Final Project Report Experience Design – Baumgart - DMBA - CCA

Technology is disrupting the way in which we create and disseminate information about events and shared

social experiences that run the gamut from large to small. Digital and mobile technologies have become

the conventional form through which users generate invitations and correspondence around events. To get

an idea of the current rate of adoption and pervasiveness of such technologies, Eventbrite, one of the

most ubiquitous of the online ticket sales start-ups, currently provides event recommendations to 20

million of its users. With the increasing popularity, convenience, and accessibility of online stationary

tools, web-based ticketing platforms, and text messaging, the de facto channel of communication between

the host, invitee and other respondents, typically is confined to digital/mobile platforms and solutions.

We have identified a major experiential problem in this ecosystem when users are faced with having to

decline an invitation or are unable attend an event. Through the process of discovery and exploration

around internet-based services with a correlation to the event-sphere , we have found that here are no

existing means of issuing an authentic empathetic response where human emotion can be clearly discerned

by the intended recipient. These new standards of modern correspondence lack integrated multimedia

capabilities that would amplify the user experience under the condition that the user would not be able

to be present at an event. The emotional experience of guilt is often associated with being unable to

attend important gatherings or milestone events. Existing resources don’t take into consideration this

powerful human emotion.

Our solution, Toast, is designed to ease the emotional experience of guilt by equipping socially active

individuals with the convenience of expressive communication tools in order to help sustain meaningful

personal connections with the people they care about when unable to attend an event. By leveraging video,

voice recording, and timed-release technology, Toast delivers an effective message of apology through

virtual means with the purpose of preserving an important relationship with an individual who will be

affected by the absence.

With the continued democratization of event-creation in parallel with technological advancements, event

organizers and attendees should not be relegated to passive apathetic forms of digital dialogue, as the

fidelity and legitimacy of communication between the two should be held in a higher regard than the event

itself. While many platforms are transforming the world of events and facilitating gatherings, it is critical

to keep in mind those users who are unable to share in those live experiences, and still provide those

key stakeholders with the opportunity to be expressive and keep a strong bond with their respective

social community.

The content of this document includes the roadmap for the tactical and strategic approach towards the

creation of an experience around the assigned domain of mobility.

Executive Summary

Discovery and Observations: The initial question we asked ourselves as a group at the beginning of the project was what gets people

excited to get together? It was this question that caused us to diverge in our thinking process and serve

as a point of departure to generate some broader-based ideas to explore. From our early research, we

established that the family dinner was disappearing as a social/cultural trend. From this assessment of the

current reality we developed some insights about worst-case scenarios of what would happen in the event

that family dinner time completely disappeared from the fabric of society.

A society in which there was no existing transference of values from generation to generation?

Complete loss of community, diluted sense of identity, or vanishing of culture where the globe would

become a “pangaea” once again?

By establishing this frame, we set out to engage in some contextual qualitative research by conducting one

on one interviews asking about the relevance of shared and collective experiences around food and music

and how those events enable the transference of values and culture.

Stakeholder Interviews: Through 25 interviews of individuals ranging in age, cultural backgrounds, and geographic locations, we found

overall that communal family events around food and music are critical to life experience. We determined

that people felt as if their psychological culture and formative character are largely shaped and

influenced by their parents, relatives, siblings, and friends. These forms of interactions are paramount in

defining who we are and who we become as individuals. It is through sensorially rich traditions, such as a

meal or a concert, that become vehicles through which we shape and crystallize our standards of behavior,

norms, and principles.

Another critical key learning we uncovered through our interviews was the fact that people tend to get

frustrated and feel they are missing out when they aren’t present at a family gathering. There is a strong

association with the feeling of guilt around not meeting other’s expectations or being unable to participate.

The emotional experience of guilt of the stakeholders we interviewed seemed to be magnified around

important shared experiences and events.

Design Research

Secondary Research To augment our customer interviews, we conducted some secondary research in order to identify some more

opportunities and problems as well as validate some of our underlying assumptions and unearth some of

the underpinnings about why the emotional stakes are much higher in the context of collective

experiences. Particular occasions seem to elicit visceral reactions from people and this was worth digging

into. We wanted to understand the psychology and theories around collective behavior, delve into the

evolutionary origins of music, as well as achieve a better understanding of the cultural structuring of

mealtime socialization.

Emile Durkheim’s theory of collective effervescence played a significant role in the development of our

desired experience. The theory of collective effervescence is a perceived energy formed by a gathering of

people. Durkheim established this theory around the turn of the 20th century when observing a sacred

ritual of Australian Aborigines known as a corrobbori, a ceremony which marks the rejoining of Aborigine

groups after periods of nomadic separation. Strong emotional reactions, energy, and sense of electricity

were evoked as a response of the group coming together. There were palpable feelings of exaltation and

pure euphoria, with a compounding intensity as the ceremony progressed. Durkheim observed it as a

transformative experience for the tribe members. He firmly believed from his observations that it is rituals

analogous to these where we obtain our reverence for society, a respect that can not be attained in

isolation or autonomously.

In our research on the evolutionary origins of music we discovered that there is a strong connection

between emotion and music that goes much deeper than what we see on the surface. In a concert or club

setting, people are experiencing emotions that are contagious in that we respond to a prevalent mood

which influences one’s own interpretation of the music. Much of the value of listening to music is derived

from being in a communal and shared environment.

With regards to the importance of shared dining experiences and their influence on human behavior, we

discovered that food preparation, distribution, and consumption authenticate our social and moral beliefs

and values and also promote a sense of continuity across generations. In many cultures, food is highly

symbolic and people tend to imbue particular varieties of food with sentimental, moral, religious and

health-related meanings. Adults and children alike tend to associate food with a communal identity and can

be attributed to affirming or diminishing affection and social bonds. What’s more, family mealtimes tend to

be used to recount narratives that convey moral messages and it is storytelling that becomes the central

facet of the dining experience.

Durkheim, Émile. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, (1912, English translation by Joseph Swain: 1915) The Free Press, 1965

http://www.darwin.cam.ac.uk/dcrr/dcrr002.pdf

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/ochs/articles/06Mealtime.pdf

Design Research

Overall, we noticed the great potential for us to innovate in the sphere of shared family experiences

because of the richness and breadth of the desired core meanings. Additionally, it was a space that was

ripe for analysis because of the perceived imminent erosion of values and traditions due to the lack of

time being dedicated to gatherings, especially the family dinner. Our secondary research findings validated

that events of a familial nature are emotionally charged and activate certain latent feelings that we don’t

typically experience on a consistent basis. Through these shared experiences specifically, we identified that

the emotional stakes seemed much higher, which could be responsible for triggering the significant pain

points in the stakeholder journey.

Since food and musically-oriented experiences are integral in facilitating the transmission of values and

help define the family as a social unit, our initial inclination was to redesign the family dinner experience

which encompassed a variety of potential options.

How do you bring families back to the table in a compelling and innovative way since family dinners have

declined by 33% over the past 20 years?*

Can we re-define what the dining table is?

How do you reduce the feeling of guilt around someone not being able to attend an event and still

facilitate that connection under the condition a person is absent?

How do we leverage future technology, environments or spaces to deliver a collective family experience?

*http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/family_meals_matter%E2%80%94staying_connected

Identifying Opportunities

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT – PHASE 1

We then modeled the experience in alignment with our primary and secondary research findings. As a group

we felt we had identified parts of the user experience in the context of a family dining event that we

needed to focus on and enhance. We moved forward with the design of a creative concept for a restaurant.

To complement our intended solution, we also drafted a storyline for context and to highlight the

experience triggers.

The restaurant idea was designed to elicit the core meanings of community, beauty and creation through

the delivery of an authentic family dining experience that would be engineered based upon a family’s unique

shared memories and compelling history. It was meant to be a customizable, immersive and emotionally

charged event that allows patrons to explore the transformative powers and origins of a cornucopia of

tastes, smells, sounds, colors and textures that can be crafted and inspired by cuisines from around the

world in a familial and historical context. This was designed to be a dynamic way for families to rewrite

the past, live in the present, and preserve the richness of the future.

Identifying Opportunities

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT – PHASE 2

Ultimately, what we realized is that this potential solution was especially feature-heavy, amenity-rich and

over-complicated, diluting our intentions and overall it wasn’t necessarily solving the right problem.

Subsequently, we went back to our research findings and revisited some of the key stakeholder pain points

in the shared experiences journey. We arrived at the consensus that we were neglecting a substantial data

point that came up in many of our interviews. It was the feeling of guilt when people missed out on

events that deserved more of our attention and presented a more substantial opportunity to deliver

positive impact.

In order to progress with development of this new concept we needed to research the topic of guilt in

more depth. It was also essential for us to understand how people effectively cope with the feeling of

guilt to guide us further towards our solution space.

CO-CURATION INTIMACY SHARING

Storytelling!Community!Creation! Learning!

How is guilt defined? Guilt is an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes that they have compromised their own

standards of conduct and bear a significant sense of culpability for the offense. Guilt emphasizes what

someone has done wrong and tends to elicit more constructive responses, particularly actions where we

seek to mend the damage that has been done. We tend to inflict self-blame on ourselves if we don’t have

the opportunity to compensate when we have deviated from our ethical or moral code. When we see others

suffer because of something that has been done, it causes us pain and this constitutes our powerful

system of empathy which kicks on like an internal thermostat. It is in our altruistic nature and adaptive

need to maintain connections to those we are close to and rectify a certain situation in order to course-

correct. Since guilt has this inherent adaptive quality to it, we immediately are driven to fix our

relationships and restore equity to them however what we have realized is that we do not have all of the

necessary tools readily accessible to satisfy our needs for instant gratification or in this case instant

reparation.

Modern relationships now have a more dynamic dimension to them because of technological developments and

tools. Empathetic gestures and coping mechanisms and their perceived effectiveness is directly tied to

easily discernable human emotions in order to gauge authenticity and validity. In other words, in the

scenario of offering an apology to someone, a text message or email should not suffice and should not be

used in lieu of or even replace the opportunity for human connectedness. An emotive interpersonal

exchange constitutes seeing someone’s facial expressions and hearing the tenor of someone’s voice.

ITERATING

EXPLORING OTHER SOLUTIONS Our intended solution sits at the intersection of shared live experiences and mobile technology. The

supporting research illustrates that gatherings are emotionally charged events and critical to shaping our

identities and forming our communities. Even the journey from the inception of event-creation to the

actual event itself is comprised of an incremental build-up of anticipation and emotion and when certain

expectations can not be met or obstacles inhibit someone from being present, there is a precarious and

tenuous situation awaiting. Our solution is designed to equip people with the tools that fortify them

against tension before it festers into a situation fraught with interpersonal conflict or emotional distress.

The home screen of the application we designed was meant to be a portal that reveals the overall

functionality and key features of the solution. This first iteration of our prototype was intended to be

integrated with a time management/calendar web application such as Google calendar or Microsoft Outlook.

In this screen the user would see the events that they have accepted the invitation to and the events

they have declined.

If an event was declined, it would be migrated into the raincheck section where the user would see the

invitations that they had to turn down. The user would then be prompted to select which event they

declined and then be guided to a screen that showcased options (capsule recorded video message, text

message, e-card, personalized written card, or custom gift suggestions that would be generated from

partnerships with e-commerce sites) for ways to communicate with the host or other stakeholder and

present opportunities for the user to redeem themselves.

Since users today are typically more engaged through gamified interactions and tracking their own

progress, we incorporated a tool where the user could follow their progress through a progress bar that

indicated how well the user was following through with responses for declined invitations or rainchecks.

While the platform’s primary goal is to provide users with an authentic opportunity for redemption that

diminishes the emotional experience of guilt, in parallel it was also supposed to function as an event/life

management solution that is meant to modify people’s behavior and program them to be more engaged with

their social community.

ITERATING

PROTOTYPE FEEDBACK We ultimately received feedback from 17 respondents with a mix of both positive and negative opinions of

the prototype. The overall premise of the concept was very well received. By observing various people

engage with the prototype screens of the application and acquiring immediate user experience criticism, we

were able to achieve a good understanding of how we needed to reconfigure the sequence of screens in

order to make the overall utility of the service more logical and intuitive from the customer perspective.

A majority of users showed an affinity for using the video message feature and immediately were drawn to

its benefits if they were in a scenario where they had to decline an invitation or had to cancel on a

friend. Additionally, most prototype-testers thought the features such as the gift-shop, texting, e-cards,

and the progress bar to be less important and detracted from the overall product experience.

Our next step was to simplify the prototype in accordance with user feedback and in tandem work on the

brand strategy for the application covering positioning, identity, competitive audit, messaging pillars,

operational recommendations, and brand architecture.

ITERATING

Features & Functionality Toast is meant to be simple, useful and thoughtful. By integrating the Toast API with your personal

calendar or a personal time-management application, any time you cancel an event you would be given the

opportunity to send a meaningful empathetic response. With just a few clicks, the system will guide you

through the motions of crafting a media message that will bring you closer with the person who is being

“cancelled” on, instead of allowing room for there to be a noticeable distance and potential tension

between the two parties.

Our App, with its intuitive design and step by step guidance will let you craft and deliver a meaningful

and effective apology.

Tutorial: We think we know how to say “I am sorry”, but in reality, there are many ways to express one’s apology.

Our mobile app is equipped with a quick tutorial/wizard to help you create an optimal response by utilizing

the tools of technology.

Design and interface: The intuitive toast themed design eliminates the formality of crafting an apology, making this more of an

enjoyable process with some levity to it. Quirky or not, providing an alternative channel from a traditional

method of message-creation and delivery will also help ease and diminish the negative feelings or

monotony typically associated with such actions.

Media messages: Finding the best medium to deliver a message can be hard and confusing. We believe sms and text messaging

can be superficial and incomplete ways to really transmit an apology. By providing an opportunity for a

rich and powerful media message via video or just audio, one can express much more that just a few

typed-out characters. Video lets people use their surroundings, body language, sound and intonation of

voice to make a greater impact on the intended recipient.

TOAST APP

Features & Functionality

Feedback loop: Crafting and sending an apologetic message isn’t just a one-way street. The effectiveness and measurable

outcome of the power of such a tool is predicated on a feedback loop between the person who generates

the apology and the individual on the receiving end. Our solution is meant to elicit an emotional response

from the end-user, where they are compelled to send a message in response to the apology, ultimately

bringing the two stakeholders closer together.

Timed-Release Technology: The circumstances surrounding the apology are also important, and should be carefully planned and

considered. An expression of apology or empathy can be that much more powerful and resounding when

delivered within a closer time frame to the actual event that is being missed, instead of being delivered

well in advance or after the actual event. We know that this is rather subjective, but giving people the

control over when the message can be delivered will make for a more poignant outcome. Users may not be

able to control whether their apology is accepted, but they can control its quality. So we encourage

users to make an effort to control what they can. We believe that this will increase their chances of

feeling good about what they have done with their apology, instead of feeling bad about having to do it.

TOAST APP

Value Proposition: Toast is designed to ease the emotional experience of guilt by equipping socially active individuals with the

convenience of expressive communication tools in order to help sustain meaningful personal connections

with the people they care about when unable to attend an event. By leveraging video, voice recording, and

timed-release technology, Toast delivers an effective message of apology through virtual means with the

purpose of preserving an important relationship with an individual who will be affected by the absence.

Future Plans/Monetization Strategy/Plans: After achieving our initial goal to deliver an effective message of apology through virtual means with the

purpose of preserving an important relationship with an individual who will be affected by the absence.

We plan to expand Toast’s offerings with a marketplace where our users are able to choose from a well

rounded list of options as a way to really emphasize their apology. This will include making make up

dinner reservations, buying gifts, amazon, etc. This is one way in which we plan to monetize Toast. Another

way we plan to monetize is through strategic partnerships with certain key affiliates in our mobile apology

marketplace such as Amazon, OpenTable, EventBrite, Paperless Post, and Google through a revenue sharing

deal which has yet to be negotiated. Our ability to leverage our value proposition when monetizing in our

next v.2 launch is based on the fact that there is no application out there like us currently and we feel

that in launching and getting there first, we will have the ability to capture a good amount of attention

and users to solidify our presence.

BUSINESS LOGIC

Experience Analysis

photo  credit:  <a  href="h1p://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/179279964/">Pink  Sherbet  Photography</a>  via  <a  href="h1p://photopin.com">photopin</a>  <a  href="h1p://creaGvecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>  

Collectively as a team we feel like we uncovered a powerful pain point in the customer journey around

shared experiences. As members of the DMBA community and as design strategists we are purveyors of

empathy first and foremost. “Humans first” is what we were reminded of in the first residency when

given the domain of mobility and it was the pivot in the midst of the semester when we revisited that

design principle to pursue a different direction as a team. This served as our north star and compass

throughout the journey of this class and exploration of this new discipline of experience-design. Our

solution for the final deliverable only scratches the surface and we know that there is much more to be

uncovered and unearthed. The various tools and resources we were provided with during the course of the

semester, will undoubtedly help us become practitioners and evangelists in this essential field of work.

CONCLUSION

appendix

Positioning Statement

Competition Audit

Our solution targets stakeholders and users

across two different axes. Apathetic to empathy-

driven and passive to socially active. As the

diagram indicates below, we separated the

personas into four different quadrants.

Essentially, through our solution we want

individuals to become inhabitants of quadrant 1,

ultimately, becoming more altruistic and

community-centric through the use of such a

tool. However, there are also opportunities for

others to be able to leverage the Toast solution

to become more empathetic individuals and we

believe we can equip these people with the

capability to leverage our technology to become

more empathy-driven with their community.

Quadrant 4 is meant to provide some comedic-

relief, as of course there is hope for those

stakeholders to leverage the utility of our

service model to engage more actively with their

friends, family, and those who they are close to.