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What is a Career in User Experience Really About?

on January 17, 2013

Gunsworthy5

This piece originally appeared on CreativeGood.com and is reprinted here with their kind permission.

In this new year it feels right to say something big, something about the meaning of life, and one’s career, and everything. I guess it’s been on my mind since last month, when I finished teaching a graduate class in user research. (It was here in New York, in SVA’s MFA in Interaction Design. Great program.) The class gave me a chance to get to know some very talented young designers, most of whom are just beginning their journey into the user experience field.

My main message to the class was that good user research isn’t a matter of learning the steps of some trendy methods, as though one were just following a cookbook. Instead, good UX work requires a genuine interest in observing, listening to, and learning from other people: primarily the customers themselves, but also the organization that owns the product. That observation, and that listening, must stem from a genuine human interest in people.    Read More →

Gunsworthy5
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To Create a Great Customer Experience, Throw Out a Customer or Two

on July 5, 2011

Gunsworthy4

This post previously appeared on Mark Hurst’s blog, Good Experience. It is reprinted by permission.

Not long ago, a moviegoer was escorted out of a theater in Austin, Texas. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has a policy of no talking and no texting. But even after two warnings, the customer persisted in texting during a movie. Out she went.

In a blog post called She texted. We kicked her out, Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League explains:

When we adopted our strict no-talking policy back in 1997 we knew we were going to alienate some of our patrons. That was the plan. If you can’t change your behavior and be quiet (or unilluminated) during a movie, then we don’t want you at our venue. Follow our rules, or get out and don’t come back until you can.

That’s one of the most pro-customer experience posts I’ve seen in a while. Because this theater is willing to filter out some customers it doesn’t want, it creates a much better experience for the customers who stay.

Or to put it another way: if you really love your customers, you’ll be willing to point them elsewhere, if the relationship just isn’t working.

The Alamo Drafthouse put it in even starker terms by creating this video containing a voice mail left by the offending (and, apparently, offended) customer. The cinema clearly enjoys emphasizing the benefit of its customer experience: watch movies here without distractions from other customers.

How might you apply this case study to your own business, organization, team, or project?

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Gunsworthy4
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