Using Experience Models to Unpack an Organization

When designing a new or improving an existing experience for an organization, you have to fundamentally understand how the organization operates, who its users are, and the service that the organization provides.

It’s critical to have a firm comprehension of who the players are, what roles they play, how the service offerings help users reach their goals, where there are service gaps and have insights into pain points. Without this understanding, it is impossible to know where to start, let alone begin designing solutions.

Experience models provide a structure for designers as they unpack an organization. They give designers a hanger as they take inventory of all the moving parts.

Limitations?

There are always limitations to experience models, but it is up to the designer to understand which elements to apply and which aspects aren’t relevant. These models aren’t checklists. They models provide a framework to organize and make sense of qualitative data.

When using models to comprehend qualitative data, it is hard to capture nuance details. The influence of culture is hard to map and, depending on the situation, there may be multiple cultures that influence how service is delivered.

In addition to culture, it is so easy for bias to creep in. Our worldviews tend to be narrow and don’t always paint an accurate depiction for everyone. On top of that, our world is constantly, and typically, these models are mapping a moment in time.

However, the benefits that models provide drastically outweigh any limitations they may have.

Combining Models for Effective Storytelling

Besides supplying structure to findings, experience models are a communication tool to align the design team and explain the current state to stakeholders. They remind the design team who is using the service and the user’s ultimate goal, and they outline user’s needs and impact opportunities for the organization.

Used together, they build a narrative to explain revealed insights and opportunities to improve service offerings. Models can be used as agents to indicate where users have pain points and opportunities to strengthen their service.