Re: when was "experience design" coined? seeking academic citation

Dan,

En garde!  Who's to say that the artist-shamans who painted the caves at
Lascaux (www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/) or who designed the
Oracle of Delphi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi) didn’t have methods
and codes for the practice of their experience-design trade?  Certainly,
there were more instances of Stonehenge-like constructions throughout
Europe, and pyramids and such in pre-Columbian South America.  Just because
these folks didn't author blogs and softcover books doesn't mean they didn't
know what they were doing, and more importantly, why.  To believe that
experience design began with our contemporaries is a modern conceit.

It's incumbent on every American experience designer to know about the World
Fairs: they were the precedents for Disneyland and Imagineering and all that
followed, including casino designers (who practice a slightly warped version
of "customer-centricity":  empty their pockets).

Discriminating between holistic experience design and web-based and
product-based user experience isn't splitting hairs:  it's recognizing the
philosophical positions and actual work that differentiate these practices.
It's not important for the practitioner of one to know everything about the
practice of the other, but definitely essential to know about each and what
their differences are.  Focus and scope are only two of many differences
that separate ED and UED, but either one of these is enough to warrant
separation.  Others include clientele, locus of interventions, and purposes.

Lastly, while Don has used the term "user" often enough in his work, I was
at Stanford when he made his statement about regretting introducing its use
before the term, "experience design."  Also, Don's wrote about this on his
blog recently: "Words Matter.  Talk About People:  Not Customers, Not
Consumers, Not Users" (http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/words_matter_talk_ab.html).

When experience design came up at the Stanford conference that Don keynoted,
10 representatives from the established design organizations (e.g., IDSA,
STE, AIGA, etc.) and new ones (e.g., Interaction Society, DUX, etc.) could
not come to an agreement on the use of the term. Each wanted to appropriate
it as its own.  Personally, I like best the definition of ED that's implicit
in the defintion of landscape architecture offered by the ASLA (which wasn’t
there), the American Society of Landscape Architects:

Landscape architecture encompasses the analysis, planning, design,
management, and stewardship of the natural and built environments.

SEGD (which also wasn't there) has another summation:

Environmental Graphic Design embraces many design disciplines including
graphic, architectural, interior, landscape, and industrial design, all
concerned with the visual aspects of wayfinding, communicating identity and
information, and shaping the idea of place.

I betray my spatial bias with these definitions.  Performance and process
design (commercially known as "customer experience design," another Rube
Goldberg disciplinary construction) are invisible, except in their acting
out.  But you get my drift.

 Bob Jacobson
 Bluefire Consulting
 Santa Monica

    





On 9/14/06 4:43 AM, "David (Heller) Malouf" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi Bob,
> 
> I disagree with your point here.
> 
> Doing something and doing something in a self-aware, self-reflective manner
> are two different things. The latter allows you to build a practice and
> praxis that is communicatable and transferable. What the cave drawers did
> was just expression. I think self-awareness of a discipline makes a
> difference. Am I really considering how what I'm doing is going to affect
> the experiences of specific expected audiences or am I just doing something
> ad hoc with the hope that someone will find it and like it.
> 
> The World's fair examples MAY fit. I have never been, nor read about how
> these folks think about their work. What DOES fit for me are the
> "imagineers" at Disney. While they don't call it experience design, in my
> mind these folks are really the first true experience designers. The other
> people I would look to are Casino designers.
> 
> I think there is also a difference between designing an experience and being
> an experience designer. I think that there are some theoretical
> understandings, certain types of practice, and a minimum level of self-aware
> relationship with an audience that in combination create a critical mass of
> what is experience design.
> 
> Now this bit about "User Experiene Design" vs. "Experience Design".
> Sometimes I think this is just splitting hairs, but I have noticed that in
> practice I would draw the line at "User Experience" seems to be more finite
> in its scope more akin to "Product Design" with a UCD angle while
> "Experience Design" is more broad and speaks to an entire system. BOTH
> include a relationship between brand and user, IMHO.
> 
> I know that Don Norman is not against the term "User". Personally, I'm not
> feeling it. I also know that Industrial Designers are against the term
> "Industrial", but it doesn't seem to be going away either, or "Graphic
> Designers" don't want the term "Graphic" ... this one is going away more ...
> I see "Visual Design" much more these day. Oh well! Maybe he'll get his
> wish, but he needs to be more proactive about suggesting alternatives that
> speak to the practitioners. Just saying treat people with dignity and call
> them human doesn't seem to be doing it.
> 
> -- dave
> 



- - - - A I G A  E X P E R I E N C E  D E S I G N - - - -

PURPOSE OF THE LIST:  The objective of AIGA Experience Design is to build an interdisciplinary community of professionals who design for a world in which experiences are increasingly digital and connected. This list has been established as a forum for the exchange of information among community members.

TO VIEW ARCHIVED MESSAGES: visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AIGAExperienceDesign

ETIQUETTE: We ask that participants observe common principles of civility and e-mail etiquette in their postings. Specifically, it is more appropriate to challenge ideas than individuals, and the list should *not* be used for personal communications, self-promotion, commercial solicitations or job postings.

JOB POSTINGS: Please post job listings on AIGA Design Jobs http://www.aiga.org/designjobs

TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send e-mail to [email protected]

MORE INFORMATION: http://experiencedesign.aiga.org
 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AIGAExperienceDesign/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AIGAExperienceDesign/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:[email protected] 
    mailto:[email protected]

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [email protected]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/