How to Diagnose What Your Experience Is Actually Built to Produce

“Transformational” has become the most overused word in experience design.

Immersive art walks use it. Brand activations use it. Festival websites use it. Certification courses use it. And almost none of them mean the same thing by it, because almost none of them have a structural definition for what transformation actually requires.

After fifteen years producing TEDxNaperville, testing, observing, and rebuilding what actually changes people versus what simply impresses them, Arthur Zards (Lab Z) developed a diagnostic framework that helps experience designers see exactly where their architecture has gaps, and what to do about it.

In this Campfire, you’ll walk away with a tool you can apply to your current work immediately: to name what your experience is actually built to produce, spot where the design falls short of your claims, and identify the structural changes that close that gap.

Three Questions:

• Think about an experience you’ve designed that you called transformational. Using the two axes, where does it actually land? What was the real success condition you were designing for?
• What is one element of your current or upcoming project you could redesign to transfer meaning-authorship from the system to the participant?
• When a client asks you to “create a transformational experience,” what are they actually asking for? And how does your answer change after today?

About Arthur Zards:

Arthur is an original Internet entrepreneur founding an Internet company before the web browser even existed. He wasn’t learning about digital marketing, branding, innovation, and development; he was creating it. He is a self-described TED fanatic and is the founder and executive director of TEDxNaperville.

Arthur founded Lab Z, an Innovation Experience Agency that focuses on a new approach to speaking and conference production. His speaker clients get standing ovations and his clients conferences  transform into memorable and engaging experiences.

In his spare time he carves Tiki Moai, jumps off cliffs in his paraglider and grills a mean Picanha on his home-built 850 lb wood-fired grill.

His mantra is to “create an idea, get people excited, do it, repeat.”