A... Is for Awareness

I recently authored a blog post on my company's website offering up "A Framework for Helping Organizations, Teams & Individuals Understand, Embrace & Sustain the Practice of Experience Design." I'm using this article to tease the first principle of this framework.

Teasing begins... now!

Picture this: You've been hired to build the first Experience Design (XD) practice for a large, established brand that has been providing high-end products and services to its customers for nearly 20 years. After almost a year into your new gig, you've hired some stellar talent and helped the company kick off a ground-breaking effort to redefine itself across the digital landscape. You and your team are establishing collaborative partnerships with corporate leaders, decision-makers, and influencers. Everyone is excited about taking a more human-centered approach and doing things right.

Yet, when it comes to the actual work of placing the people you're designing for at the center of attention throughout the process, well... people are struggling. Specifically, the organization is struggling to do what it takes to enable and sustain the practice of Experience Design. As a result, your design team is struggling to bring the full value of a human-centered approach to bear. Emotions are high, stakes are high, and opinions differ drastically!

Are you with me so far? Well, it may or may not surprise you to learn that this was the actual situation I was facing quite a few years ago when the idea for "ABCD... XD" first occurred to me.

I was in bed one night, unable to sleep after a particularly difficult day, trying to work out two fundamental questions:

1. How did we get here?
2. How do we get through this?

I puzzled over these questions (until my "puzzler was sore"), as my thoughts coalesced around the following ideas...

• "If only there was some way I could help the organization become more aware of what Experience Design is and what it can do for them, then it might not be so hard to inspire them toward better decisions."
• "If I could get my team and the organization to understand, embrace, master and stay grounded in the basics of Experience Design, then our path forward would be clearer."
• "I need to figure out how to help us all recognize and make the changes necessary to enable and sustain the practice of Experience Design so my team can bring more of the benefits of a human-centered approach to bear."
• "We need to figure out a way to discipline ourselves so our actions and decisions remain consistent with the philosophy and process of Experience Design."

And, because I'm a huge nerd, I got out of bed, grabbed my sketchbook and hammered out the initial framework I now call ABCD... XD. Since then, I've been using variations of the ABCD... XD framework to help organizations, teams & individuals understand, embrace and sustain the practice of Experience Design.

Awareness

The word awareness is deceptively simple! Drop it in a meeting (e.g., "We need to raise awareness..."), and you'll undoubtedly get near universal head-nods. Dig a little deeper, however, and you'll discover a plethora of variations in what everyone believes awareness means and involves.

In the context of ABCD... XD, awareness refers to how well our organizations understand and believe what Experience Design is and what Experience Design can actually do.

What is Experience Design?

This quote from a highly influential toy collection/cartoon from my youth is spot on! If you find yourself in a situation similar to the one I describe above, take some time and ask yourself how well your leaders, decision-makers and influencers actually grasp what XD is.

Make sure you're not jumping to an emotional answer on this. Look for evidence and honestly assess your situation and make sure to include yourself. If you discover significant gaps, then you know where to start.

I've had the most success describing Experience Design in the following ways:

• XD refers to intentional actions taken to increase the quality of the interactions people have with products, services, technology, brands, etc.
• XD is also a professional discipline that is founded on the principles and techniques of Human-Centered Design.

Usually, by explaining XD in these terms, I find it helpful to also describe Human-Centered Design (HCD) like this:

• HCD is an empathy-driven philosophy and a rigorous discipline that puts the people we're designing for at the center of attention as we create products, services and technology

I've seen these descriptions resonate with most of my teams and our clients in a way that generates the right questions and inspires productive dialog.

What can Experience Design Actually Do?

Experience Design, when done well, has numerous benefits! I've ruffled no shortage of feathers by explaining that good XD can...

• Reduce the time it takes to get products, services and technology to market
• Reduce the overall cost of producing products, services and technology
• Lead to a strong base of happy, loyal and vocal advocates of the products, services and technologies we design and deliver
• Increase productivity
• Increase revenue
• Save lives

When our organizations understand what Experience Design is and believe what Experience Design can actually do, conversations are easier to have and decisions are easier to make.

Basics

OK! Teasing is over. Go check out the rest of this article on our blog.