What did I make of experience?
Studying design serendipitously
I was lucky enough to stumble upon Design Management at university, where I fell in love with the idea of designing for experience. At this point, I had already dropped out of two consecutive degrees, and like many other 19-year olds, felt like I had to rush into something. So, I decided to rush into art school.
The sound of being creative, yet seemingly grounded in some practicality (business, strategy) was exciting yet settling. This is what convinced me:
Design management embraces design thinking to facilitate creative problem-solving and address complex design challenges of climate, racial and social justice.
For 3 years, What on earth do you study? was my top FAQ. We didn’t always study ‘design thinking’. I reflect on the first half of my degree as a ‘process of elimination’: branding was boring, visual/graphic design was too technical, and God, I couldn’t imagine working in the advertising industry. So I gritted my teeth and nervously laughed the questions away—because the truth was, I wasn’t confident enough to explain an abstract concept. I didn’t quite get it yet.
Experience is abstract. As a user, we know it exists (and matters). It’s the reason why we visit the same coffee shop and adopt new services like Airbnb. I liked experiences… in a way that they made me feel emotions. Like art. Feelings → designed by experiences, like:
Special, remembered → personalisation
Efficient, easy to do → user-friendly
Empowered, self-resilient → customer-centric
I wanted to make things to make others feel the same way, and I was sensitive to not create things that felt any less than frictionless (because friction, we’ve all felt).
Hospitality is an experience
I’m a huge foodie and travel enthusiast. Going out, exploring new restaurants, cafes and bars is my thing. My dream job, when asked on the first day of school, was to become a ‘food and travel blogger’. It wasn’t just food and places I loved, it was the experience of it all—the thoughtful service and tiniest of details—all of which me made me excited to want to blog about. When my first assignment was to analyse a ‘creative industry’, I thought, Wasn’t hospitality creative?
At its core, hospitality/F&B is a service. Their business model basically pioneered the extreme customer-centricity before SaaS and B2C. I’ve been on both sides this experience, before I realised I wanted to design something beyond transactional pleasure.
Healthcare is also an experience
By my final year, COVID started teaching me too. As Patient #500 in Hong Kong (my claim to fame), I had the luxury of experiencing 2 weeks in a public hospital. It wasn’t what I considered a great experience, but I saw things work, and feelings like ‘special’ weren’t top of mind. I observed everything from how the staff delivered food to having daily scans scheduled, all during the first chaotic month of a worldwide pandemic.
For the world, the ‘viral’ lesson was learning how to do things differently (improve) each time. Build, test and learn. How I was sent food and scanned changed slightly each time: by way of design.
What I experienced led me to do my final academic project on patient-centred healthcare. My head was so wrapped around customers and users, I never thought about patients as end-users too. Because what is healthcare, if not the most important service in the world?
Actually, everything is an experience
So my interest transitioned from ‘[customer] service design’ to ‘[everyone’s] service design’. I knew I wanted to do something more than evoke pleasure, when I started working harder than I ever had on this thing. I was passionate. I felt frustrated. I wanted to make things better!
It’s not work I’d be proud enough to showcase anymore, but I learnt so much, and left feeling so fulfilled. For the first time, I felt like I created something in line with my values: a mix of pride and joy. If only I could tell my 19-year old self that it was worth the wait. Rush into the thing.
I actually study Healthcare and Design now, and have come across many more reasons to be frustrated about. Thankfully, healthcare is now a sector ripe with innovation and design. Even the NHS has established patient-centricity as a top priority. I still hope this approach extends to the unsexy service-related bits like service delivery, change management and organisational change.
How I approach experience
Although I’m no longer attached to healthcare, I’m still very motivated by design for public services. Which brings me to how I define experiences. I used to think that experiences were only as good as it made you feel, but in my time designing them, I’ve found that the impact extends way beyond that. As Mike Monteiro said:
We are gatekeepers. Nothing should be making it through the gate without our labor and our counsel. We are responsible for the effects of our work once it makes it out into the world. (Ruined By Design)
As a designer (and consultant), I have a responsibility. Sometimes, this looks like creating a journey map that makes it easier for people to shop more. But the more (arguably) important times are when I’m able to make things accessible, help someone to apply for a difficult loan, or enable others to get to financial health sooner and easier. All big problems, less-than-simple solutions.
I realised that it doesn’t actually matter what I’m doing, as long as I’m making things work, open and last, because:
Don’t create broken things, duh
Feedback makes things better, so I try to reflect on my work every week
Usually, anything short-term is narrowed-minded thinking
That is how I got to designing for experience.
