Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World

Embodied Experience Strategy

While an experience strategy can sometimes simply be presented as a list of bullet points, cut-and-dried presentation methods don't bring the strategy to life. Embodying the experience strategy in some kind of prototype can be incredibly effective. A recent example often mentioned in the press involves Deborah Adler's master's thesis in design school. Looking for a suitable subject, she found out that her grandmother had taken her grandfather's medication by mistake. She realized that such mix-ups were too easy. Prescription bottles used haphazard typefaces on labels affixed to curved surfaces that were hard to read. At first glance, all bottles from the same pharmacy look the same. Research showed Deborah that 60 percent of people taking prescriptions had committed errors similar to her grandmother.

Her thesis project, named SafeRX, reconceptualized the pharmacy bottle, incorporating modern typefaces, visual hierarchy, color-coding, and improved bottle design. She shopped it around after graduation, and found an interested suitor in Target. Working with an industrial designer, they turned her initial concepts into ClearRX (Figure 2-5). Her initial SafeRX design served as a prototype experience strategy, a guiding light for all of the people developing the systems that would make it work. When changes were necessary, it was always with an eye to how to maintain the essential qualities of experience. For instance, Adler's initial concept involved color-coding ...