What Westworld Taught Me About User Experience Design
This article includes spoilers so if you haven’t watched season 2 of Westworld yet, don’t read this.
1. Customer Success Begins With Customer On-Boarding
According to the Serial-position effect, the most memorable part of a user’s interaction with a platform is the beginning and the end. We all feel the excitement of beginning a new journey, whether it’s getting on a plane for a vacation or watching the intro of a video game for the very first time.
William and Logan’s train ride into Westworld set the tone and setting for what was about to come. The train can be thought of as the loading screen of a game— It built up a sense of anticipation and excitement for the park visitors. It gave them a hint of the immersive experience ahead of them without overwhelming them with too much all at once. Giving people a lot of capabilities to work with all at once does more harm than good especially when there is no guide.
2. User Testing and Iterations are Necessary for Survival
In Westworld, if you don’t test properly — hosts will attempt to kill you. Bugs can result a life or death situation.
On a lighter note, the Delos team constantly improves the hosts’ micro interactions to make them as human-like as possible. More human-centric design = smoother experience. The narrative, settings, and journeys available to the visitors are always tweaked and updated. Designated areas are available to test out the interactivity of the hosts and their response to commands.
3. Don’t Collect Data About Your Users Without Their Consent
This should go without saying but the recent reveals of unethical data breaches by tech giants today merits the issue a mention. The scene where we discover Delos Corp’s underlying motives and privacy breaches are very relevant topics in this day and age and they increase in relevance as technology becomes more advanced.
Design can always help emphasize specific information to users about their privacy rights. The goal is to create transparency and trustworthiness. Designers should be aware of the latest laws and consequences of using dark pattern design to protect themselves and others from harmful practices. To learn more about spotting dark pattern designs and learning about their consequences, check out my side project Spot The Pattern
4. Create User Journeys, and Narratives
Part of creating an immersive experience is building a strong narrative and a solid user journey. Westworld has all the recipes to make the park a success because of their narrative rich storylines. Navigating Westworld and Samurai World with Maeve has shown us how well-informed Lee was of the hosts’ internal dialogue. He was a character that demonstrated empathy with the hosts decisions and conflicts. I’m sure he constructed personas and did an empathy map for each one of his creations. Lee ended up sacrificing himself to save humanity; that should give empathy mapping some cred, right? RIP Lee, you were a great character.
Season 3 is set for 2020. Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it yet!
