WTF is an Experience?

Experience is an emergent quality resulting from the interaction of (in)attention and everything it can engage with. Experience is always happening and your attention is always transfixed on *something* no matter how aware you may be. To the degree it is engaged and the purpose for which it is engaged are what any kind of “x/experience” design is measuring against.

Anything in design with the suffix or prefix of “x” or “experience” seeks to *construct conditions* that contain certain interactions to create specific kinds of impacts and condition certain types of responses that results in a consistent or (un)expected outcome for both the agent constructing the environment and the agent interacting with the environment. It is possible for a single agent to do both.

Each “x/experience” prioritizes certain mediums, focal points, domains, methods, or approaches to develop certain conditions and influence certain outcomes. Whether through behavioral, emotional, or physical means — “x/experience” seeks to modulate perspectives, expectations, and ultimately, decision making.

Experience plays out within two mediums: the present and the remembered (I’d argue that projecting is merely remembering in reverse).
Even if it’s remembered, the experience is still located in the present; however, both have different properties, values, and possibilities that are unique to themselves.

**Present** Where emotion is expressed into observable means via behavior, informed by remembered experiences and influenced by external mediators. This is the point of intervention where one can modulate senses, expectations, and emotions to elicit a narrowing/expansion of time, or, presence.

**Remembered:** the imprint of an image and subsequent recall communicated through any medium such as language, mental imagery etc. It’s important to note that latency + degradation occurs from translating the lived moment into anything other than how it was experienced in the first place.

Experience cannot be created; it is. However, the present and the remembered can be influenced. The diagram below illustrates this point.

In the diagram above, think about each element interacting with one another, but also containing the former. It’s arguable whether the present/remembered is completely consumed by the constructed; though it’s certain that the world of design continues to expand it’s scope of totality.

Anything constructed (usually) has a purpose in mind; and aims to instigate change or create an impact through the means of interaction with agents in the present.

“x/experience” design seeks to deeply understand this [collective/individual] [present/remembered] and construct a well articulated environment that is able to intervene where needed towards an (un)intended outcome.

To sum up this reflection — experience is change.

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Hi, I’m Zack — a soon to graduate Institute of Design masters student writing these reflections in response to prompts provided by Mark Micheli in the Experience Modeling class at ID. What do you think about Experience?