Hi, All. This is the first presentation session of the day that I am going to an Internet Librarian and we are trying blogging while in the conference. So we’ll see how it goes. I even got a cool little ribbon on my nametag that says blogger! How cool is that?!

This session’s speaker is David King.

We are having massive wifi problems here, so if it goes wonky during this post you know why.

Talk version of King’s book: Designing the Digital Experinece:

First defining:

Experiences Economy: tangible goods as props and untangible services as the way of providing an experience–example of restaurants: differences between Hard Rock Cafe versus McDonalds

Experience Design: Nathan Shedroff–“an approach to creating successful experiences for people in any medium”

Creating more than a service or goods–experience is more important now. people want great service, goods and an experience

3 paths to experience:

Structural Path: create a better experience by improving website easy of use, easy navigate site, well designed experience should stay out of the users’ way–focus on user not on cool features of the website:
1. Jesse James Garett Elements of User Experience book method–structure, usability testing, surface=visual design, focus on user experience always
2. Experience Map: uncover–customer needs, define–experience brief=story about what the user should get out of it, ideate–get the feel of the place, build/design–visual phase
3. 37signals, Getting Real (ebook, free at the website)–different way of designing, just start building, focus on experience brief for directional document, simplify features (ex. Google docs versus Word–not a lot of bells and whistles), being passionate about what you build! If you are passionate it will show (I completely agree)

Look at websites with critical eyes, remove what confuses people, figure out goals, big goal=making it easy for the user so not distracted

Community Path
providing memorable experience through experiencing community
Example: town hall meeting lots of discussions
Digital version: Amazon customer reviews, more reviews are powerful, community-driven experience
Types:
Real Conversation: commenting on blogs, IM, Twitter, online forum Goal: connect with you and with others, think about reviews of books in catalog!
Connecting with Others: social networking sites, friending, connections lead to conversation, lead to community building
Invitation: active invitation-ask a question, post on a blog and ask for response; passive invitation: allowing for comments, rss feeds
Participation: very important! Web2.0 need participation for community, comments goal is to participate, ex. comment box,
Sense of Familiarity: know about a person through flickr, subscribe to a blog= ways to get to know people a bit
Telling our Stories: people want to know about you (ie social networks), people want to participate in your story, want to continue the story, example: sharing stories about Katrina, clean-up, volunteering, etc

Twitter: great example of community

Customer Path: ex. Hotels focusing on beds in the last couple of years, then other hotels followed,
Ex. sports clip–haircutting place for men, experience
Digital version: Harley Davidson experience, Webkinz world: whole social world for kids, Starbucks website–figure out your coffee flavor, etc. working to extend physical presences into online world, having a pre/post-show

Library post-show: discussion of book on web after reading, extend book club

People want to connect to people, that is the point! Create connection through website

Site is not about the product, about the Experience! Share about your product, libraries need to do this. Provide great costomer experience

Improve through:
Customer Journey Mapping: mapping touchpoints of an interaction/experience, try to improve each touchpoint (each time a user is interacting with a company) can be used within the library
1. insight into user needs, how they feel
2. provide user-focus, center of organization should be user (ie patron for libraries)

Improve the Ordinary: figure out what ordinary means for your site–major features, services, resources and then improve them, compare your site with other websites in other industries–get outside of library land, look at what people are using (ex. facebook, amazon), match the feel/experience (such a great tip!)

What Do we Do with This?
1. Connect the user to the organization, the product, try to connect more library patrons to products other than the books–get out of the stereotypes of the library
2. Connect the user to other users–commenting, forums, etc.
3. Create an Experience Stage–think about experience that you want people to have, storyboard it, every part of customer contact is like performing a show–you are an actor, figure it out before taking the show on the road, connect with people, learn how to interact on the web–need to train for that

Work on Conversations
What is old is new–it is all about the art of conversation–you need to connect in order to be able to improve your services, resources and experiences

take home message:
It is all about the Experience and change in is the air!