design@Sun

Last week, I posed a question, "What was your best user experience [that is fit to be discussed on this blog] with a product, service or technology?" And in return, I offered some of my cherished Sun memorabilia to the person or people who gave me the best response(s). I want to thank everyone who responded, and say that everyone who submitted a response is a winner. I have plenty of stuff, and will be contacting you for your address shortly :) I'll give you my take-aways from the responses at the end of this post.

This week, I'm posing a slightly different question, and am offering some Sun exclusives -- things that you can only get as an employee, as far as I know -- in return for my favorite answers. There's not as much up for grabs this time, so I'll need to be more selective.

The question this week, is "What design has strongly resonated with you emotionally?" For example, I've talked at some length about my kitchen faucet. The first time I saw it, it made my heart beat faster -- its smooth rounded lines were both industrial and organic at the same time. When has that happened to you, and what was the thing that drew you to it? Was it a car? A sofa? A piece of art or architecture? What was it?

Tell me about what design has strongly resonated with you emotionally in email (jenm at sun dot com), and you may be the proud owner of a Customer Engineering Conference backpack, with Sun logo on the back strap, or a Sun recycled paper notebook (and pen, which is not pictured because I just found it), or a Sun 10-year lapel pin/tie tack. It's a shame, but I almost never wear anything with lapels, and even more rarely wear a tie :) I'll take responses until, say, Wednesday of next week, when I'll post another question with different give-away items.

So what did I see as trends across each of the responses that I received? Without fail, in each response, the author had expected something to be difficult, and was delighted when the experience with the baby swing or coffee pot or carriage ride reservation or food processor manufacturer was simple. Easy. Not hard. No fuss. But there's more than that.

Some experiences were the result of good default values -- a good default behavior supported the user's task in a way that was unexpected. Next, when default values were not sufficient, it was easy to customize (change) the default behavior to better support the user's needs. There were several instances of people feeling taken care of by companies who stood behind their products by correcting a bad situation (replacing a part, getting them somewhere they needed to be, or sending a missing bit that was necessary) for free. And lastly, there were experiences that had been mundane that were transformed into something fun.

Is any of this particularly surprising? No. But does it lend some insight into how we can create better user experiences for our customers? It does for me.

Jen McGinn is an interaction designer in xDesign who is working to improve the user experience with software installation and registration. She has an MS in Human Factors in Information Design and works out of Sun's campus in Massachusetts.