Noel Franus
Brand experience. Sensory branding. Slightly Hairy Audacious Goals. Oh my.

20050823 Tuesday August 23, 2005

Fake road signs

Fake road-sign art at bopano.net.

Kudos to the artists for stirring things up.

( Aug 23 2005, 12:32:28 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Recap #1: What "Experience Architecture" is, what it ain't

As promised, I'm providing blurb-level recaps from the EA Forum two weeks back. (Why blurbs? Two reasons: 1) It's a short-attention-span world [sad but true]; and 2) I'm far too busy to write a formal report.)

Today's installment is based on a slide that Gregory Beck, who so skillfully led the forum, provided as a discussion tool. It's worth sharing:

"Experience architecture" (or experience design in guest-facing spaces ;-) is about...

  • Content-driven places
  • Your client's/company's story
  • Ideas and emotions
  • The guest experience
  • Narrative
  • Translation
  • Communication
  • The Experience Economy

    And is not about...

  • Stage sets
  • Architectral form
  • Style
  • The "Public"
  • Technology
  • Authorship
  • Special effects
  • "Theming"

    A few more IS and IS NOTs, compliments of yours truly:

    EA is: something that happens first; aligned with overall business strategy; created collaboratively; driven by vision; a short- and long-term opportunity to boost relationships and loyalty.

    EA is not: plugged in at the end of a project; the easy way out; done independently of other functions; driven by fear or with respect only to short-term revenues.

    My final is-not: necessarily longer, more grueling, or more expensive than traditional methods. Quite the opposite: if you consider EA to be part of a discovery or scoping effort, then it's a much more accurate way of defining the needs for the rest of a space, which keeps budget/scope creep to a minimum.

    Yes, I said it: doing the right thing for your customers and your company can save you money. Must be crazy talk. ( Aug 23 2005, 06:01:17 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

    Make money now. Ask them how.

    The Design Council has news: The share prices of companies which invest in design performed up to three times better than the FTSE 100 Index over nearly two years in the run-up to December 2004. Full report available at their site.

    Side note: they're referring to design as a verb, not a noun. Confused? Let's talk.

    ( Aug 23 2005, 04:08:56 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]


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