tell.
Before designing the content and experience of each web interaction, consider the context of why a person interacts with the webpage or app. Why did they come there? What is their mindset? What are they typically going through that lead to that interaction? Some interactions are more linear and less-emotional. These are typically actions that are represented by our base human needs (e.g. shelter, food, water, safety). Other interactions appeal to higher needs, and are more open to a variety of emotional contexts (e.g. affiliation interactions). It should be noted, web interactions that are every-day experiences (e.g. paying for a utility, finding food, etc.) are more influenced by our base emotions. Subconsciously, fight-or-flight responses factor into these experiences, as well as emotions of delight and achievement (think: Tuk-Tuk the neanderthal).
If you can’t easily define a consistent context for your users, design with the mindset that all emotions and contexts of your users won’t be the same. Designing web experiences for one particular context without considering or respecting others is careless at best, and potentially damaging to your brand. I don’t presume to know what you’re going through when you interact with my web experiences, and I’d hope that you’ll extend me the same sensitivity.
A good example of a sensitive web experience is Facebook’s On This Day feature. Currently, users get notices of events and friendships that occurred on that day in previous years. If the user doesn’t want to see memories of a certain person or date (e.g. an ex, or the day someone passed away, etc.), the user can block those individuals or events from coming up in their feed. Facebook strategists realized that not all shared content in their platform are happy, some are posted to share a sad memory, such as the loss of a loved one, or the heartache of losing a job. There may have been posts in the past that included people that you no longer want to be reminded of. (I’m sure we all have a few of those people in our lives.) Facebook is clearly working to create experiences from the inside-out with emotionally intelligent design.
Context Framework
The favorite tools of any self-respecting content strategist or UX designer are a whiteboard and markers. As you research and ideate upon the page or experience you are designing, frame the experience within a variety of emotional contexts for that interaction. It will allow you to view your design from a bird’s-eye-view to see if your experience fits within a variety of user contexts. I couple this framework with page core models to also identify user inflows/outflows, user needs, and business objectives. The context framework adds a final layer or check for your experience to determine if your design is appropriate for a variety of individuals.
As you complete your proposed UI, content, or design, look through the lense of various contexts, or views by which visitors will engage with your product. Is it still appropriate? Are you able to make a meaningful connection between your product and its intended user? If not, you can modify your experience to be more in-line with each context. Naturally, content strategy is an iterative discipline. There’s never a “set it and forget it” design. If you find that your design isn’t hitting the mark, or you find that your users aren’t engaging the way you hoped, you can make necessary changes along the way. By looking through the lens of user contexts, you will be less likely to cause pain or alienate your users unintentionally.
In the words of a colleague, Jonathon Colman, as we design, we need to be mindful of “how can I help you.” Shed surface-level labels; don’t design for homogenous groups. By designing from the inside-out and being mindful of the myriad of contexts users will have as they interact with your web experience, will enable us to create experiences that are more human and kind. Raise the standard and seek first to understand before seeking to be understood.
