Notes from the “Designing Library Experiences for Users” Webcast

I just finished listening to the Blended Librarian Live Webcast: Designing Library Experiences For Users. Aradhana Goel, Senior Information Designer at Maya Design, gave the webcast. It was good! I’d recommend y’all to listen to one sometime - they do a good job. 
I took some notes during the webcast - here they are:
Wow - over [...]

Blending is Good!

Last week, I stopped at Starbucks on my way to work. Instead of the usual rather large coffee, I ordered an “iced shaken coffee,” slightly sweetened. It was good! And I realized that it blended multiple things that I like - I like iced drinks, I like coffee, and I like sweet drinks… And this [...]

Realm #4: Esthetic, or “Just want to be there”

The Esthetic Realm is all about passive immersion. You’re immersed, but you have little effect on the experience, leaving the environment untouched. A great example would be standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon - you are immersed in the huge cliffs and the beauty, but you can’t really change anything. Visiting an art [...]

Realm #3: Escapism, or “Just want to do”

Escapist experiences are sort of the opposite of pure entertainment - with escapism, you are completely immersed and actively involved. “Theme parks, casinos, virtual reality headsets, chat rooms, or even a game of paint ball” - all are examples of escapist experiences.
You might have noticed - many of these also involve entertainment. In fact, these [...]

Realm #2: Education, or “Just want to learn”

The realm of Education is also absorbed, like entertainment (discussed yesterday). But unlike entertainment, education requires the active participation of the person beign educated. Your mind has to be actively engaged to for this experience to click.
Again, libraries do well in this realm: reading can be entertainment, and it can be education. Technology classes or [...]

Realm #1: Entertainment, or “Just want to feel”

We’re all familiar with entertainment - it’s something we all do for amusement. Entertainment involves passive participation, and absorption rather than immersion. We don’t usually influence the performance (other than with claps), and we tend to absorb it internally. Examples would be attending a concert or going to a movie.
Examples of entertainment in the library [...]

The Experience Realms

I have a few more thoughts about experience planning, gleaned from the book The Experience Economy, by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore.
There’s a great illustration in this book (I’ve seen it other places too) that depicts the different parts of an “Experience.” Pine and Gilmore call the concept connected to the illustration [...]

Experience in the Mundane

Kansas City’s airport parking lot was recently redesigned, and it makes life alot easier for me. The new parking lot uses KC-based themes at each shuttle stop (there are at least 20 shuttle stops). The idea is that while you might not remember you parked at 25-H, you might remember that you parked at the [...]

Engaging Customers

Still dabbling in Experience Planning… this is from page 4 of The Experience Economy, by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore. It’s an awesome read, by the way.
Here’s a cool quote: “companies stage an experience whenever they engage customers, connecting with them in a personal, memorable way.”
Examples: Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe - [...]

Continue the Experience with a Matching Website

Page 139 of the book Priceless: Turning Ordinary Products into Extraordinary Experiences used the store Home Depot as an example. Home Depot does something quite cool - their physical store and their website match. Have you ever noticed this? I hadn’t until I read about it, but it’s true! The physical store has wide aisles, [...]

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