A Study of Experience Design Application Model under Tangible
off-line Product Environment
YOON Sekyun*, KIM Taekyun**, CHAE Sungzin***
*Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, System Engineering Team, Cheonan Chungnam 330-825
KOREA, skyoon@kitech.re.kr
**Korea University of Technology & Education, Dept. Industrial Design Engineering, Cheonan
Chungnam 330-708 KOREA, tkkim@kut.ac.kr
***Yonsei University, School. of Design, Wonju Kangwon 220-710 KOREA,
szchae@dragon.yonsei.ac.kr
Abstract: The 21st century could be called the age of Experience Economy which attaches importance to external
and internal experience of customer. It needs the understanding of customer’s needs in a new point of view. In the area
of design development, it requires enlargement and application of experience from traditional method that was based
on the style and usability to more advanced concept.
To correspond to these changes, we need to explore new customer’s value system for knowledge-information design
and systematic approaches to experience system. The purpose of this research is to define the concept of ‘experience’
newly in the importance side of customer’s life, form a clear definition of experience design and present the model of
application system.
Theoretical frameworks of this research are based on the Empricism and John Dewey’s theory. By applying these
frameworks make clear the concept of experience concept and reanalysis the meaning and style in the perspective of
design. In this process, we can extract the main factors that inducing the experience, create new application system
and model again to the field of design.
Application model can creates various experiences through supplying different experience style and factors for
customer, make customer realize experience object. Experience design offer optimal experience to users by making a
plan and design experience to user’s goal.
Key words: Experience, Experience Design, Interaction
1. Introduction
Today few customers rely on any more choice the product as a product’s character or useful benefit. We face
the age of The Experience Economy which is try to get the total experience and unique value system and way of
life. So, The necessary of understanding customer in a new perspective other than traditional looking in usefulness
and modeling in the 21th design development is increasing. It is need to understand life of customer in the look of
‘experience’, practically approach their needs, interpretation of design perspective which can supply new and
advanced ‘experience’, actual strategy and process study. The background study of understanding and discussion
of customer’s life style and social phenomenon try to study the design concept, factors of formation and
adaptation model for the new experience formation which give customer bountiful experience of life.
2. Theoretical study on Experience concept
2.1 The meaning of experience
The basic definition of experience are such as ‘The apprehension of an object, thought, or emotion through the
senses or mind’ or ‘Active participation in events or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge or skill’.
These definitions share the same concept of philosophical field of study – it ‘a kind of thinking process which is
operate by a certain response following a stimulus’. Experience has somewhat abstract concept in practical design
area. Because the concept of ‘experience’ could be defined so various aspects and its comprehensive meaning is
difficult to define. To apply the meaning of experience in the area of design, we need concrete level of knowledge
system what is experience, how can we use and segment. And concept of experience as a actual proof for design
must be presented as systemically structured form.
2.2 Meaningful interpretation of Experience
2.2.1 Methodology and object of Experience
Experience includes object and method at the same time. At the side of process of experience, It includes itself
as a external and internal ‘activities’, as a internal and mental ‘thinking’. It become a foundation of explanation in
the relationship between design concept and design method in the study of Experience Design. John Dewey told
that ‘experience is realized by interrelationship between human and environment. The experience, as is, the object
of experience is organized of concrete object in our environment[1]. All of the human-being and correlated natural,
artificial things are the experienced. The experiencing, as is, experience method is a human way of life which is
generated in the relationship between nature and environment. In these process of experience, the process of
co-relationship between human and nature products experience content and experience content is used as a tool to
solve problem and increase the experience.
2.2.2 Experience as a process and result[2]
One of the most important criteria of recognizing the concept of experience is the understanding the process
and result of experience simultaneously. In the side of process, experience implies ‘experience activity’. In the
side of result, experience implies ‘experienced content’ which is generated by internal consciousness through
experience process.
Table 1. Experience process and Experience result
Experience
Process
Process of interrelationship
between human and environment
Experience
Result
Contents of result from
Interrelationship
External
Activities - activity of body
Internal
Thinking - activity of mind
Quantity meaning
Quality meaning
Everything from activities and thinking process
Positive experience in the quantity meaning
The point of argument that Experience is combination between experimental activeness – trying, doing and
observational passivity – suffering, operation of activity and passivity is a process of experience and internalized
relationship is a experience as a result.
2.3 Typical interpretation of experience and experience design
2.3.1 Primary experience and secondary experience
In experiencing the object, we can recognize primary experience and secondary experience by using the five
sensory organs[3]. Primary one is a experience which is directly perceived by our daily life feeling – seeing,
listening, feeling of experience object. Secondary experience is a internal experience which is concept, decision,
notion based on reflection and consideration. If we apply experience concept to methodological side of experience
design, we must try synthetical cycle process which is generated by stating from standard primary experience, the
enlargement of the meaning through the reflection of secondary experience process, secondary experience getting
through all the process is verified by primary experience. So experience which will be furnished to user should be
divide primary experience and secondary experience and try to correlate between two factors.
2.3.2 Direct experience and indirect experience
Direct experience and indirect experience are the types classified to intervention of medium. Direct experience
is a vivid experience by actual undergoing, participated by oneself, while not implying immediate experience.
Indirect experience implies immediate experience through symbol and sign[4]. If we would deliver fact and
thinking through symbolic medium in an experience design, we must make concrete situation and objects,
participate direct, preceding the information of importance and meaning of problem. However direct experience
through a designed object is important, we must recognize the limits and importance of it.
2.3.3 Positive experience and negative experience
Positive experience and negative experience are classified by according to the existence of valuable quality in
experience. Negative experience is in need of emotion and impression, limits the possibility of future bountiful
experience, limits the chance of choice, is separated from other experience, sometimes seems meaningless
experience. Positive experience is contrast of negative one. It is more interactive between human beings and
environment, makes experience enlarge, promotes valuable and coordinates personal experience.
3. Formation of Experience design
Formation system of experience design is based on experience concept. The latest case of project study on the
subject tells it is formatted with the lower structure, the middle structure, and the upper structure. The lower
structure is a essential principal of experience design, having the principals of change, continuity, situation, and
foundation of all the logics of operation. The middle structure has the strategic operational principal, applying the
direction of goal experience using the characteristics of structural, creational factors. The upper structure is a
tactical operational principal, using the passive and active factors. It is concrete method and skill to realize the
goal experience. By using the systematic approach, we can create vivid experience, consummatory experience,
and aesthetic experience.
Fig. 1 Structure system of Experience design
3.1 Principal of experience design
A total of experience through the study of meaning and type of experience can be concluded as principal of
change, principal of continuity, principal of situation in the aspect of space and time. In experience design,
standard of experience follows the principals of change, continuity, and situation.
3.1.1 The principal of change
Change is a fundamental principal of everything and phenomena denying the dogma of absoluteness, which
expresses not-change, fixed immobility. In experience design, the principal of change implies that everything is
subject to change, movable, progress and develops. Just only on the premise of principal of change, we can
progressively develop human being’s by using the design and possibilities of design. The notion that customer’s
experience is fixed is to be denied. Creating new experience should be considered in real term. Whereas a
product’s function and benefit are fixed, new experience will be followed and can be created.
3.1.2 The principal of continuity
The important parameter of dividing positive and negative experience is promotion and enlargement of
experience from past to present. We can take the notion of continuity as a principal of experience design. The
continuity of experience can be collected from past experience, prevent us from falling instrumental repeat,
sporadic action in the future and make present experience be useful, compose of future experience, make human
being find many possibilities for progressing.
3.1.3 The principal of situation
The principal of change and continuity are included in the essence of experience design can be possible
through the principal of situation. Interrelationship between every existence can not fixed but be changing, the
principal which generate change can be operated in the interrelationship. Situation can make situation[5] through
making the same interrelationship between two factors – internal and external conditions. Objective condition in
experience means the condition of environment, internal condition of experience, means the condition of user. The
last output of experience design is ‘situation’, through it user can get an experience. We can call an experience
design as a planning activity which can produce the situation between user and factors of design elements (such as
shape, color, form, line and plane) as a object of environment. Environment as a object can promote or control the
user’s activity, situation is made of the environment’s circumstances. The life of human being is always lying
under the situation of time and space. In the midst of human’s experience, the principal of situation is a side of
space between human and environment, the principal of continuity is a side of time as interrelationship keep going
situation. These two principals lead for human’s experience to get a change, and change can open the positive life
of future customers group.
3.2 The characteristics of experience design
To get an essential understanding of experience design, we will search for the characteristics of experience
design in the areas of structuring and creating on the ground of former study on the concept and principals of
experience design. Creating is a substantial object which is inter-relational object of environment (product) in
experience design and users. For user in recognizing a object. To get an optimal experience in using, environment
must have attractive factor to induce vigorous interrelationship with users. Object in the structural side have
characteristics of theme, narratively, contextuality, and meaningfulness. The creation of experience is generated in
the relationship between user and environment accomplished by external activity – physical activities and internal
activity – thinking. Experience design can have these six characteristics as below.
Table 2. Characteristics of Experience Design
Division
Characteristics
Theme
Structural
Side
Creation
Side
Something what to be delivered from experience design
Narratively
Various situational interaction between product and user and narrate and
plan the flow of time
Contextuality
Try to coordinate cultural, historic continuity and context of environment
Meaningfulness
Environment has what kind of function and how it is used and what is in,
for what to do
Activities
Activity of body
Thinking
Activity of mind
3.3 Factors of experience design
Trying, doing – active experience, and undergoing, suffering – passive experience can be a method of
experience design in the side of process. Internalized relationship can be a content (or purpose) of experience
design as a result.
Table 3. Factors and Method of Experience Design
Active Experience
Method of Experience Design
Passive Experience
Trying
Doing
Undergoing
Suffering
Act, Think, Relate
Sense, Feel
American economist Bernd H. Schmitt describes “Experiential Marketing” [6] as the factors of experience
extracting in the side of process and factors of experience design – act, think, relate, sense, feel – in the design
point of view in his book. Recognizing the accepting method of experience, we can make logical
conceptualization of experience design.
Table 4. Factors of Experience Design
Division
Factor
Relate
Active Factor
Act
Think
Passive Factor
Contents
Experience from relationship with other people or culture
Experience from vivid action by oneself
Experience of stimulating creating, intelligent need
Feel
Experience from feeling or emotion
Sense
Experience from sense of feeling-sight, hearing, touch, smell
3.4 Contents of experience design
The contents of experience design, a result of the relation between human and environment, is internalized by
relationship between factors of experience design. Experience is named according to exact situation and
context[7]. According to the contents, experience design can be divided as vivid experience, consummatory
experience, and aesthetic experience.
Table 5. Contents of Experience Design
Division
Vivid Experience
Consummatory Experience
Aesthetic Experience
Contents
Experience from direct touch of situation and object in various conditions
Experience from thought or research
Experience from aesthetic emotion in feeling of beauty in the object of experience
These experiences heading for the unified completion can be an ideal experience as a ‘one experience’.
4. Application of Experience Design
On the ground of experience concept, essential principal and goals and factors of experience design, model of
experience design application in the tangible ‘off-line’ product environments are as follows. If we assume that a
narrow concept of experience design process[8] is composed of a concrete design development process – from
‘scope and objectives’ level to ‘analysis & synthesis’, ‘creative process’, ‘development’, and ‘feedback’, the
application model can be used in the ‘creating process’ and development principal of model intend to gradual
approach step – from universality to specialty, from inclusion are to detail area, from potential possibility to
concrete realization. We can suppose model as the made up of ‘object’, ‘method’ and ‘acceptance’ in detail. It can
be differed from the object or subject of analyzing. Fundamental process of making experience design was
constructed on the basis of these steps – concept , principal of experience.- talk on the former chapter. Object is a
subject which interacts to human as a component element, while method is a process of interaction between
human and environment. Acceptance is how human as an object of experience deals with a subject of experience.
According to the process of interaction between human and environment, application model supplies different
types and factors of experience for user to create many offshoot experiences. Experience design supports human
experience which is made and planned for user’s goal.
Fig.2 Application system of Experience Design
4.1 The object
The experience object should be dealt the concept of experience design to the area of traditional design –
material, function, generality of concrete things as well as mentality (emotion), meaning, and variety of situation.
For this process, we must create embedded story in the center of product’s value, and deduce factors of experience
– function, behavior, scenario, those deciding characteristics of product. To reinforce the meaning of the object of
experience, we must try to coordinate and reflect of clear theme, cultural, historic continuity and environment
context. Customers are not focus on the partial factors of experience object but on the whole experience object as
a stimulus. It is possible to infer that coordinate all the factors made of experience object as a whole better than
apply all the individual factors of experience subject separately. It is not desirable that limit and focus on the
partial sense of experience design but lead to bountiful experience which can induce coordination of separate
factors. The table 6 is a sort of plan methods that create experience for user to realize many experience using types
of experience and object of experience (factors of design). Using this matrix, we can analysis what type and factor
of experience products which is already developed has.
Table 6. Matrix of experience type and experience object (general design factor)
Types of Experience
Primary
Experience
▲
shape
Material
factor
quality
Secondary
Experience
1st +2nd
Experience
Direct
Experience
Indirect
Experience
Direct+Indirect
Experience
color
material
sound
typo graphic
Design
Factor
icon
symbol
metaphor
community
contents
interface
Information
factor
context
interaction
▼
scenario
◆ : High , ◈ : Normal, ◇ : Low
4.2 The method
Essentially, the method of experience design trys to focus on the traditional design method which take a
serious view of the fist sense of image plus passive experience to active experience which can enlarge concept,
meaning, notion of internal experience. Experience which created by enlarged process should affect positive effect
on primary experience and include bountiful meaning to continue development. The scope of experience
concerned in design, should be broaden to direct one which users directly participate in experience and indirect
experience through various symbols and signs. The method of creating experience can have single one and
complex one creating method whether it’s ‘complexity’ of experience type and experience design factor or not.
As following diagram, single experience creating method, under the thesis that product which is made to appeal
customer’s emotion, is differ from a product whish is made to appeal customer’s intelligence, that should offer
factors of experience design one to one confronting a certain experience. Otherwise complex experience creating
method uses experience type and experience design factor compound to enlarge the value from experience.
Experience from sensory organ
→
Sense Experience
Experience from user's feeling and emotion
→
Feel Experience
Experience from creative, intellectual process
→
Think Experience
Experience from vivid action
→
Act Experience
Experience from relationship with culture and people
→
Relate Experience
Fig. 3 Single experience creating structure[9]
We can expect great synergy effect from combining a single experience with another single experience and two
more types and factors of experience. These complex experiences can supply various experiences and values of
product and service for customer.
Fig. 4 Complex experience creating structure
Selection between single and complex experience creating method is decided by the goal of experience’ [10]
which is supplied to customer. Establishing experience goal, we should decide what is more optimal to maximize
the utility of interrelationship between type and factor of experience. After this step, it is important that experience
should be driven forward a certain direction.
4.3 The acceptance
We can categorize passive and active acceptance according to the attitude of customers how they react to the
experienced object. Passive acceptance means emotional response depending on stimulus to the experienced one.
Users accept experience which is intended by designer to users on the condition that in the need of emotional
absorption. In the contents of experience design, it includes the experience which is appealed to user such as
aesthetic experience. Active acceptance is a subjective experience which action and empathy are emerged from
the stimulus of experience object. Differ from passive acceptance, it’s a strong object experience which has
different response to each individual in experiencing object. When the level of experience absorption on object is
so high, acceptance reacts to individual’s personality and emotion. If active acceptance were emotion of
experience object, passive acceptance could be interpreted as emotion that customer feel himself from products.
Acquired experience by these accepting process is a systematic structure which is not a simple but a compound
stimulus, making new experience interacting socio-cultural, and psychological characteristics, those creating
design effect.
Fig. 5 Acceptance system of experience design
5. Conclusion
To study active correspondent to ‘the new paradigm of experience consume, understand consumer’s real life’,
drastical approach to their needs and conceptual interpretation of designers is still needed to supply new
experience by allowing all of adaptable principals that promotes systematic approach. Adaptation model can
create various experiences through realizing experience object supplying different types and factors of experience
for user in method of interrelationship between human and environment. Experience design is plan and make
experiences for user’s goal, and supply optimal experiences for users. This study is in need of concreteness of
verifying the property of design for including changeable emotional scope in the present situation that can’t apply
mathematical model to recognition area. Study has proceeded before the point of developing systematic scope
arrangement as design. But this type of foundational study is essential for concept making of theoretical
framework, inducing structural component clearing product concept by using experience, proposing new design
model, aiming at the development of more defined and systematic design plan and execution. Henceforth to
develop objective and concrete execution, the suggested proposal must induce more general principal by concrete
and proactive study, and in the other hand developing possibility and application method should be presented.
References
1. Environment is a every factors of natural, social environment that include concrete thing, situation .
2. ‘experience’ is a word that has same meaning of ‘do experience’ meaning of verb and ‘experience’ a meaning
of a noun simultaneously, process and results has the same context.
3. Dewey, John, Experience and Nature, New York : Dover Publications, p.4, 1958.
4. Dewey, John, Democracy and Education, New York : the Macmillan Co, p.271-272, 1916.
5. Dewey, John, Experience and Nature, New York : Dover Publications, p.42, 1958.
6. Bernard H. Schmitt, Experiential Marketing, Free Press, 1999.
7. Chung Gil Young, Dewey’s aesthetic experience and morale education, a Institute of Korea Philosophy
Education, Education Philosophy, No.16, p.240, 1998.
8. Refer to Philips’s “The vision of the future”, Noah’s Ark, Daewoo electronics’s “Home of the future”.
9. Bernard H. Schmitt, Strategic experience modules, http://www.exmarketing.com, 2002.
10. Planned goal of experience to supply for customer to supply for customer.