The Experience Drop #13

In this week’s Experience Drop, we’re diving deeper into the upward swing of the competitive socializing trend (and checking out a real-life example of immersive VR socializing), inviting experience designers everywhere to realise the opportunity of retail real estate, and hearing from an experience expert on how to design for altered states of consciousness.

EXPERT INSIGHT: WAKING DREAM 101: DESIGNING FOR ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS ??

“Isn’t it curious that the world has given us so many means of accessing altered states of consciousness?” - Laika O’Brien

We’ve all heard of “altered states of consciousness”, but what are they really and how can you design for them?

Laika Young O'Brien (they/them) is former Lead Experience Designer at Meow Wolf and the Founder of No Sleep Studio , a “waking dream design company” that creates bespoke immersive experiences for psychedelic safe spaces.

In potentially our most poetic, immersive and experiential Campfire yet, they took us on a raucous traipse through their work creating “waking dreams” – cathartic experiences that blend spoken word, hypnotic music, and beautiful imagery intended to induce altered states of consciousness.

Their work spans a beautiful array of applications from healing art for psychedelic safe spaces, to immersive experiences for an audience of one and inspired rituals of remembrance for people facing end-of-life and their loved ones. Read on to discover what experience designers at large can learn about how to handle these altered states with care.

EXPERIENCE TREND: THE RISE & RISE OF COMPETITIVE SOCIALIZING ??

Kick, bounce, swing. Roll, throw, twist. Win, lose, and draw… it’s no longer enough just to go out to eat and drink with friends. Like so much of modern life, socializing has been gamified.

See: Swingers - the crazy golf club , Puttshack , Flight Club Darts , Bounce, Kick, Metrix from Walljam , TOCA Social , MONOPOLY LIFESIZED , Hijingo Bingo, The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club – and on, and on, and on…

Some say that Kevin Williams and his weekly e-newsletter, The Stinger Report, popularized the term “competitive socializing”. He says it “is a blending of a hospitality atmosphere married to a re-imagining of conventional competitive entertainment.”

So we’re delighted that Williams will be joining us at the World Experience Summit from 28-30 June in London to dive deeper into the “Social Revolution”, explaining how the Experience Economy is shaping what’s next and new in customer entertainment.

To brush up on the topic, read WXO CEO James Wallman’s take on the competitive socializing trend here.

(And if you’ve already got your ticket: remember, discounted rates for our Hub Hotel, Bermonds Locke, will expire next Friday 26 May. Book yours now to secure your rate!)

EXPERIENCE REVIEW: SANDBOX VR SHOOTS AND SCORES ??

Is VR part of the competitive socializing gang?

Operating in over 30 locations, Sandbox VR is the world’s fastest-growing location-based VR start-up, with investment from Will Smith, Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake. It takes much-loved franchises including Deadwood Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and even Squid Game and turns them into high-octane VR adventures.

Visitors take part in free-roam team games in haptic suits that allow you to feel all the sensations experienced within the game, from dramatic changes in body temperature to – slightly ominously – the sensation of being shot.

When Sandbox VR opened its first London outpost last year, the WXO headed down to see if it lives up to the hype. Here’s what we made of it.

EXPERIENCE TREND: THE EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITY OF RETAIL REAL ESTATE ???

We’re witnessing a flourishing of the luxury retail sector, with new outlet openings in Europe up 77% last year according to Savills’ Global Luxury Report. With international travel back on the menu and ultra high-net-worth individuals unaffected by the cost of living crisis, luxury retail is enjoying a renaissance.?

Savvy brands are looking to break into underserved affluent markets like Dubai and Doha to continue their winning streak. The line between luxury retail and hospitality is also becoming increasingly blurred, with launches like the Prada Caffè in Harrods, as brands seek to expand their offerings so fans can fully live the lifestyle of their favourite labels.

Both the repurposing of shuttered stores and the ramping up of luxury retail provide interesting opportunities for experience designers to play a pivotal role in the reshaping of modern-day retail, where delivering on customer experience and imaginative thinking has never been more important.

It’s a trend we’ll be unpacking more at the World Experience Summit, where we’ll be running an innovation session on real estate and using experiences to save our cities. Get a first look at how the programme is shaping up here.

DEEP DIVE: GOOD VIBES ONLY: HOW TO VIBE WITH AI ??

“Experience designers appreciate the idea of magic.” - Derek Lomas

In this week’s #WXOCampfire , Derek Lomas – assistant professor of Positive AI at TU Delft – gave a mind-expanding presentation on “resonance theory” and how it can help us to use AI better, more creatively, and more positively. He argued that when we combine artificial intelligence with natural or human intelligence, we can access new forms of magic that make our work better and our lives easier.

Top takeaways ahead of the full write-up:

• AI in experience design makes it easier for us to be more ambitious, visualising our ideas quickly in a way that makes them easily comprehensible to others.
• You can’t study neuroscience without understanding resonance. It’s how our brains interact with each other. Heartbeats, breath, sleep. Music, dance, chanting. Talking, eating, sex: they are all made of vibrations and touch on the core of human existence.
• Sympathetic resonance is a key mechanism for sharing conscious experience.
• You may have heard of prompt engineering,but the main way in which most people will engage with AI is through intuition. Recognising this will make us better at using it.
• It will become increasingly critical for designers to intuitively work with AI to achieve resonance. It’ll be a source of inspiration: not something that will do your work for you, but might inspire your direction.

Next week: don’t miss experience strategist Arthur Zards on Time, The Fourth Dimension: An Experience Design Perspective. WXO Members can RSVP here (and non-members can apply to join here !).

Have you got an experience, case study, or opinion to share? Tell us about it in the comments, or email our Editor at [email protected] for the chance to get it shared with the global experience community.

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