The "X" in All Things

Ah, that one letter that is so small but means so much.

It can be used to mark a location of treasure and untold riches.

It can be used to check a box when making a selection.

It can be used to "X" something out.

And it can be shorthand for the word "Experience", and oddly enough, that one word pretty much sums up all of the above and so much more.

Whether that Big Little letter is used for User Experience (UX), Customer Experience (CX), or Experience Design (XD), there are so many ways to apply it and use the power of it for good.

Yet, at the same time, that one Big Little letter can cause So.Much.Confusion. Why? My thought - no one gets it because there's a lot of noise about another word - "Design", that the whole thing behind the X that is supposed to lead to treasure, is lost.

It doesn't matter if the company trying to use it is big or small. There will always be someone or something that will be the anti-christ of good experience design - out to cause confusion, cheapen things, and take away what people who's life calling is to do the one thing and do it well - create amazing experiences, whether that's something as small as an app to something as big as a Disneyland.

Sometimes that thing is time, or budget, or the public's lack of knowledge to what we do and what we're supposed to do for them. Or it's a person who just wants something.right.now. As in NOW. Remember that funny saying about "Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part"? As experience making people, that tends to happen a lot - at least in the software industry (or anywhere software/websites/apps are created or needed).

But at the end of the day, we as experience making people, need to tirelessly champion what we were born to do, our life's calling, what is our inherent nature, and push for what's best for the people we're making them for, even down to the littlest detail. Yet, you'd think with all the years and years now of all that tireless work and attempts at educating the masses, our jobs would be easier, and our bosses/companies would want nothing short of giving a good experience to their customers.

But then unrealistic deadlines or demands are created by those in the ivory towers who have no concept of what's really needed, which gives little to no time for us to work our magic. And not only that, but it's even perpetuated by those who we're supposed to work with side-by-side as if we can knock out something great in a couple days when given no knowledge of what it is we're supposed to be even be creating and for who.

"Make some wireframes from this PowerPoint before we meet in a couple days with the client"...

And then they wonder where it all went wrong (hint: You didn't include those who could've kept things on the right path in your meetings or use them for even the tiniest of details...). Yet they'll somehow blame it all on us.

And here's the thing - I just know when something is going to make for a great experience or not. And being the big dummy I am, I expect the people who are light years smarter than I to be able to do the same. As if it should be common sense.

And yet, it turns out, it's not.

I'm not a Walt Disney, or Steve Jobs, Disney Imagineer, or myriad other extremely creative, whip smart idea people who came up with amazing things and still do to this day that make a great if not wonderfully amazing experience for their guests or customers or users.

I love creating great experiences, whether that be an app or product, or sometimes out and about just bringing smiles to people's faces.

But it's been inherently in me since childhood to know what makes a great experience (or at least a pretty good one). I was the oddball kid in first grade, who when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, didn't say "A Fireman" or "A Policeman" or "Football Player" like the rest of the boys in my class.

Nope. My answer was "A filmmaker", to lots of odd looks from my fellow classmates, and my teacher as well.

I wanted to tell stories, and create moments that made people happy, where they'd forget about their worries. I was always looking at ways as a child on how to make people happy - magic shows, puppet shows, animated films (and stop motion films featuring neighborhood kids, aka Pixelation) - anything to take away their sadness and concerns for a little while. I was always inquisitive, and wondered "How can I make something better?"

And you would think that would be the mindset of most people, especially with so many things that could be an interesting idea and done well, yet just don't work, or are too complicated to use.

Here are a couple examples that I thought of recently that could have been avoided - one was a small detail, while the other was, I think, huge.

The first one was a simple light bulb. Yep. A light bulb. Well, dozens of them. The place - Kings Dominion. The ride was the Volcano at Kings Dominion. The queue is themed as being, I guess, Hawaiian or maybe Pacific Islands, and the idea is you're at the base camp below the mighty volcano. For the most part, it's nicely done (but littered with people's trash), as you make your way up a carved out trail in the mountainside and then through a dark cave, into a shelter. There are several hanging lanterns to light the way, that could be considered vintage and period correct, or just good old miner/camping lanterns.

Like this:

Then you notice they're using CFL bulbs. Yep. C.F.L. I get that the park is trying to be eco friendly or whatever. So why not use the LED bulbs that look like light bulbs? Or the LED Edison bulbs?

Next up: the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios in Hollywood, and this, to me, is just one reason Disney will always be set apart from any other theme park. Overall, from what I've seen, the ride is pretty fantastic. But here's the thing - don't put people on it when it's NOT WORKING. Yes, Disney rides will stop when riders are on it, and if it's going to be a long delay, they escort the riders off - even by staying in character to the ride.

Example of Disney: My son and daughter and I were on the Matterhorn, and just at the top of the track, our bobsled came to a sudden stop (due to in turns out, a bobsled coming into the station a couple seconds late). So as we sat there enjoying the view of the park, a couple Cast Members showed up with a "There you are! We're so glad we found you and we've come to rescue you from the mountain!" or something like that. As we were safely escorted down (that was a neat experience in and of itself), and came out at the station, there was a crowd to cheer us as we arrived, as well as a band of Oom Pah Pah musicians playing celebratory music. Wow.

Example of Universal: None of the dinosaurs were working. Not a single one. And the T-Rex was just frozen there, no waterfall for it to come through - no warning lights. Nothing. Yet we rode the ride from start to finish. No apologies from the park employees, nothing.

(see how the Disney experience emoted a longer story in itself?)

Look, we have the opportunity to create Disney moments for people, or something that's more like the Universal or Kings Dominion experience. Me? I'd choose the Disney Way of creating experiences whenever I can.

At the end of the day, we as experience creating people, will always, I think, be angst filled as we try to make this Big Blue Marble that we live on a better place to be. But every once in a while, we have small wins, or end up with a company that gets it and embraces it (those seem to be rare or just far and few between).

We will always try to educate, and hopefully, each seed we plant will grow and someday great experiences will be the norm, and then that "X" in the word "Experience" will always lead to treasure and untold riches.

-Greg