BarcampDC Follow-up Topic: Emotional Design and the User Experience
While in the User Experience discussion my ongoing experience with my ex VW Beetle came up. Is the overall brand experience a part of the user experience?
So this bridges the discussion at BarCampDC with a book I am reading (Interaction Design by Dan Saffer) with a convo I had with Cindy about her Beetle at BarcampDC…
Dan Saffer on emotional design:
“What would the Volkswagen Beetle be without whimsy?”
My answer: a piece of shit car.
While talking with Cindy at Barcamp she confessed that if her car died (knock on wood) she would be at odds to what new car to consider. I faced this same problem when mine died… forced myself to listen to logic and just bought the first Honda I test drove. If its not a beetle, it doesn’t really matter what kind of car it is as long as it doesn’t fall apart.
I cried that day.
The overwhelmingly positive emotional response a Beetle owner has can actually outweigh the negative fact that the car physically is a turd. A Beetle can have the windows fall out, the locks pop out of the door, the dashboard peel off and the owner still longs to buy another.
Every morning since the loss of my Beetle I walk out of my apartment and am disappointed not to see my car smiling back at me. Emotional design can be a heavy contributor to User Experience.
barcamp, barcampdc, barcampwashingtondc, Volkswagen, New Beetle, VW Beetle, User Experience, Emotional design
August 17th, 2007 at 7:37 am
I believe there is a distinction between the “brand experience” and the “user experience” — I do think that they can influence one another though. An amazing brand experience may influence your user experience — being in love with a particular brand may cause you to look past some of the user experience pit falls. On that same note, a poor brand experience may be heightened by an unexpected yet overwhelmingly pleasant user experience.
One of the best books (industry related) I’ve ever read was “The End of Advertising as We Know It“, by Sergio Zyman. His overall point is simple, the millions of dollars spent on advertising to increase your brand experience can all be for nothing with just one bad user experience. He focuses primarily on advertising vs. customer service. His great example is that you are exposed to hundreds of airline commercial advertisements in a given year — but you may not be able to recall any of those commercials or brand messages. Yet, if exposed to one very rude flight attendant on just one flight — you are likely to remember that experience for a very long time and even go out of your way to share it with others; now diminishing the brand far beyond any of those commercials.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:58 am
You bring up a very good point. It’s that emotional tie that keeps us so much more committed to things than anything else-you call that user experience, to me it seems so much like a fact of life. The same thing can be said for me with certain projects at work, consumer electronics, and even some people or pets. Some times we fall for things and we’re just immediately gung-ho and committed, whereas other things, practical and appropriate as they are, just don’t keep our attention. You’ve given me a great rationalization for why I like my car. I had a Honda not too long before…
This also makes me think of a great discussion they referenced on this over at 37s:
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/521-mailbag-jeep-dyson-the-acropolis-etc
So sad you couldn’t join us yesterday at the UX after party, cause then you could’ve brought this idea up with Dan himself over a Corona…
August 18th, 2007 at 6:41 am
Samantha, your Beetle transcended???!!! I didn’t know. Did you get a Honda Fit?
August 30th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Hellooo??? What Honda did you get? Inquiring minds need to know.
August 30th, 2007 at 5:39 am
Robbie,
I test drove a Civic, the first car i saw on the lot and not even the color i wanted. I just had to get it over with.