In a building, you can’t click “back”.

Human experience of a physical space will never mimic how we interact with a web page. In a pop-up store, trade show booth, bank, or corporate museum, there’s no option to refresh, scroll, or click back. A customer’s eyes are not limited to what’s available via mouse or touchscreen. That’s why Experience Design (ExD) needs to be executed with special consideration for core human behavior and function in the three-dimensional world.

Experience Design — The Human Factor

Humans absorb about 100 times more information subconsciously than we do consciously – through our sound, smell, touch and most importantly, our sight. Our peripheral vision adds information and context that our brain processes while we are looking directly at something else. Over millenia, humans have been “programmed” to take certain actions in response to things in our environment – colors, scents, shapes, speed of motion, etc. Some of those can be replicated on a flat screen, but often lack the real-world impact when delivered in this way.

A monitor offers a uni-functional delivery of information – it’s a flat experience until you get to Virtual or Augmented Reality. VR and AR work because technology delivers a primary visual experience, again fooling the brain through the eyes to perceive a multi-dimensional environment.

Experience Design Tools & Techniques

Visitor experience ‘delivers the moment’ when the design takes into account core human behavior and function. We use the tools and techniques of color, light, shape, scale, depth, texture, and pattern to prompt a particular response at a specific time in the visitor’s journey through your building or exhibit. We design a predictable, continuous, 360-degree physical experience for the mind to process.

Experience design varies for each medium and industry in which we work. Audience, context, and desired outcomes are just a few of the things that influence the strategy and implementation of the design in physical space. We’re often told by potential clients that their web design team has already taken care of the design for the trade show exhibit, training center, lobby [insert 3D design project here]….and they wonder why they aren’t getting the same quality of engagement when meeting customers in the physical world.

The next time you are at a trade show or in a building that really speaks to you, take a moment to think about why you feel good there and what makes the space so effective. Not only look, but take time to “see” what the designer has laid out to deliver you into that very moment.

As always, great design and great results are ‘About the Experience.’ Give us a call today, and find out how you can optimize your experience design and build brand advocacy for increased ROI.