But what IS an experience?
Our current world revolves around the idea of the Experience. Purchasing a product, enjoying live entertainment, and working at a company, are all more than their inherent activities; they are viewed as experiences that have the potential to be designed to satisfy as many people as possible. For consumers and employees, the experience of using products and the experience at the workplace are both extremely important and are being constantly taken into consideration by the fields of design. But two main questions remain, what IS an experience, and can it actually be designed?
Let’s start with the definition of experience. The word experience is interesting, because it can be used as both a verb and a noun. The dictionary definition of experience as a verb is:
“to encounter or undergo (an event or occurrence)” [1].
When trying to understand the definition more clearly, I looked up the definitions of “encounter” and “undergo”, and found that I was unfortunately caught in an endless loop of referring back to the original verb definition, because both definitions included “ to experience”. Thanks English. I then read the definition of experience as a noun, which is:
“practical contact with and observation of facts or events” [1].
Ok, this is a bit better, definitely very broad, but I agree. Looking at it this way, we experience something every second of the day, so technically every second is an experience. Considering this specific definition of experience, it is hard to imagine breaking down all the facts of a situation, especially enough to design one, so I pieced together my own definition:
“An experience is a combination of the interactions a subject has over a period of time within their environment, and the subject’s emotions and interpretation of those interactions.”
Interactions are key in defining an experience. An interaction can be between a person and other people, a person and objects, and even objects and other objects within a person’s environment. On a random Saturday, a person may dodge other people while traveling down a busy city sidewalk while staring at their phone, and may scream-sing their favorite song while being tossed around a large crowd, front-row at a concert, squinting with the stage lights shining on their face. Both of these examples are experiences that involve multiple interactions and occur in different environments. However, only one of these examples may rise to the front of that person’s mind when they are asked to recall a memorable or good experience, and that is all based on that person’s interpretation of the experience. People remember experiences that are stimulating and cause spikes in positive or negative emotions [2], or are notably void of emotional spikes that they were expecting to happen. Each person enters a new experience with knowledge and emotions that they obtained from other past experiences, and that plays a role in how they interpret what is about to happen. A busy sidewalk may cause a person to feel anxiety because they once got lost in a large crowd, or it could make a person excited because it means they finally made it out of their small town. Even if the environment and all the interactions are the exact same for every person in a situation, no person has the exact same experience as someone else.
So, is it possible to design experiences if we cannot control how people will interpret the experience? Well, it might not be correct to say that an experience can be designed. Rather, we can attempt to design and control the environment and certain possible interactions so that they have a high probability of eliciting a desired response or emotion from a person. Researching the target audience, considering accessibility, and showing empathy, will enable us to most closely design an environment and interactions that lead to people engaging in what they will consider a memorable and enjoyable experience.
Amy Zasadzinski
Sources:
- McKean, Erin. 2005. The new Oxford American dictionary. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/peak-end-rule/
