When I first saw the title of the article Experience Design by Nathan Shedroff, I will admit I was a little bit confused. Of course I know what the word experience means and what the word design means, but what I didn't know was that there is a growing field dedicated to "designing experiences". If you are anything like me, you are probably thinking "Wait, what? Experiences are something to be crafted, not events that just occur"? While this was my first thought, Shedroff's article showed me that "there is something important and special to many experiences that make them worth discussing". Going even deeper, the article taught me that in order to design a certain experience, there are components that can be learned and copied to recreate effective experiences.
One thing that was a bit frustrating with the article was the way in which it jumped around so frequently, talking one minute about surfers experiencing a no nonsense surfing website and the next about a simple form created by a company to make tax returns more understandable. While this theme made it a little hard for me to focus at times, I think the main reason for Shedroff taking this approach was to support his earlier claim that "all experiences are important". It doesn't matter whether you are experiencing a touching Holocaust museum or playing with an online coloring book, all experiences tell us something about ourselves and can be designed in a way to be the most efficient, effective, and enjoyable experiences possible.
Since there was an array of topics discussed, I want to focus quickly on the section about blogging- it is only fitting, right? In talking about blogging, Shedroff states, "Experiences that allow people to communicate with each other or simply to be heard tend to be rewarding, satisfying ones". It makes me happy that in this young field of Experience Design, it is being realized that people respond well to having a place to communicate openly, freely, and personally (within some design limits, of course). In a world where technology is always changing and advancing, I find it crucial for the people in the world who are designing blog websites - and for that matter designing how we experience blogging- to be able to create blogging tools that allow further communication, personality, and interactivity.
To me, having a place to spill out my creativity and my feelings (this blog!), is liberating and comforting. It is easy for my ideas and thoughts to feel lost in a world where conversations over text messaging tend to be replacing conversations in person. While blogging is still an online, text driven form of communication, it allows me an experience of sharing my experiences, and hopefully inspiring others to share their experiences as well.
Do you think Experience Design is a necessary and useful field? Why or why not? In what ways do bloggers you follow share their experiences as well as inspire you to share your experiences? Do you agree with Shedroff on the importance of having experiences that allow us to share?
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