Experience by Design
95 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago - ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsThis is experience by design, a podcast that brings new perspectives to the experiences we have everyday. Does standing in line always have to suck? Why are airports so uncomfortable? What does it mean to be loyal to a brand? Why do you love being connected but dislike feeling tethered to your smart phone? Can we train people to care about the climate?
Join Sociologist Gary David and Anthropologist Adam Gamwell on an expedition to the frontiers of culture and business through the lens of human experience. We're here to make sense of the madness with leading psychologists, cognitive and social scientists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.
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Episodes
eLearning Experience Design with Tim Slade
April 06, 2024 17:09 - 1 hour - 63.3 MBThere is the old saying that ‘necessity is the mother of invention.’ This could be the slogan for education in the pandemic world. All educators were thrust into a situation that many vowed they would never do: teach online. But what could we do? It wasn’t like there were a lot of options. We had to make due with what we had, and hope that it worked better than we hoped. At the same time, it isn’t like learning online, or from videos, is new. We might even think that television shows that ...
Human Elements of Customer Experiences with Karl Sharicz
March 12, 2024 20:05 - 1 hour - 65.3 MBHere on Experience by Design, we like to think we are experts, or at least pretty knowledgeable, about the concept of culture. A couple of PhDs and training in ethnography will at least yield a working understanding of culture, as well as how it permeates all aspects of our lives. Regardless of how ubiquitous, it also is hard to nail down in terms of what it means. Just like a fish probably doesn’t notice the water until it is out of it, we don’t notice culture until we are in a different ...
Interiors for Better Experiences with Carolyn Boldt
February 23, 2024 20:41 - 1 hour - 57.6 MBIt might seem like an obvious statement, but different kinds of environments require different kinds of designs. Thinking about my kids for instance. As they got older, their tastes and interests changed, which as a result changed their room decor. One of my daughters is always seeking to ‘level up’ her room schwag, looking for design ideas to reflect who she is as a person, and who she aspires to be. Perhaps we can all identify with this part of adolescence. The posters, the black lights, t...
Grounded Leadership and Employee Experience with Tony Martignetti
February 09, 2024 20:36 - 1 hour - 61.2 MBWhat is business all about? Is it about profit? Or people? Or both? Another question we can ask is why is there the belief that if you are profitable, then you cannot be people focused, or even people concerned. Such a philosophy is going to seep into every aspect of workplace culture, creating a situation in which people are not only disconnected from the organization, but from each other. One of the things that early sociologists explored is the way that people become disconnected from one...
Designing an Authentic Brand with Vladimer Botsvadze
January 12, 2024 21:24 - 57 minutes - 52.5 MBBefore, our work lives were defined by our relationship with the brands we worked for. Growing up in Detroit, a person might be a “Ford person” or a “GM person”. The same can be said for those who worked for Mary Kay or Tupperware. Through our association with the brand, we gained a sense of self that was enriched by that association. Today, people are feeling the pressure to become their own brands. We seek not to just influence those people with whom we come into direct contact, but eve...
Designing Environments for Learning with Mary Ruppenthal
January 02, 2024 15:11 - 1 hour - 56.2 MBIt is not like we need a building in which to teach. Thinking back to Socrates, he was conducting his teaching in an open-air market, influencing younger generations to the point where he was forced to drink hemlock. At the same, a good educational structure can help. I have taught in a variety of environments, and have seen educational technology go from transparencies to PowerPoints and now Open AI. I have taught in amphitheater set ups, rooms with rolling desks, long tables, and small con...
Creating Serendipitous Experiences with David Adler
November 30, 2023 23:05 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MBWhile technology may make it seem like we are constantly connected, the truth is that in many ways we have never been more disconnected from one another. The same devices that can bring the world to our fingertips can at the same time drive a barrier in between real moments of authentic connection. In many ways, this divorces us from ourselves regarding our true human nature. As human beings, we not only crave connection but also need connection. While Maslow put love and belonging in the mi...
Execution for Customer Experience with Rick Denton
November 09, 2023 14:33 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBMuch of our lives, especially in organizations, is governed by process. In fact, organizations can be evaluated based on how mature their processes are. Technological systems are set up to implement processes that employees are supposed to follow. At the same time, process can be a killer of innovation. When we are wedded to processes, we can lose sight of the practices that people can employ to make customer experiences better. Thus we end up in a tension between process and practice, the e...
Repurposing Your Purpose with Maximillian Piras and Headliner App
October 06, 2023 20:08 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBWhen I was growing up, I used to hear a lot of commercials for a group called The Starving Artists Group. The ad would talk about how you could go to a local mall and get paintings and other art work really cheap, because after all the artists were starving and apparently desperate to find food. It also was not a good ad for going into the arts. Afterall, who wants to starve? But we also cannot deny the importance of the arts, and the essential element of the arts in driving our creativity ...
Putting Employees First with Paul ter Wal
September 12, 2023 13:48 - 1 hour - 62.3 MBWe’ve all heard the saying that change is hard, but it is more than that. Change is not only hard, but can be threatening, as well as inevitable. Change is something that takes place naturally, and is impossible to stop. When things change around us and we fail to change with it, then what was once familiar can now feel foreign. While before we might have felt like we belonged, now we can feel out of place. These outcomes can be especially true when change is rapid and sudden, as well as som...
Diversity and Inclusion in Video Game Design
August 21, 2023 20:46 - 1 hour - 66.1 MBGary was part of the first generation to have home video games, and can still remember his Odyssey game console while everyone else was getting an Atari. You might say that left a mark. But he also remembers the fun that you could have just by sitting in front of the television, or computer, and playing some video games. As the games evolved, so did the fun. New consoles and new games meant better graphics, enhanced video, and bigger challenges. Even today he can say with pride that I did kn...
Communicating Healthcare and Information Design with Kristie Kuhl
July 24, 2023 18:16 - 1 hour - 59.1 MBGood health is one of the things that we value as most important in our lives. When other tragedies strike, people often will remark that at least they have their health. And even when all other things are going well, being in poor health (even momentarily with a minor illness) can completely through us out of balance. But despite the importance of our health, our relation to and understanding of our health can be pretty limited. Healthcare literacy and patient literacy continues to be a ...
Designing Educational Comics with Sequential Potential
June 22, 2023 16:47 - 1 hour - 62.2 MBAnyone who is in education knows the challenge that exists when we are trying to deliver content that connects with students. It can be hard to remember that the material that exists us might not be that exciting for the students. Although, I do find it hard to imagine that sociological theory isn’t fascinating for everyone. At the same time, there is plenty of academic and scholarly material that I find completely indecipherable. When you read this material, you can see how it is confusing,...
Jon Strassner and Designing for Sustainable Change
June 05, 2023 16:25 - 1 hour - 65.1 MBHere at Experience by Design, you might not be surprised to find that interior design is not our strong suit. We really don’t know what colors go with what motifs, what furniture matters (outside of comfort), how to create flow and space, and anything else that interior designers may consider when going about creating the environments that we inhabit. It turns out that there is much more to interior design and creating environmental experiences that one might assume. The carbon footprint c...
EPIC Customer Experiences with Alex Mead
May 30, 2023 14:57 - 1 hour - 62.5 MBThe idea of pleasing customers goes back as far as the beginnings of human history. A 3,800 year old clay tablet with cuneiform writing from the city of UR is perhaps our evidence of customer complaints. A man named Nanni complained about the quality of copper he received to Ea-Nasir, along with issues with subsequent delays. A quote from the tablet says, “What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt?” The letter goes on from there with complaints about the lac...
Customers in Context and SXSW 2023
April 17, 2023 15:27 - 1 hour - 62.1 MBIn today’s data saturated world, businesses are looking for ways to cut through the noise, and consumers are looking to feel seen and heard. Tools and techniques from the social sciences like Anthropology and Sociology can help organizations thrive in today's complex world by focusing on people’s lived experience in context. Learning to see connections from an experience standpoint reveals often implicit rules and relationships that shape how and why trends and ideas matter. Audiences will t...
Intercultural Frolicking and Design with Kiran Varri
March 24, 2023 17:41 - 1 hour - 61.9 MBDesigning for an international audience can provide challenges to the experience designer. If we are going to design with the cultural norms and expectations in mind, how do we handle when the number of cultures we are catering to seems to always increase? This also is a major challenge when living in a multicultural society where we have people from many different backgrounds. At least in that situation, we might have a national culture we can orient to. But what then about living in an int...
Rock-It Fueled Experiences with Wanda Toro Turini
March 03, 2023 17:58 - 1 hour - 64.7 MBIn a media environment where we are beset on all sides by messages, it can be hard to connect with your audiences. More challenging still is educating and impacting. We are all familiar with ads on television for different medications, from restless leg syndrome to depression to atrial fibrillation to skin problems to Wilfred Brimley “diabetus” advertisements, it is easy to feel uneasy about our health. It raises the question of whether the purpose of these ads is to educate or to convince t...
Doug Shapiro and Future of the Workplace Design
February 12, 2023 14:01 - 1 hour - 62.4 MBOne of the lessons of the pandemic is raising the relevance of the workplace as a physical location in which people come together to accomplish their tasks. There are numerous stories of empty locations and attempts by employers to bring people back. Some of these attempts involve enticements, while others involve threats. Both speak to the growing question of what does the workplace provide to us that we cannot get working at home? And how might we design workplaces that people want to be a...
Experience Strategy and Umami with Aga Szostek
January 30, 2023 22:19 - 1 hour - 67.3 MBIn experience design, there is design thinking, design doing, and design strategizing. Seldom do all three things come together in one package. This clearly presents a problem. Thinking isn’t enough without the doing. And doing isn’t enough without a strategy for what we are doing and why we are doing it. How to tie these things together becomes not just a challenge, but a requirement if you want your company to succeed long-term. Taking the messy, ephemeral aspects of how we go through lif...
Constraints and Creative Experiences with Jaci Badzin
January 16, 2023 17:42 - 53 minutes - 49.4 MBOne of the most enjoyable aspects of being an experience designer, or a designer of any kind, is the opportunity to make unexpected connections in order to deliver new experiences. Often this starts in our backgrounds of study. Because there are so few programs targeted in experience design, the majority of designers combine their educational background in different ways, practicing a strange type of professional alchemy that results in creativity and innovation. And if you talk to an expe...
Transactional to Transformational Experiences with Vaishali Dialani
December 30, 2022 17:35 - 1 hour - 57.4 MBOne of the fascinating things about doing experience design is the innumerable ways in which we can apply our understanding and work. While we might talk about silos such as customer, user, employee, patient, and the like, it always comes down to people. Or, some might say, humans. And it is not just that we are dealing with humans in our design, but that we should be humanistic when approaching our designs and for whom we are designing. Rather than designing “at” people, we need to design “...
Creating Online Learning Experiences with Dr. Mohamed Latib
November 23, 2022 18:43 - 1 hour - 56.5 MBAnyone who has been involved in education knows that education ain’t easy. It can be tricky and challenging to figure out how best to learn, integrate, and distill information to an audience. From the days of Socrates in the Agora and even before, the challenge of reaching learning with information that connects and educates has existed. The emergence of a wide array of technologies has further complicated the question of how to teach. Google Classroom and Zoom, along with the array of learn...
Designing Activism with David Johnson
October 31, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 72.9 MBWhen confronted with all of the wicked problems that we are facing as a country, global community, and species, it can all seem pretty hopeless. The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass famously said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and never will.” When looking at the challenges of these wicked problems, we can see power and profit, and the resistance to cede that privileged position, to be a foundational challenge to ma...
Drew Bonfiglio and Designing Business for Good
October 06, 2022 14:54 - 1 hour - 57.8 MBAs social scientists in sociology and anthropology, we are well-versed in the examination of business as a source of disruption in society. The privileging of profits over people, the extraction of resources for the benefit of shareholders, question ethics and legality rationalized as a necessary evil. Especially looking at the slash-and-burn era of the 1980s and 1990s, we saw business culture as "greed is good," with Wall Street being given greater attention and importance than Main Street....
Accelerated Leadership with Jennifer Chapman
September 21, 2022 23:22 - 1 hour - 59.9 MBThe field of leadership coaching has been expanding with many different types of offerings provided by just as many different approaches. And it is hard to say that it is not needed. People in management positions can be beset on all sides by demands and limitations, making even thinking about leadership just another thing to add onto an already packed to-do list. In some fields of work, the situation is even more challenging. For instance, those who are working in engineering fields might...
Doing Design that Drives Change with Michael Kirkpatrick
September 02, 2022 17:56 - 1 hour - 58.8 MBIn many ways, Experience Design is a new field of work in terms of how it has become focused on and prioritized in companies and across sectors. In other ways, there is nothing new about it at its core. Experiences have been designed and delivered throughout human history. Perhaps what is most different about today is the awareness and intentionally behind experience design. But what is the purpose of all this experience designing? Are we just trying to increase bottom-line revenues? Are w...
Architecting Curiosity and Designing Wonder
August 21, 2022 20:15 - 1 hour - 59 MBWe might have all heard that curiosity killed the cat. But as with all stories, the reality of that statement is a bit more complicated. It turns out that the initial version of that phrase referred to how excessive worry or concern for others killed the cat, and that is a concept we can all relate to. Curiosity, on the other hand, did not cause harm to the cat, and may in fact have improved its life. Afterall, curiosity is one of the things that we see in babies as they explore their enviro...
Breathing Oxygen into Culture with Jason Barger
August 03, 2022 13:39 - 57 minutes - 52.2 MBAs ethnographers, we are used to the idea that big discoveries can come from everyday observations. There are possibilities for discovery all around us. All it takes is for us to notice, and noticing can be the hardest thing to teach. An observation becomes a noticing, which then becomes a premise, which turns into an idea, and eventually perhaps even a paradigm. Our guest, Jason Barger, today spent a lot of time in airports, and it was a simple observation at the baggage claim that led to...
Jen Briselli and Integrating Ideas for Systems Design
July 23, 2022 16:09 - 1 hour - 63.8 MBChanging mindsets, behaviors, and organizations are hugely challenging. Design presents a pathway for trying to do so. However, when considering the complexity of systems and all the elements associated with them, the challenge can seem overwhelming. People can either oversimply to the point where their approach is incomplete, or get stuck in the weeds to the extent that nothing gets done. To approach the challenge of systems design, we need to draw on a variety of inspirations and professio...
The Bob Ross Experience with Joan Kowalski
July 08, 2022 16:52 - 1 hour - 65.2 MBBob Ross has long been a fixture in the pop cultural landscape. The big hair, the soft voice, the happy little clouds, and the artwork created in an episode made Bob compelling and peaceful viewing. There was something about seeing a canvas transformed into a landscape that was transfixing. Despite his shows being on many decades ago, there is more Bob Ross today than ever. Bobble heads, Chia pets, art supplies, board games, t-shirts, and many other items. You can even watch a marathon of B...
Meaningful Experience Measurement Greg Kihlstrom
June 13, 2022 15:32 - 1 hour - 60.4 MBAnyone engaged in experience design knows the challenges of measuring experiences. Far being being a recent issue, understanding our experiences with the world has long challenged philosophers and social scientists. If centuries of the world's greatest thinkers has yet to be able to figure it out, you know it is a hard nut to crack. To solve this issue, many measurement strategies have evolved, each with this benefits and drawbacks. It can feel overwhelming in terms of trying to what can be ...
Making Memories and Place with Julia Beabout
May 25, 2022 15:25 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBMemories are central to our lives, and how we form a sense of who we are as people. How we remember and engage with the past speaks to our identity in the present. Both events good and bad can form deep impressions in our minds, cutting grooves and building pinnacles that create the topography of our experiences. Low points and high points, trauma and triumphs, all are part of the past brought to present in our memories. But memories are not ours alone to make. Rather, memories can be buil...
Frans Melissen and Sustainable Experience Design
April 28, 2022 12:56 - 59 minutes - 81.4 MBWhile we are celebrating Earth Day on April 22nd, it might feel more appropriate to be planning the Earth’s memorial service. Earth Day was founded in 1970 as a way to learn about environmental issues, highlight sustainability of natural resources, and direct our attention to the fragility of our world. In the intervening 52 years, things haven’t gotten much better. Attempts to change our energy production, usage, and pollution have run into the wall of politics, conspiracy theories, and d...
Transformative Change and Organizational Experiences with Andy McDowell
April 14, 2022 20:10 - 1 hour - 60 MBOrganizations may often think of change, but they are also often not serious about actually changing. When it comes down to making changes, where the rubber hits the proverbial road and orgs have to consider resourcing, people, budgets and time horizons, the reality of what it takes to change runs up against actual desire to change. Change can be even more difficult when things seem to be going well. Why change when we don’t need to? Because when things are going well, it might be the best t...
Delivering Experiences, Not Services with Shelley Kimball
March 11, 2022 23:16 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MBWith the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, there has been a lot of discussion of the military in the news recently. As we see images on television of these conflicts, the service of those in the military comes into clearer focus. There are those who are giving their years, themselves, and even their lives. Even in 'peace time,' military members can go on long deployments not take them away from their homes and their families. While we often are reminded of the sacrifices of those in uniform, ...
Barry Borgerson and Challenging Your Certainties
February 25, 2022 19:20 - 1 hour - 57.7 MBOrganizations used to be notable for their stability. Some of the biggest companies were well-known for their established cultures, their recognizable products, and their steadfast brands. Going to work at one of those companies meant permanence and security. It wasn’t just that those companies were change adverse; it is that change was seen as irrelevant. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But we don’t live in a world that is predictable and stable. As the saying goes, change is the only co...
Designing for a Difference with Eleni Stathoulis
January 17, 2022 22:15 - 1 hour - 56.2 MBIt can be easy to forget that experience design, whatever the kind, is about people. More than that, it is about making not only experiences better, but more importantly their lives better. As experience designers, we can help in ways great and small. It can be an overused phrase to be customer, or patient, or user centric. And we can lose sight what that means, and what our design recommendations and decisions can mean, in people’s lives. Eleni Stathoulis is focused on delivering that dif...
Radical Product Design with Radhika Dutt
December 28, 2021 15:17 - 1 hour - 56.3 MBWe are on the verge of a new year, and with a new year comes new ideas about how we need to make changes in our lives. While individual will often make New Year’s Resolutions about how to make a “new you”, what about organization? What resolutions can organizations make to change the way they have been doing things, and enter the new year with not only the best intentions, but the best outcomes? To help us explore how to make those radical changes in our individual and organizational lives,...
Designing Empowerment from the Inside Out with Thibault Manekin
November 24, 2021 11:58 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBWhen the world can feel more divided than ever - whether polarizing politics, climate change or economic uncertainty, ethnography reminds us to come back down to earth, and into the lives of people. Because the truth is, if we want to see systemic change, and address issues larger than ourselves, we actually have to start with everyday experience. And being willing to go against the grain, challenge the status quo. Thibault Manekin has a habit of putting himself into uncomfortable situation...
Education, Language, and Meaningful Experience Design
November 09, 2021 13:40 - 1 hour - 60.9 MBMeaning is a key element of designing experiences. At the same time, a major challenge is to understand how people construct and achieve meaning not just personally, but shared with others. How we create meaning through language has long been a philosophical question drawing sharp arguments around a fundamental feature of our lives. Max Louwerse’s book “Keeping those Words in Mind: How Language Creates Meaning” explores how we make meaning through language in terms that anyone can understa...
Privacy that Delights with Ben Brook
October 19, 2021 15:39 - 55 minutes - 51.3 MBWhen looking at American culture, you can see how security minded it is. Home security systems. Car security systems. Gun ownership for protection. Locking your doors. It is a society that in many ways does not trust its own environment. At the same, we have in many ways given up pretending that we have digital privacy and security. News reports of security breaches, stolen passwords, hacking, and cybercrime all create the sense that resistance is futile. Our guest today is looking to chan...
Designing Livestreams with Chuck Kostalnick (Heyaapl)
September 21, 2021 20:13 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBPerhaps one of the most immediate changes brought by the pandemic was the move to living online. It seemed like the world was going virtual, as people in business, education, organizing, and those trying to maintain social connection became boxes on screens. As we put more time into being online, we often found that there is a difference between being in person and being remote. Something is missing in the virtual experience. At the same time, there is this whole thriving online world in wh...
Designing Justice with the Inclusion Nextwork
August 27, 2021 23:56 - 1 hour - 55.7 MBThis past summer has brought greater attention to questions of racial and social justice, resulting from the George Floyd murder to other stories also depicting events that bring us back to an earlier time in American history. While this renewed focus is welcome to address issues that still need addressing, the topic of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice are by no means new. So while not new as topics, we are living in a new era. With this, we need a new generation of leaders to take ...
Howard Tiersky and Digital Customer Experiences
August 10, 2021 17:29 - 1 hour - 59.6 MBOne might think that by 2021, companies would already have an understanding of how to digitally transform. Also, one might think that they would have a strategy in place to do so. The truth, however, is that many companies neither have an understanding nor a strategy of engaging customers through digital means. As a result, a staggering 84% of customers say their digital experiences do not live up to their expectations. Further complicating matters is that companies often don’t even take the...
Michael Solomon and the New Chameleons
July 26, 2021 20:04 - 1 hour - 75.9 MBWe are living in the Age of Identity. Terms like fluidity and intersectionality speak to the moment of people exploring who they are across and within different contexts. People are free to choose from a wide variety of selves, each building on the other to create a range of self-expression. While this allows people to speak about who they see themselves as in multiple ways, it does create challenges to trying to reach those people through marketing. Michael Solomon is exploring new rules ...
The Experiential Palate with Anthony Rocco
June 29, 2021 19:42 - 1 hour - 60.2 MBWhat does chips and salsa, Meowoulf, and Burning Man have in common? What they all share is they are part of what our guest calls the Experiential Palate. They involve trying to connect with a person’s experiential aptitude to take in and appreciate what is being created for them. If you have salsa that is too spicy, no matter how good it might taste that is going to be overpowered by how overwhelming it is. Likewise, if you have an image that is too abstract or experimental, the viewer migh...
Jeb's Game and VR for Learning Disabilities
June 07, 2021 14:31 - 58 minutes - 53.7 MBThe experience of being a parent of a developmentally disabled, or neurologically atypical child, can be highly varied. Kids can have a range of functioning, challenges, abilities, and barriers. Regardless of our different experiences based on the unique situations we face, one thing is the same: all of us frequently need some form of help. This is where the folks from Jeb’s Game come in. Inspired into action by the story of Jeb, a young man with Down’s Syndrome who was having trouble learn...
Wendy Ingram and Mental Health in Academia
May 18, 2021 14:01 - 1 hour - 66 MBDespite being summer, it is a fallacy that academics get summers off. Especially in a pandemic year, it can feel like the pressures and stresses of academic work have been compounded. Making the transition to remote teaching provided its own unique challenges. On top of that are all of the requirements of the academic life. Committee work. Advising students, Doing research. Writing papers. Dealing with rejection and reviewer comments. It is enough to challenge even the most dedicated and pat...
Big Little Breakthroughs and Josh Linkner
April 30, 2021 17:46 - 1 hour - 55.1 MBOur guest today Josh Linkner has had a pretty varied set of experiences that led to to writing his latest book, Big Little Breakthroughs. In fact, he describes himself as being a “strange mix of things.” From an early age he picked up guitar. That’s not necessarily notable, as lots of young kids pick up guitar. However, his interest led him to focus on jazz guitar, resulting in him even attending the Berkeley School of Music here in Boston. But his journey didn’t end there, as he ended up tr...