Today’s unprecedented access to information has created a power shift between brands and consumers. The plethora of data and stories about companies has allowed consumers to move beyond merely researching and comparing products and services. They are now looking at how brands connect with consumers and influence society at large.
Brands know they must listen and respond quickly to online customer feedback and social media commentary. These activities have become table stakes in protecting a brand’s reputation. Smart brands are also using online listening and customer feedback loops to keep a vigilant focus on user experience (UX) – how consumers interact functionally with products and services, and on customer experience (CX) – how they engage and transact with the brand. This heightened level of engagement is necessary to create positive, meaningful and value driven interactions.
Unfortunately, all of this may not be enough, because consumers are seeking a more meaningful relationship with the brands they choose; one that connects with them on a more intimate, human level. This new desire for a deeper experience is obliging brands to take into account a hierarchy of consumer needs and strive to understand the values, emotions and desires that drive individual decisions and shape how people interpret the world.
Today organizations need to design for the whole human experience.
What is Human Experience Design (HXD)?
Human experience design is a shift from designing customer experiences based on commercial intent to designing to demonstrate brand commitment, and to competing based on corporate humanity. A growing number of forward thinking brands are finding a new competitive differentiator in the ability to connect to, and meet, higher-level human needs.
Casper, the mattress company, is one stand-out example of a company designing for moments of celebration, rescue and care. They simply ask, “How can we be a hero? How can we help out?” The company has turned the basic act of sleeping into something hip and worthy of celebration. Casper infuses purpose at every touchpoint in fun and creative ways including pop-up nap pods and traveling napmobiles that offer consumers a chance to rest while trying out the latest mattress and pillow products.
What questions should you ask yourself when designing for Human Experience (HX)?
As a starting point, it is helpful to form an experiential benchmark to measure against. You can achieve this by asking a few fundamental questions.
- Beyond, price, value and CX, which human values and meanings do customers associate with you? – To determine this, you have to grow your customer understanding beyond how they perceive your products, services and brand. This requires more than simply reviewing social media comments, online reviews and customer feedback with the single purpose of enhancing products. Using data analytics and behavioral research to dive deeper into consumer sentiment can reveal the more intrinsic values associated with the brand: fairness, altruism, well-being, stewardship, responsibility and caring, among others.
- Do customers give you credit for tapping into their human values? – When you observe and listen to customer responses before, during and after any experience, make sure you are capturing their perceptions at the higher-level. Do they comment on how your products help improve a human condition or solve a societal problem? Do they comment on your sustainability and philanthropy programs or your community service activities? Are they complimentary of your employee’s attitudes? Do they see you as a fair and compassionate brand?
What research methods help inform HX decisions?
Many elements of human experience lack a defined framework for analysis. When strategizing around human experience, research validation can provide meaningful insights to support even the most abstract human connections. Quantitative surveys provide hard data and can be scaled for large respondent pools. Qualitative focus groups or ethnographic studies reveal deeper human thinking and emotional responses.
How does an organization develop an HX culture?
In order to deliver genuine human experiences, your organizations must become purposeful, cognitive, adaptive and conscious. You must continue to deliver great UX and CX, while at the same time working to satisfy more sophisticated customer expectations or corporate conscience. Organizations that put creating genuine human experiences front and center will be best positioned to realize benefits from this new competitive advantage.
We encourage you to begin thinking about how your products, services and business operations have a true impact on the people you sell to and the world at large.
To learn more about human experience design, please visit: http://sparksgrove.com/.
Elizabeth Searcy is global head of experience design firm Sparks Grove. She is a graduate of Florida State University and holds an MBA in marketing from Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Leigh Cook is senior director and futures practice lead, Sparks Grove. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds an MBA in marketing from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.