October 1st, 2009 by David Poteet

“Dad, why are you always talking about experience?”

About this post:

A conversation with my 8-year-old daughter about experience design

Filed under Experience Design

"Dad, why are you always talking about experience?"

My 8 year old daughter asked me that question this morning. I guess if I can explain it to an 8 year old I can explain it to anyone. Here's what I said...

"Well Rachel, everything in our lives is some kind of experience. When you're on pbskids or you're learning in school or we're out shopping, those are all experiences. And experiences are like stories, they have a beginning, middle and end. Except in real life each ending is really the beginning of another story."

"So, like a kid playing games or a grownup doing finances?"

"Sure, or planning a trip to Disneyworld - anything. What we do is look at the whole story of the experience. Not just design 'things' like websites or brochures or whatever. When a grownup is doing finances, the story isn't just me sitting in front of the computer, it's about us out shopping at Target, then later putting our receipts into the computer, Mommy and I talking about our budget, all of that."

"When we design experiences we think about the whole story to decide what we should make. And how we can make the story better. Does that make sense?"

"Sure."

"Cool."