Experience Design
Designing experiences that span digital and physical: retail, events, installations and the service around them, considered as one thing rather than several.
Overview
Some experiences are not contained in a screen. A visitor arrives at a space, uses something on their phone, speaks to a person, receives an email afterwards. Each part is often designed by a different discipline, and the experience is the sum, including the seams.
This work sits across those boundaries. It also has a constraint digital work does not: physical things are expensive to change once made, so prototyping and rehearsal matter far more, and the design has to account for what happens when the space is crowded, the network is poor, or the staff are new.
Who this is for
- Retailers whose physical and digital experiences do not connect
- Companies running events or installations as part of a customer journey
- Organisations whose service depends on staff and space as well as software
How we approach experience design
The specific pieces of work a typical engagement covers. Scope is agreed up front — nothing here is a surprise line item later.
Service blueprinting
Front-stage and back-stage mapped together, since most visible failures are caused by something invisible.
Physical and digital integration
Designing the points where the two meet, which is where the experience most often breaks.
Spatial design input
How people move through a space and where the experience actually starts, which is usually before they arrive.
Staff experience
What staff need to deliver it: tools, information and authority. Experiences that depend on goodwill degrade.
Prototyping and rehearsal
Testing at low fidelity before anything is built or booked, because physical changes are expensive and slow.
Failure planning
What happens when it is crowded, the network fails or a device breaks. Designing only the good path guarantees the bad one is unmanaged.
From first call to measured result
The same sequence every time, so you always know what happens next.
Observe
Watch the current experience end to end, including staff working around problems nobody has reported.
Blueprint
Map front-stage and back-stage together and identify where the delivery actually fails.
Prototype
Test at low fidelity with real people, including the failure conditions, before anything is committed.
Deliver and support
Support implementation including staff training, then review after real use rather than at launch.
Outcomes, not deliverables
A pile of artefacts isn't progress. These are the changes the work is meant to produce — and what we report against.
Seams that stop showing
Designing the joins between physical and digital removes the friction customers actually notice.
Staff who can deliver it
Designing for the people delivering the experience is what makes it survive past opening week.
Expensive mistakes avoided
Low-fidelity prototyping catches problems while they are still cheap to fix.
Bad days that are handled
Planning for crowding and failure is what separates a robust experience from a demo.
Common questions about Experience Design
The things people ask before they get in touch. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
How is this different from digital experience design?
Digital experience design covers journeys across digital touchpoints. This includes physical space, staff and service delivery. If your experience involves people walking into somewhere or talking to someone, this is the right page.
Do you handle the physical build?
We design and specify, and work with fabricators, architects and event producers who build. We would rather be honest about that boundary than take on trades we do not have.
How do you test a physical experience before building it?
Rough mock-ups, walkthroughs with real people and staff rehearsal. It looks crude and it reliably finds problems that would have been expensive to discover after installation.
How long does this take?
Ten to sixteen weeks for design and prototyping. Implementation depends entirely on the physical build, which usually has a longer lead time than anything digital in the project.
Thinking about Experience Design?
Tell us what you are trying to change. If we are not the right fit we will say so, and point you somewhere better.
Looking at the wider picture?
Experience Design usually sits alongside other work in Branding & Experience Design. Browse the full area to see what it connects to.