How to Build a Great Fence Experience

I’ve been working on building a fence in my backyard. My new fence serves one purpose. Containment. I’ve been planning this project ever since my kids figured out how to walk. And then run. Usually straight towards the neighbor’s house across the street and into oncoming traffic.

If you’ve built a fence, you know the first step. Take a long piece of string, some wood stakes and outline the perimeter of the fence. This step keeps your fence straight and shows you where to dig the post holes. Just in the middle of moving my string for the fifth time, I learned that the art of fence building may offer more to the world than just containment.

I heard Jared Spool speak a few months ago. Jared is the CEO of User Interface Engineering. His topic? The Anatomy of Design Decisions and why we choose to design things the way we do. He introduced five ways people make design decisions. Unintentional, self, expert, activity-focused and experience-focused design.

While I’m not a licensed engineer of interfaces, or fences for that matter, two of Jared’s design strategies seem to have everything to do with my new fence.

Activity-focused design involves specific activities for users. I understand the “user” behavior of my children and the typical path they take when they bolt out of the backyard. My fence is great at activity-focused design and containing my hyper active children.

Experience-focused design on the other hand involves designing around the experience that happens between activities. How does my fence really fit in my backyard when it’s taking a break from corralling my kids? Does your wife think the fence gate will confuse others if the lock is on the outside? Or maybe she just likes the fence in a straight line. Do your neighbors now worry that their kids can’t freely enter your yard now? Or maybe you discover that your mower doesn’t fit behind that overgrown bush and that fence post. It is in experience-focused design decisions that usable products become great products.

Are you struggling to improve the experience of your product? Stop trying to fence in specific activities. Before you design your next product with the current activity in mind, put down the shovel, pick up the string and test out your fence experience for a few weeks. Like me, you may be amazed at the user feedback and experiences you discover.