Experience Design: Every detail matters edition.
Can you design user experience?
This post is part of my series of posts on communications and experience design.
I sat down with Amrita Chandra, an expert startup marketer who recently gave an excellent talk on How Startups Are Changing Marketing as We Know It, to chat about marketing and UX.
Marketing is a sum of all experiences someone has with your company — Amrita Chandra.
What does marketing have in common with UX and experience design?
Amrita Chandra: Having a very thoughtful, considered approach to anything your customer or potential customer encounters, and how that relates to your offering is the link between marketing and UX.
People today no longer think of marketing as what a company puts out through advertising channels. They form an impression of a product or a company based on any experience or any information that leaves them with a feeling about the product. Marketing is no longer confined to the marketing department — it’s very much intertwined with user experience, product design and customer service. People can form an opinion of you from everything they see and touch — from your packaging to customer support, what they see your employees tweet, what they hear friends say about your company. All these things aren't controlled by the marketing department.
Can any user experience really be designed, if it can’t be controlled?
Amrita Chandra: Our individual impressions are based a lot of things companies can’t directly control. But just because you can’t control the experience doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to design a good experience for your customers. The more you can understand your customers, what they care about, what they are trying to do at work and at home, the more you’re likely to align what you do, or what your brand represents with what they need. In my opinion, thinking about these things is better than just shooting from the hip.
How do you even begin to design a good experience?
Amrita Chandra: There are different techniques for doing this, but fundamentally, as a marketer I think through all of the different ways somebody can encounter your company, and about all the touch-points you can influence. So if you make a product, think about what’s written on your site, think about how you answer questions on social media, discussion forums, and when someone calls or walks into your office, and when someone is applying for a job. Everything matters. For one project I even looked at how people felt when they walked into the reception area, because this affected their perception of the brand.
On that note, this summer I was lucky to have an hour with Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. Their company sells solutions to very small businesses, and from the minute I walked into their office lobby, I could see that the company walked the talk. They showcased employees that went out of the way to help customers, the receptionist was warm and friendly, and Gail herself was so down to earth. That left me with an impression that went so much further than anything I'd read on their website.
What are some of your personal favourite experiences?
Amrita Chandra: Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland. From the moment I heard about it — I read an article about the owner and how she wanted to create a welcoming, world class art foundation and hotel in a remote part of Newfoundland that needed economic development — to going to the website and reserving a room to my actual stay — it was a beautiful experience. What really struck me were the small details.
Small details are where experience design either succeeds or fails — Amrita Chandra.
We had to take a ferry to get to the Inn, and it was a bit of a wait, something which was not in their control. The only place to eat was a small chip van and we had no idea when we were going to cross. We were waiting near our car, and this man came over and introduced himself as the Inn driver. He had a cooler filled with cold drinks, granola bars and fresh fruit for guests who were waiting to board the ferry. I thought this small detail was an amazing example of how they thought of their guests as family members coming to their home. That feeling stayed with me throughout — every chair we sat on, every bite we ate, everyone we talked to exemplified what the inn stood for. It’s an experience I can’t stop taking about.
You’re the only startup marketer I know who owned an art gallery. How did you design an experience for tinku gallery?
Amrita Chandra: My gallery was a one-person show, so I had total control and could make decisions myself. Because I was an art buyer and not an art industry veteran, I think it was easier to think from the buyers’ point of view, not just the gallery’s point of view. A really simple example of this is I decided not to sit behind a desk but instead to have just a couch. As a result I spent lots of time on my gallery couch with visitors who walked in off the street, just talking about life and how art made us feel. I had a lot of people tell me that my gallery made it less intimidating to learn about art and buy their first work of art. It was a great experience for me to be able to design.
You said it’s small experiences that make experience design either succeed or fail. Can you give a few examples?
Amrita Chandra: I am a fan of Tattly run by swissmiss . Her emails are always signed with “Waving from Brooklyn” and that small detail always makes me smile. At the bank earlier today, the teller who I had only met once before, noticed that I cut my bangs. “Bangs really suit you,” he said. It was nice to be greeted in this way while doing a mundane transaction. It made me feel like a human and not just a number. Another example is when users log out from Mailchimp, the URL changes to http://mailchimp.com/see-ya-later/. I smiled when I noticed this, because I saw that they care for small details. They want to delight their customers, and I love that.
People appreciate great experiences, and so I think startups and small companies that don’t have big barriers between themselves and their customers are perfectly positioned to out-know, out-teach, out-inspire, out-hack, out-solve and out-love their way into the hearts and minds of people.
