An Event Apart: Jared Spool

At An Event Apart – Austin 2013, Jared Spool spoke about why it’s great time to be an experience designer. Here are my take-aways:

• Design = The rendering of intent
• Imitation is:
  • less expensive
  • less risky
  • where design is not valued
• On the flip side, innovation is:
  • more expensive
  • more risky
  • where design is valued
• Businesses win when it is intentionally innovative/designed. Great business models are intentionally designed.
• Design is about the visual business
• Innovation is not about invention, it’s about adding value
  • Design for experience – this way it can be mapped/measured/designed
• Innovation is about combining existing inventions in a new way:
  • think Instagram, where they combined taking photos with a social network.
  • think Apple’s support, aka Genius Bar, where they combined appointments with customer support.
• Experience design = rendering intent within the gaps
  • When designing an experience, be intentional in the areas where others get it wrong. Just like Apple did with adding appointments to customer support.
• The best designers are:
  • good story tellers
  • good critiquers
  • good sketchers
  • good presenters
  • good facilitators
• How to become a great designer (or as he calls it, “a design unicorn”)
  • train yourself
  • practice your new self
  • deconstruct as many designs as possible
  • seek out feedback (and listen)
  • teach others