Creating an Experience

Sholom Sandalow, Friday, March 30, 2007 @ 8:13 pm

Interface Designers don’t just design software GUI’s, we design experiences.  It is job number One to keep this in mind.  We have to understand that experiences are the sum total of all of the circumstances that combine in one moment for one person.  The satisfaction a user receives when they work on a well designed piece of software comes from many factors, some of which we cannot control.  But the more we uncover and internalize about the circumstances that together produce an experience, the better chance we have of designing software that makes a satisfying one.

This is no less true of Visual Design, when we typically apply the polish that will hopefully add to the user’s experience in a positive way.  It might be easier to  think of Visual Design as a separate part of the project, distinct from Requirements Gathering and Information Architecture, and in many ways it is.  It’s certainly useful for budgeting and project planning.  But that type of thinking can go too far, and lead to arbitrary compartmentalization of a project.     Since the goal is a product that provides its users with a satisfactory experience, that experience has to be uncovered trough extensive research—and more than a little common sense—and then shared and indeed owned by all those involved in designing that experience.

The absence of this shared goal in Interface Design is a disjointed and ultimately unsatisfying experience, no matter how well any of the individual parts work.  And unfortunately it is all too common.  It can be seen when a User Interface looks sleek and sophisticated, but works like a lemon; or when it works fantastically, but looks so ugly that it gives its users a headache.

If however, that shared goal in software design is understood clearly and internalized in everyone’s work, then it is much more likely that the user will intuitively feel it, and come away with a better experience. 

user experience design

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