What we experience is the same, yet somehow different...

Week 3 CDC: Experience Design workshop.

What is experience?

Experience is something we gain through doing things first hand. It is a countable phenomenon. When we are applying for jobs and other things we tend to be judged on our proficiency (or experience) in certain areas.While this is subjective, ‘An Experience’ is an objective situation subjectively understood or internalised by any individual.

A simple example of this would be a roller coaster. You ride a rollercoaster with a number of other people, each one of them having their own versions of what happened, how scared they are or how fast it went. Another, often overlooked, example would be time.

Time.

A thing we created,

Is it on our side?

or has it turned against us?

An invisible enemy.

It flies, it drags on...

Nothing we can do to change it.

It is the silent killer of everything...

Some respect it, Some spend it,

Others kill or waste it.

But we never get it back.

365 days, a year. 24 hours, a day.

All definitive numbers,

but time is never right...

Take too long - things;

burn, die

or just fizzle out.

Get there too early and things;

aren't ready,

aren't mature,

or are just too different.

They say time heals all wounds,

but it can be too late...

Timing is everything,

A start,

A middle,

An end.

Different to everyone,

but always the same.

For it passes us all by,

fast or slow,

It just goes...

Time is something that we all experience every day. It is the same day in and day out. A definitive number, yet we all experience it to be different. I thought the above poem did a good job of describing this constant affair that we invented. It can be seen as quite a philosophical nonentity, it being a constant in our lives that we take for granted. However so many people are obsessed with saying things like: ‘I don’t have the time’, ‘Where do you find the time?’. Whether or not they are conscious of what they are saying or if they have said is so much it has become a subconscious reaction to everything, is another question entirely.

While the question of somebody’s response mentioned above has no direct relation to the topic, the matter of the human conscious and subconscious do. These phenomena are something we don’t know a whole lot about. To me our subconscious controls our immediate reactions to things, it’s actions are formed by our experiences as we grow up and the habits we construct as we move through life. It influences our conscious decisions somewhat but who am I to know for sure. Our conscious thoughts and actions are a different story.

As we meander through the day we think about things, making decisions and choices. We focus our attention on things that matter to us, be that an assignment, music, a Netflix series, etc. We choose what we allow ourselves to internalize and process from our surroundings.

It is this aspect of humans, that we as designers need to bear in mind during our respective processes. The type of design this is most obvious in is ‘ User experience design’, or ‘UI/ UX’ (user interface and experience) as it might be referred to in our industry. Although to many UI/ UX and Experience design would typically pertain only to Human Computer Interactions (HCI), it could be said that it describes any interaction that a user has with a product. See the definition below.

User experience design is the process of manipulating user behaviour through usability, usefulness, and desirability provided in the interaction with a product.

Going back to the roller coaster example, there is a lot that goes into the design of the ride. A lot of physics and engineering, but for the point I am trying to make, a lot of Experience design. Everything from the attraction you feel when you hear and see others on the ride, to how you line up to go into the ride, what you hear, see and smell when you are lining up. A lot of thought goes into designing the way things *might* be taken in by the user.

Everything in life is a dialogue, a conversation, it is how we communicate with each other and with objects. This is how ideas are conceived, shared and brought to life. Experience is shared through stories, through differences between people. It is very difficult to learn from someone who shares a similar experience to yourself. This is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to go to college, to find people who have different experiences, but similar interests. Learning about ‘Experience’ has shown that we can never truly step into another person’s shoes, but through striking up some sort of a dialogue, be it drawings, conversation or text, we can try and design something that will suit them as individuals.