Xperience This!

Three is a powerful number. When events happen in threes I tend to pay attention. They don’t have to be momentous events, like revolutions, earthquakes and hurricanes. Sometimes it’s simply a message or theme that repeats itself until you realize there’s a there there. Last Friday one of MISI’s account directors sent a congratulatory email to her account team for a job well done. It struck me as having a theme similar to two other notable events: 1) Liam Bannon’s cover story for Interactions magazine on the evolution of HCI; 2) Steve Jobs resignation as CEO of Apple. These three events shared a theme that – particularly for those interested in experience design – is worthy of our attention: In a world increasingly transfixed by and dependent on technology and technologists, the voices of humanists are on the rise. More »

How to Give Your Audience a Voice in Their Ever-changing World

In 2004, in a Scientific American article titled The Tyranny of Choice,  Barry Shwartz  posited a counterintuitive argument about the effects of having too many choices (e.g. do we need 38 different kinds of milk?).  He questioned why “people are increasingly unhappy even as they experience greater material abundance and freedom of choice? Recent psychological research suggests that increased choice may itself be part of the problem.”

I count myself among those who struggle with choice.  I am virtually paralyzed when handed the phone book sized menu at The Cheesecake Factory.  The only place I find an easy time eating out is at a wedding (i.e. Meat, Chicken or Fish works great). 

This idea of the tyranny of choice got me thinking about a similar phenomenon that occurs with rapid innovation and change.  The speed at which new products, interfaces and services are introduced is generally something to admire and celebrate as “Good”.  But it is as daunting as it is impressive, and there’s not always a positive experience for the customers or employees faced with all this change. More »

A few weeks ago, I was asked by a company marketer – let’s call the company High-End Department Store - to participate in their first attempt at viral marketing activity as a brand influencer for Sam Edelman, a popular shoe designer.  To participate, all I had to do was write interesting blog posts about my experiences wearing a pair of Sam Edelman shoes.  They provided the shoes and a list of “hot spots” for me to go wearing them.  This assignment lasted 2 weeks and culminated in a private shoe party for those in my network, the networks of the other 3 influencers, and some of their “key” clients. 

I volunteered not just because I love shoes and social media, but because I figured I’d learn a thing or two about the burgeoning world of influenced viral marketing. And boy did I learn some things. I decided to write a brief white paper on my experience, Turning the Tables on SM Viral Marketing.  Below I’ve summarized the lessons I learned during my brief time as a product influencer about the do’s and don’ts of running a viral marketing strategy.  More »

In order to provide a successful product or service, you need to know who your audiences are, what they want, and how you can help them get there. Performing both qualitative and quantitative audience research is an integral part the experience design process – whether for physical products, digital offerings, spatial designs, professional services, or a combination of all of the above. The challenge frequently put to us is, “How can we integrate research into our project cycle without breaking the bank?”

Your objectives will ultimately drive the types of research you choose to conduct – interviews, focus groups, natural observation, journals, card sorting and so on. But when the budget is tight and every piece of a project is under the financial microscope, you can use some of the following guerilla research tactics to gain an actionable level of audience understanding. More »

The Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ

MISI Company is very excited to launch this blog series covering our work with the Morris Museum & Bickford Theater located in Morristown, New Jersey.  The project  is focused on delivering an end-to-end Strategic Experience Alignment (SEA) engagement in hopes of helping them resolve some challenges they are facing around brand, marketing, and communications as they seek to engage a new generation of museum and theater supporters.  And we would like to enlist you to join our project team.

Over the course of the next few months you will be privy to a behind the scenes look at what a SEA project looks like – who is part of the project team, what types of activities are involved, and ultimately – the types of deliverables and results that can be expected.

Throughout this series, we will be asking for your input on concepts/ideas we are hatching as well as your objective thoughts on how we are doing.  To kick this part off, please click this link to a 5 minute survey (and I really mean 5 minutes) about why you support cultural destinations near you.  Your input is going to be folded into our first primary research activity focused on identifying the key value propositions for different audiences when it comes to participating in museum and theater events. More »