PART 1 - THINGS AND EXPERIENCES

CROSS-CHANNEL ECOSYSTEMS 101

Andrea @Resmini

December 22 2016

TRADITIONALLY, DESIGN IMPLIES MAKING “THINGS”

The design tradition of “making” has its roots in the craft

Making has been associated with “things” for a long time

THE DESIGN OF SOFTWARE INTERFACES

An initial challenge to the idea of “making things” comes along with software interfaces between the ‘70s and the ‘80s

Interaction design produces “objects” that are not tangible

A SHIFT TOWARDS THE INTANGIBLE

Through the years, intangibles have become the norm

Design thinking and service design are an example of this shift, fields of practice and research that approach organizational

processes and services via a design mindset

STILL MAKING “THINGS”

Regardless of (in)tangibility, all of these practices are still “traditional design” in the sense that they focus on producing an

“object””: it might be a UI, a service, a process for managing patients in a hospital, a chair. Still, it’s a clearly bounded “thing”

CROSS-CHANNEL ECOSYSTEMS IMPLY A NEW FOCUS

The design process here gets centered on “an experience”

This shift brings in emergence, complexity, uncertainty,and the necessity to move to a bird’s-eye, strategic view

It also brings whomever is having “an experience” center stage

WANT CLARITY OUT OF COMPLEXITY?

The name of the game then is information architecture

After all, the continuously changing flow of information from one point to the other is the backbone of a cross-channel ecosystem

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE

Uber is a service. Sure. But:

in the context of cross-channel design, Uber is a part of a larger ecosystem that is centered on personal transportation

To me, Uber is a piece of “going somewhere for some purpose”

THAT’S THE EXPERIENCE

Unless you are plain interested in just riding Uber cars, that is

(Hobbies are hobbies. Who am I to judge, right?)

NEITHER PRODUCT- NOR SERVICE-BOUNDED

The experience does not stop where “Uber the service” stops

Uber’s role also changes from completely marginalto absolutely central depending on my own ongoing experience

THAT MEANS UBER DOES NOT OWN IT ALL

The experience itself is not owned nor it is fully managed or controlled by any single company or organization

NEITHER DIGITAL NOR PHYSICAL, BUT BLENDED

A cross-channel ecosystem creates a blended actionable space that straddles across digital and physical environments

THAT BLENDED SPACE

is the ecosystem inside which a specific experience takes place

PART 2 COMING DEC 29

“WAIT A SECOND. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, AN EXPERIENCE?”

Andrea @Resmini