Resources for NUS ID Level 4 studio

New levels of Experience Design

below is the interview with Liisa Puolakka, Head of Brand Visual and Sensorial Experiences - for Nokia implies.

So experience design is actually experience marketing?

In some ways yes, except experience design includes the marketing, so it’s a bigger subject. Of course if you asked someone from marketing they would say that experience marketing includes the design!

If you search for “experience design” on Google, most of the results relate to web design and ease of use. That doesn’t sound like the same thing you’re talking about.

No, they’re not the same. But I think that’s the way that an interest in ‘designed experiences’ started. The internet was originally developed as pure technology - interactions and navigations were very complex, so there were huge opportunities for anyone who could make the user experience easier, more intuitive, more compelling. But now experience design isn’t just about the usage of a device, but all the other aspects as well.

Nokia N72 with matching accessories © Nokia

If we jump back in time a bit, why would a company like Nokia hire a fashion designer in the first place?

Actually, my being a fashion designer wasn’t really the reason I was hired. As part of my Masters degree I did a design/business/management program, a joint course with the Helsinki Business School and the University of Technology. As part of that I worked on a year-long research project looking at the mobile phone market in Japan. That led me to continue working with Nokia on my Masters thesis, which researched how to design specifically for Japanese lifestyles. We identified certain trendsetting groups, then designed a number of concept phones targeted at those groups. And then we interviewed consumers from those groups to ask which of the concepts they preferred - the idea being they should have chosen the concept aimed directly at them. I guess you could say the results were variable! But it proved a point - that it is possible to target trendsetters quite specifically, and the product will then spread through the wider market. So really I was hired on the strength of that work. Though having said that there are other fashion designers working for Nokia - some as trends researchers and others as colour specialists.

So what projects have you worked on up to now?

When I started at Nokia there wasn’t really a discipline of trends analysis, certainly not lifestyle trends, so I worked with consumer research specialists to establish the process by which these trends could influence the work of designers.

Nokia 7210, one of the first products Liisa worked on © Nokia

Even today my work is still very much involved in understanding and recognising trends and the way people or societies are changing. One of the important things is to realise the difference between ‘long-term’ societal trends and ‘short-term’ lifestyle trends, but also to understand that some short-term trends have the potential to cross into the mainstream of society, where they become much more influential.

So a lot of my early work involved collaborating with product designers to incorporate that thinking into the starting point of their work, coming up with a design theme based on an understanding of the target consumer and the trends that would be influencing them.

Then about three years ago a new team was set up inside Nokia Design specifically looking at new trends and future concepting - product designers, UI designers, trend researchers - and looking three to five years ahead to develop scenarios and concepts based on those future predictions.

Actually Liisa is being somewhat modest here by not mentioning specifically the Nokia 7600, which she was heavily involved with. The 7600 was perhaps the first product from Nokia to really exhibit evidence of an experience design approach, even though that approach may not have been as fully developed as it is today.

The original inspiration was the idea of a “souvenir from the future,” and this influenced not only the design of the phone, but also the on-screen icons and wallpapers, ringtones, key graphics and accessories, all of which were designed specifically for the product.

The 7600 also experimented with the marketing of a limited edition in white leather, sold only in the hippest European stores such as Colette in Paris, 10 Corso Como in Milan and Vinçon in Barcelona.

What is the experience design process at Nokia? How do you go about designing an experience?

The main thing is to start with an understanding of the user, the consumer, and the life they are living. Of course most designers do that intuitively, even if they don’t realise it, but within Nokia there are specialists who do that research in a more methodical way.

Nokia 3250 users © Nokia

Nokia 3250 users © Nokia

Then when you have those insights it’s usually when you have to bring together a creative team, and I don’t just mean designers but people who can carry the idea through all the areas I mentioned before. They create and develop a theme or story, and then need to communicate that theme to show how it affects the design language, the selection of materials, the colours and graphics, not just of the product but the packaging, advertising etc.

And how does it manifest itself in Nokia products?

I guess the products in the Fashion category display this thinking best, because they most obviously belong to a collection, all based on the same theme. If you look at the L’Amour collection, if there wasn’t a theme or story which tied those products together then it would be impossible to talk of a ‘collection’. They wouldn’t have the cohesiveness of design language, the style of campaign, even the fact that they are launched together.

Original sketches of L’Ämour collection products © Nokia

Original sketches of L’Ämour collection products © Nokia

But also they wouldn’t have the differentiation from other Nokia products, and that’s where designing an experience can help someone choose which product is best for them. A person who buys a Nokia Fashion product is buying very much on an emotional level, even though there will also be rational reasons.

Can you tell us something about your new role at Nokia?

For the last two months I have been working as the Head of Brand Visual and Sensorial Experiences, and basically that means the way the brand is experienced by the consumer, the ‘look and feel’ of Nokia. That can be in any of the situations where a person touches, or comes into contact with, the brand; it could be online or in a Nokia Flagship store, it could be advertising campaigns on TV or in magazines, it could be events which Nokia sponsors or attends. In terms of execution most of the work is done by agencies, so that means we need a clear view of the brand strategy in order to brief and communicate with those agencies. I’m not really involved in the creation of the product any more, though of course there is a strong link, we need to start at the same point and head in the same direction.

But coming back to trends and insights, they not only affect the design of products but also the way the brand moves forward and how its expressiveness changes. The ultimate aim is that a consumer feels the same using a product as they do when they see an advert for it.

In talking about trends you’ve described how Nokia studies them and reacts to them as they emerge. But isn’t there a risk that you end up copying trends rather than setting them yourself?

I think it’s an oxymoron to say any one person actually sets a trend. Everyone is affected by the same things that happen around us, it’s just that some people pick up on those things before others. The trick is to be inspired, rather than to copy, and to know where to look - at the leading edges of art, society, culture. Maybe that’s why a lot of people in this field come from the fashion industry, because fashion has always been very open and accepting of the notion of being inspired by what’s ‘out there’ and then translating it into product ideas. What’s important is a sensitivity to what’s going on, observational skills, and the creativity to distill those observations into stories, themes and product possibilities.

Within the group of people that you work with, what other companies do you hold up as aspirations? Who else is doing experience design really well?

The main thing is to find the right way, the appropriate way, to get across your point of view. A lot of the fashion companies do it very well, especially Prada, or Marc Jacobs. But also Nike - even though they have a huge range of quite different products, the story and the attitude is consistent. Starbucks is another company which understands very well its own point of view, and gets that story across. Apple of course…

But those are all companies with a strong figurehead, one person with a very clear vision. Nokia isn’t like that is it?

No, but it doesn’t mean a company can’t have a vision. If everyone shares that single point of view, if everyone believes in the same idea, it’s possible. It’s the vision that’s important.

Thank you very much for the little insight into experience design!

Please refer to http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/05/12/new-levels-of-experience-design/