Structure: a Definitive Introduction to an Effective Personal Experience Design Framework
First of all I would like to congratulate all of you. Toastmasters is admittedly kind of corny. Corny in a good way. Becoming a Toastmaster, being a toastmaster, is kind of cheesy, but why not?
Being a Toastmaster is a great thing to be.
These 10 speeches to attain the title of Toastmaster are for me 1 speech with ten parts. Today is part two of my first speech. Structure.
So in part one I tackled the question of who I am and what I do. I posited that for me designing is building and building is designing.
Today I would like to talk about experience design.
Experience design is somewhat undefined at this point, or perhaps over defined. It means different things to different people.
The title experience designer is somewhat vague as to be expected... We all design experiences. We get up in the morning and we put on clothes.
My goal today is three-part. I will define The 3 most important traits of Experience Designers, prove to you that you can think and be like an experience designer and motivate you to do so.
What makes a great Experience Designer?
1. We are advocates for people.
2. We are makers.
3. We have unique voices.
First and foremost we are advocates for people.
We stand up for them. We fight for them. Their cause is our cause. We make sure our clients are meeting their customers needs each and every time they interact.
Its tough love.
Experience Design is about people. Not names in spreadsheets, segments in charts, or points in data.
People.
Real people. Real people with arms, brains and eyes, and also people without arms, or brains or eyes.
People. This is who we design for. This is why we design.
It starts with people and it ends with people. Its about personalization. Its about solving peoples problems. Its about delighting them. Its about finding the human element in everything our clients communicate and everything our clients do.
When you put people first, when you ask "where is the human element here?" "Where is the emotion?", you are an experience designer.
The second thing that defines experience design is making. Making things.
Whether it is making spreadsheets, technical specifications, paper prototypes, sticky notes or websites.
We are all makers. All of us.
Whether its entirely physical or entirely digital if it didn't exist before you made it, you made it, and your name is on it.
Experience designers are makers because we are all makers.
What's important is the artistry. The artisanship. The writing. The attention to detail. When you put your best work forward, you are designing an experience, you are an experience designer.
The third thing that defines experience design is our unique voice.
When we talk about experience design. We talk about passion. We talk with passion.
We are human not robot. We speak about passion with passion. Its emotional.
Its about writing and speaking well. Clear, targeted, interesting communication (a vague field of study for which I hold an advanced degree).
When you speak with passion and your messages are well constructed and poignant, you are an experience designer.
In summary I have proven that you can be an experience designer and not just think like one. You have a unique voice. You are a maker. You are an advocate for our clients customers.
You may say, but I'm a project manager, or I'm a programmer. True. Isite Design is an experience design company. You are an experience design project manager. You are an experience design programmer.
And that's a great thing to be.