7 Key Principles of Experiential Design
Key Principles of Experiential Design
The term “Experiential design” has gained traction over the past decade, as more organizations and firms are seeking to build stronger emotional connections with their employees, guests, customers, and brand ambassadors. Experiential Design is a form of communication and engagement that encompasses branding, human-centered design, interactivity, and the use of technology to create meaningful, memorable experiences for people within spaces.
While it may seem counterintuitive to talk about emotions in the context of design, it’s vital to understanding how experience principles work. Many designers get bogged down in the minutiae of their craft and lose sight of the bigger picture. Talking about the emotional impacts of design allows teams to refocus their efforts and create truly impactful projects.
At Jolie Studio, founder and creative director Franky Rousell is a firm believer in using the power of experience principles to elevate a project beyond the superficial. She’s experienced firsthand that focusing on aesthetics alone doesn’t consistently deliver concrete benefits to end-users and businesses. When teams spend time delving into how a space makes them feel and respond, they make choices that influence behavior in ways that simple function and form alone can’t.
7 Key Principles of Experiential Design
Developing experience principles early on in a design project gives teams an opportunity to focus their attention on the most important aspects of their product. It allows them to prioritize their designs and provides consistent evaluation criteria based on human needs, not subjective opinions or personal biases. Additionally, creating a set of guiding principles at the outset helps to ensure that all members of the team are on the same page and working towards the same goals.
While attendees will never turn down an Instagram-worthy moment at an event or activation, designing an experience that actually takes them on a journey and tells the brand story requires some serious planning. To find out what it takes to create truly immersive experiences, BizBash turned to seven experience designers for their top tips.
Whether it’s for an onsite discovery tour, a donor wall, or a temporary exhibition, it’s essential that you think about the content of your experiential design project from the beginning. Having a clear content strategy will not only help guide your design decisions, but it will also allow your team to develop the right solutions for your specific audience’s unique needs and objectives.
The journey through an experiential design should be as focused on the user’s emotion and connection to a space as it is on the navigational and informational elements of a space. Whether it’s a museum exhibit, retail store, or office environment, the experience should be well thought-out and intentional so that it connects with the user emotionally and inspires them to engage further.
A design language is the set of guidelines that an experience designer uses to guide their decisions, and it should be created based on the human-centered needs of your users. A well-designed language will help your users navigate a space and provide them with a clear, coherent vision of where they are in the journey.