The Experience Drop #5

EXPERT INSIGHT: THE SECRETS OF INCLUSIVE INNOVATION ??

We’re living in an incredibly exciting time to be making experiences. New technologies like AR, VR and the rapidly developing metaverse are giving us new tools to express our vision and connect with people – and there’s a huge opportunity to make the metaverse feel “real” for people as we move from a 2D to 3D internet.

The barrier for entry to the metaverse can currently seem prohibitively high. However, the multidimensional internet is also particularly good for placemaking and community, as it means that the creator no longer has to have the dominant story. Instead, smaller stories can be co-created and use existing communal spaces as their canvas, allowing for enrichment whenever and wherever.

Will Saunders MBE , the CCO of StoryFutures , led a radical project, StoryTrails, in 2022 to prove this point. He shares what he learned – so that as we figure out the grammar of experience products, experience designers might be able to use innovative technologies impactfully and responsibly.

CASE STUDY: HOW TO USE IMMERSIVE NARRATIVE AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL ??

Education is seen as boring and not something that is done outside the classroom. Austin Baker , an associate of the Experience Design department at the University of Indianapolis, set out with a group of his colleagues to put their money where their mouth is by designing a space on campus for “edutainment” purposes.

The result was Dr. Overton’s STEAMpunk Escapade : an immersive, narrative puzzle adventure in which participants took place in an “untimed escape room” scenario set in a fantasy world of steampunk. Though it was technically framed as a themed attraction mixed with an escape room, the experience doubled as an educational tool for teaching STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math).?

EXPERT INSIGHT: THE 27 UNIQUE PLACE PERSONAE ??

You’ve designed the experience and filled the space with props and scenery via fixtures, artwork, colour and décor. The stage is set for the cast and customers. The former are your staff that must perform their roles as dictated by the script of the experience.

Unfortunately, some designers have forgotten that there’s another cast member whose role leads the performance and defines the overall experience – the place itself and the environment that contains the experience.

Experience expert Kevin Dulle explores the vital role that the setting of the experience – and the environment it creates – plays in the overall enjoyment of the experience, and how experience designers can seek to create liminal zones that both heighten the sense of anticipation beforehand and gently ease people back into the real world.

Dulle is also running a special event for Chief Experience Officers in Chicago on May 16 alongside Experience Economy Godfather Joe Pine . More details here!

EXPERIENCE TREND: DESIGNING FOR DOPAMINE ??

We’re seeing the emergence of numerous brain-boosting experiences , from mood-enhancing workouts to trippy journeys into light, sound and colour. We’ve also spotted a trend for “dopamine dressing” – donning eye-poppingly bright colours to lift your mood, in the same way a high-octane dance track can power you through a run.

Art is proving to be an equally valuable source of emotional nourishment . A new immersive art experience in Brussels called Happiness promises to give visitors a joy boost via 360° installations that harness the latest in colour and sound tech. And with artworks having been proven to boost dopamine levels in the brain, for the last year psychiatrists in Brussels have been able to prescribe museum tours to people suffering from mental health issues.

Proof, if ever we needed it, of experiences' magical ability to heal, and our duty as experience designers to factor the emotional health of our audience into our creations.

DEEP DIVE: EMOTIONAL ALCHEMY & WAKING DREAMS ??

Talking of experiences that boost our emotional health, last night we witnessed a mind-tingling #WXOCampfire presentation from Laika Young O'Brien , Founder of No Sleep Studio . They took us on a psychedelic (without the psychedelics! ) journey to the land of waking dreams, revealing how they create experiences that help participants integrate the full spectrum of emotion, connect to a story larger than themselves, and pluck the threads of the deep mystery in which we all find ourselves.

Top takeaways ahead of the full write-up:

• The living landscape is a family system. How can we support people in seeing the story of their lives as something meaningful, beautiful, and larger than themselves?
• The power of “imagination theatre”: by asking people to go inside themselves, you can create an intimate self experience.
• People want to be witnessed and feel known. They’re desperate for that human connection and to be held. You embody the invitation that you hope to offer people and they respond in turn.
• Longing for immersive content today isn’t a new thing, it’s an ancestral longing to live a deeply immersed life, where you know the stories of the things around you and your story is known in return.?
• Our work sits at the intersection of entertainment and healing. If you go straight for healing, the walls come up as people aren’t ready to be vulnerable. You have to move at the speed of trust.

Join us next Wednesday 15 March when Brad Shelton , Vice President & Creative Director at BRC Imagination Arts , will argue that in an industry that’s currently obsessed with ultra-personalisation, sometimes our choices can lead to societal harm…

Have you got an experience, case study, or opinion to share? Tell us about it in the comments!

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