The Trinity/Three-Legged Stool/Cornerstone/Foundational Concepts of Digital Experience Design

I will be the first to admit there is too much content on the internet today. We are saturated with "how-to's", "best of's", and "x steps to". If you needed any more proof feel free to read the wikiHow on "How to Blow Your Nose". So I never took much thought when people suggest writing a blog. However, I now find myself with some free time on my hands between jobs, during COVID, and waiting for the landscape to bloom. So I present to you "The Trinity/Three-Legged Stool/Cornerstone/Foundational Concepts of Digital Product Design". Please comment if I forgot a buzzword in there and maybe I can add it to a future article.

As a father of younger children, I have found myself around a lot of children's books which has resulted in concepts being regularly connected to children's stories. As I reflect on numerous conversations about digital experiences, I found three concepts would be discussed. These three concepts can be explained by Can I play too?, Charlotte's Web, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Can I play too? - A universal marketplace

Can I play too? is a story about an elephant and pig playing catch when a snake asks if it can join them. The elephant and pig notice this snake is different with no arms and insists it can not play. In the same way, we see a company make a new digital product thinking they are different from other products on the internet and wonder why it isn't working. Most of the time these are companies with storefronts that are trained to build strategy and experiences to compete with their direct market. All fast food stores feel the same, as do gas stations, clothing stores, etc. Yet they provide a very different experience when compared to another business sector. It would feel uncomfortable if the clothing store started having a drive-thru or the lube shop started calling out your order on a microphone echoing through the lobby. So customers have also been trained to compartmentalize these experiences differently which is why these strategies are successful. When these strategies are carried into the digital world they often do not have the same results. Can I play too? everyone agrees to let the snake play catch, but the ball keeps hitting the snake on the head. My favorite part is when their solution is to get more balls. The snake pleads no, but they continue with the idea. Did anyone else just have the Marketing Department pop in their head? When creating a digital experience we must understand that the walls of compartmentalization disappear. You are no longer compared to your competitor, but the whole internet marketplace. Your onboarding process is compared to the Facebooks, Googles, and Twitters. If you are delivering a physical product it is being stacked up against Dollar Shave Club, Apple, and Thrive. You can no longer isolate your experience to just compete with the best in class in your business sector. You will need to learn to play catch with all the companies in the marketplace.

Charlotte's Web - There are universal languages

Almost everyone knows Fern, Wilbur, Templeton, and of course Charlotte. Even though it is a book that contains multiple animals and humans they all speak the same language. The same exists within all webpages. There are the subtle things you may rarely recognize. For example, certain fonts regularly used or not used, call to actions icons are usually orange (still proves to have higher click rates), and the hamburger (icon with three little lines) has become known as the universal menu or table of contents. There are also more explicit "languages", such as hyperlinks are underlined blue text, resources are in small print at the bottom of a page, or clicking on a product summary tile provides more details about a product. When you don't follow these rules the customer becomes easily confused about how to navigate your page. Confused customers in a saturated medium equal high abandonment or bounce rates. It would be like reading Charlotte's Web, but it was written in English, Pig-Latten, spider, and rat. Wouldn't take you long to move on.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Not too slow, not too fast, and just creepy in the right way.

In a world where we have become accustomed to having everything at our disposal, we have also grown with the expectation that we should have it quickly as possible. We see shipping times becoming faster, intuitive ordering minimizing search, alerts to notify me immediately about something I want, etc. I think everyone is aware of the need for speed. (Top Gun throwback) I rarely hear consideration if something is too fast. If you deliver a product too fast the customer will usually feel one of two things. They will either feel anxious because they forgot to do something. The other feeling tends to be a concern and even betrail because they feel that someone was not provided the information in a possible deceitful way. This is where uniqueness in business sectors does vary. The expectation when ordering something from Amazon is one click and done. (frictionless) The expectation to open a financial account may be minutes and multiple pages. (friction) Additionally, if an experience has more than three pages it is best practice to drive the expectation by telling them what is going to happen, remind them where they are in the process, and tell them it is completed. If your application requires a lot of fields to be filled you may want to break it up into more than one page with similar fields, such as a physical address, personal history, or financial situation to avoid suffering from the paradox of choice. (designed friction) Lastly, don't get creepy. Existing customers expect you will provide the information they have already given, but they traditionally get uncomfortable when provided information they have not disclosed. You wouldn't want to provide an address that is found through public record or a credit card number that was used through another arm of your business. Everyone is aware that all secrets were forfeited with the ushering of the Information Age, but we don't want to be reminded or made aware of what is out there. The best example and my favorite story is Target oops. When creating your digital design don't forget about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Not too slow, not too fast, just creepy in the right way.

So there you have it. Another piece of content lobbed out in the endless abbess of 1's and 0's. I think this is where I am supposed to say I would like to hear your comments (that's true), smash that like button (maybe that's YouTube), and share if you think it could be valuable to others. Additionally, I would love to hear comments, feedback, and/or questions. I am honestly grateful for taking this time out of your day and hope you found it worth the time.