{"id":11917,"date":"2014-01-30T07:44:26","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T07:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beyondphilosophy.com\/?p=11917"},"modified":"2019-09-15T07:46:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T11:46:28","slug":"design-human-centred-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/design-human-centred-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Design Human Centred Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"How<\/a>Before you spend a ton of money on a new CRM system, software, machine or process to enhance your customer experience<\/a>, you should always make sure that you consider that your customers are humans in your design. Imperfect, irrational, and instinctive humans.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of this important tenet of customer experience design when I read a story about Marriot\u2019s \u201cdestination elevator<\/a>\u201d. What they learned is a lesson every designer should know about\u2026<\/p>\n

The Marriot Marquis in New York\u2019s Times Square (44 stories tall if I recall correctly from my visit) had terrible waits in the lobby for their elevators. So they invested $11m on a new smart elevator system. The system requires people to key in the floor they want to go to and then the system will calculate which elevator (A, B, C and so on) to send them to for better efficiency. Once in the elevator though there are no buttons (at least that deals with the problem of an annoying kid pressing all 44 buttons).<\/p>\n

This type of elevators is becoming increasingly popular for tall buildings as it\u2019s proven that they reduce wait time. However, as was the case with the Marriot Marquis, it can leave many people frustrated and feeling like idiots.<\/p>\n

The thing is, what do people instinctively do when they see an open elevator \u2013 jump right into it. But then these elevators have no buttons inside\u2026 so all people can do is wait \u2026 get out and do the procedure properly.<\/p>\n

We do this out of habits. Our brain spots a clue i.e. open elevator that looks exactly like any other and sends a signal \u201cget on it\u201d in a nanosecond. That\u2019s how we are \u201cprogramed\u201d to save energy and think about all the important things like \u201chow am I going to solve this problem at work\u201d, \u201cwhat am I going to say to my wife\/ husband for being late\u201d etc\u2026<\/p>\n

Only that this was not an elevator like any other. It\u2019s a good system but what Marriott failed to consider is how to change a lifelong customer habit. At the very least it would have required a big yellow sign in a large font (oh but that would make it \u201coff brand\u201d). Eventually, Marriott solved the problem by having a bellman occasionally stand there and direct the guests in the new process.<\/p>\n

GE had a similar experience in the installation of a brand new state of the art MRI machine. In a recent blog, Design and ROI of Patient Experience<\/a>, I described the story about Doug Dietz, an industrial designer at GE, who witnessed the tears of a 7-year-old girl about to get a scan on his fantastic new machine. He describes how that moment made him realize that he had failed in his design because he hadn\u2019t thought of how a child would react to his magnificently designed — and apparently terrifying — machine. He found that some 80% of the kids had to be sedated, requiring the need for physicians in the room, decreasing the utilization time of the MRI machine and bringing parents and staff to tears from the look of the crying children.<\/p>\n

So Doug and the GE team spent time with kids to understand how they think, what do they like and what are they afraid of. They then redesigned the MRI experience for kids by creating the \u201cadventure series\u201d and redecorating the MRI scanner rooms as if the kids were about to step and lie down in a canoe to \u201cride along the river\u201d. As a result this new experience brought joy in the eyes of children, their parents and employees whilst hospital realised efficiencies from less need for physicians to sedate kids and higher utilization rate of the scanner.<\/p>\n

What is particularly important about this story, however, is that none of the human-centered part of the design would have ever happened if Dietz hadn\u2019t gone in the field to visit his new machine.<\/p>\n

So what can these two stories teach us about injecting the human into the design of your products, services and ultimately experiences?<\/p>\n