Experience design

EXPERIENCE DIMENSION 4: DURATION Initiation, Immersion, Conclusion, Continuation

EXPERIENCE DIMENSION 5: TRIGGERS Senses: Taste, Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch Cognitive: Concepts, SymbolsExperiences are the foundation for all life events and form the core of what interactive media have to offer. One of the most important ways to define an experience is to search its boundaries. While manyexperiences are ongoing, sometimes even indefinitely, most have edges that define their start, middle, and end. Much like a story (a special and important type of experience), these boundaries help usdifferentiate meaning, pacing, and completion. Whether it is due to attention span, energy, or emotion, most people cannot continue an experience indefinitely, or they will grow tired, confused, ordistracted if an experience—however consistent—doesn’t conclude. Experiences have 6 key dimensions: Breadth, Intensity, Duration, Triggers, Interaction, and Significance (this is described in detail inExperience Design 2). One of the most important is Duration, since we live our lives in a stream of unfolding time (see Time and Motion on pages 290-292). At the very least, think of an experience asrequiring an attraction, an engagement, and a conclusion. The attraction is necessary to initiate the experience. It can be cognitive, visual, auditory, or a signal to any of our senses. The attractioncan be intentional on the part of the experience, not just the experience creator. For example, the attraction for filling-out your taxes is based on a need, and not a flashy introduction. However,there still needs to be cues as to where and how to begin the experience.

The engagement is the experience itself. It needs to be sufficiently

different than the surrounding environment of theexperience to hold the attention of the audience or user as well as cognitively important (or relevant) enough for them to continue the experience. The conclusion can come in many ways, but it must...