On October 14, this IA embarked on a journey somewhat outside her comfort zone- a design conference. But this wasn’t just any design conference, this was the Gain Conference hosted by AIGA. In the introduction, Debbie Millman said, “Design is being called upon to solve the world’s problems.” This idea echoed throughout the next couple of days I sat and listened to speaker after speaker with an occasional panel. Here is a summary of the conference, from an IA’s perspective.

Different “Experiences”

For an IA, user/customer experience means the user’s needs come first and is what our practice is based on. I found it interesting at this conference that this idea was somehow regarded as a novel and new approach to design. It made me think about how those of us in strategy design view “experience” a bit differently from those in creative design. For an IA, experience design means creating experiences for which they may interact while for a creative, it means creating an experience to which a user can react.

One example of this difference was revealed by JetBlue’s Fionna Morrison (Brand & Advertising) who discussed the importance of having the customer experience first and foremost when considering design. She said design should be, “Nice, Fresh, Smart, Stylish, Witty” – providing examples from a brand perspective as opposed to a user experience perspective. The examples given were about, “Hey, you come have fun with our brand” as opposed to “This is going to make booking and flying with us much easier for you.” Final tagline for JetBlue: You above all.

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