Experience Continuum Model
forget about SD, CS, CX & UX silos
The concept “shopping experience” as such has its roots in 1973 when Philip Kotler noted that “the atmosphere and the ambient (of a store) is a marketing tool” and indicated that spaces and environments must be designed taking into Note that these will produce certain emotional effects on the client, thus varying the likelihood that he will buy. (Lluís Martínez-Ribes)
It has been a long time since marketing began to investigate and understand how to tackle the expectations and motivations of consumers. Step by step, several disciplines were specialized in specific contexts and stages of the “journey” of the client. We find a good example of this growth in the Customer Experience CX, which is an evolution of Customer Service, increasingly linked to Service Design and in recent times more interested in digital products and services.
On the other hand, we have the User Experience UX, in fashion nowadays, although Don Norman already used this term in 1999 refering to an eventual overcoming of usability (The invisible computer, Don Norman 1998). It began as a discipline specialized in digital environments due to its relationship with user interfaces, but it´s living its own evolution, working more and more in the design of experiences far away from traditional virtual environments.
But the central point is, that all these different approaches have in common the “user/client centered design” and the mission to understand their problems in an holistic way.
Despite the efforts that are being made, large organizations are being blocked by a closed silos culture. This context is an inheritance of Fordist industrialization in which each stage of product development is made by specialized teams within a production chain. This kind of “compartmentalization” to face the client’s experience, must be overcome if we try to be consistent with what people actually “live” when they consume our services, and despite appearing to be obvious or “common sense”, the situation in most companies are the opposite.
But, why is so difficult this change for us?(beyond fear to abandon known vices). Well, on the one hand, the conceptual division still prevailing between the physical and the virtual spaces in the case of the CX-UX couple and on the other hand, the aforementioned specialization at each stage of the customer journey.
The big difference with the changes and innovations that we live in the past, is that now not only the rules of the game have changed, but it is the playing field itself that is being transformed; mixed and virtual reality, multi-device experiences, distributed interfaces, smart clothes and accessories, IOT, etc … are bringing the society of the future to our daily lifes, and the speed of these changes is incredible overwhelming.
It´s possible in this scenario to clearly define where physical ends and where virtual begins? The answer is: of course not, the new reality of this “hyperconnected life” requires a new collaborative approach among all those involved.
This is why, in Diga33! We are betting on reinforcing the synergies between the different teams, specialized in the different facets or dimensions of this continuum, connecting all those involved, with the mission that the whole will be more than the sum of its parts.
Beyond the divergence or convergence of the physical and the virtual spaces, we must start talking about a continuum: the client experience is a space-time continuum and therefore cannot be tackle from the silos, in a segmented way, it must be understood from a holistic framework.
If you want to know more about how to transform the way you work in your organization to face these challenges, follow us in our medium publication, on twitter or contact us on our website. We can help you from training, consulting, coaching and co-creation of projects.
