To return to some specific cases of using experience architecture design to create truly transformative new ways of delighting customers, let’s first revisit the magic of Disney’s MagicBand. This is a Sphere of Experience come to life while still revealing new ways to improve the experience flow and the overall experience over time.

DISNEY INVESTS $1B TO LEARN HOW TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

The happiest place on earth can only become happier if Disney understands the aspirations of guests and where it is they meet unintended friction. The core goal, of course, is to reduce friction, unlock opportunities, and innovate in ways that give guests an experience even better than they’ve expected. Once they see, hear, taste, or otherwise sense this fantastic new experience, it becomes the new standard they can no longer live without. So they will return for more, and they will share all about it.

Experience design is at the center of everything the company does, and it has been since the beginning. You will find it in the most minute of details. For example, when you visit Disneyland, you might notice that certain doorways and gates are quite small by relationship to the overall architecture of some of the buildings. This was a design feature invented by none other than Walt Disney himself as a way to help guests feel larger than life, while also reminding them they’re the star of the story.²

Putting the Disney MagicBand to Use¹

BE OUR GUEST

To consider how magical the new experience created by the MagicBand is, let me tell you a short story.

Once upon time, a lovely family visited the Magic Kingdom. They fired up their Disney app and made reservations at the Beauty and the Beast castle to dine at the “Be Our Guest” restaurant. Then, to their surprise, a digital fairy greeted them and showed them how to use the app to order their food ahead of time.

But the guests were both confused and apprehensive in doing so.

“This is all a bit too wonderful. How will they know who we are? What if we order food too early and it arrives cold? What if we arrive and have to wait because a table isn’t available?”

“Not to worry,” the digital fairy responded delightfully and assuredly. “There’s magic in that special bracelet you’re wearing. It’s a legend in these parts and everyone knows that those who wear it are remarkable and special to these lands.”

Indeed, as the family approached the restaurant, the staff was alerted.

“The Roberts family is inbound!”

The table is set. The family is seated. The food is already in prep and set to be delivered.

“How did they know who we are? How did they know where we were seated? How does this all work?”

It’s magic—at least, apparently.

The truth is that the MagicBand houses a proximity sensor, and the restaurant host receives alerts about orders and when guests have arrived sent to a modified iPhone by the band. The tables also feature sensors, and they are also embedded in the ceiling so that when and where guests are seated is tracked.

A BOLD VISION

This is just the beginning. The technology in the MagicBand combined with the app are set to teach Disney a good deal more about how to create magical experiences.

The band is the digital key to unlocking experience architecture for the company. The original designers of Disney’s MagicBand envisioned a park free of turnstiles and other obstacles. The company is studying the data emanating from the bands to identify and eliminate all sources of friction and inefficiencies. The MagicBand outlines the “grid” as it is and allows for Disney’s team to design extraordinarily innovative new grids that beget remarkable experiences. One other improvement already made, for example, is that guests don’t need to carry cash. Their MagicBands are their wallets.

The plan for the MagicBand was put in place in 2008 by Meg Crofton, who was then president of Walt Disney World Resort. She assigned a special team to root out all of the friction in the Disney World experience. These five Disney veterans, referred to by some at the company as “The Fab 5” in homage to the original Fab 5, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald, imagineered a whole new system for the Magical Kingdom.

Two years of painstaking work were required to take the idea from prototype to reality, and then it took another 18 months to officially roll the system out to the park.

As quoted in an article by Wired design author Cliff Kuang, Tom Staggs, chief operating officer of the Walt Disney Company, explained the goals for the MagicBand this way: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. That’s how we think of it. If we can get out of the way, our guests can create more memories.” Exquisite UX thinking.

MagicBands allow employees to “move past transactions, into an interactive space, where they can personalize the experience,” as Crofton said in the same Wired piece. Kuang notes:

[Disney] could have Mickey and Snow White find you. They might use the park’s myriad cameras to capture candid moments of your family—enjoying rides, meeting Snow White—and stitch them together into a personalized film. (The product teams called this the Story Engine.) But they might also know when you’ve waited too long in line and email you a coupon for free ice cream or a pass to another ride. And with that, they’ll have hooked the white whale of customer service: turning a negative experience into a positive one. It recasts your memories of a place—that’s why casinos comp you drinks and shows when you lose at the tables.

The new system also simplifies the customer experience.

Let’s talk about choice. Disneyland parks offer an abundance of “if this, then that” choices for guests. But, as Staggs told Wired, “choice is overwhelming.” This is what’s known as the paradox of choice.

“You make people happier not by giving them more options but by stripping away as many as you can. The redesigned Disney World experience constrains choices by dispersing them, beginning long before the trip is under way,” Kuang concluded. As you know, any time you book a vacation you do so with specific mission, no matter how chaotic: we have to ride the Teacups, Peter Pan, It’s a Small World, and Pirates of the Caribbean; we need pictures with Elsa and Anna and all the Disney Princesses; we can’t miss Fantasia; we must find the parade and the evening fireworks, and so on. The MagicBand lets you simply set an agenda and helps let everything else flow around what visitors plan. “It lets people’s vacations unfold naturally,” Staggs says. “The ability to plan and personalize has given way to spontaneity.” It’s a feeling of relief evoked by a combination of the app and the MagicBand. And, it just might make you more likely to come back sooner than later because it removes the friction, not the price tag, that previously made you wait longer until you felt it was time to visit again. Again, exquisite UX.

Disney has proved that magic doesn’t have to be based on illusion. Magic can be based on experience.

TELSTRA TURNS SCIENCE FICTION INTO REALITY

Have you ever seen the movie Minority Report? It was an instant neo-noir sci-fi classic that featured Tom Cruise as a detective in the future who specializes in “PreCrime,” the practice of attempting to stop crimes before they happen.³ There’s a wild scene in the film where Cruise’s character is attempting to covertly make his way through a public square. But recognition sensors spot him and start inundating him with personalized advertisements.

Such facial recognition technology already exists, and at some point we will fortunately or unfortunately see it in play online and offline everywhere. Some worry that this will bring the end of privacy as we know it. But at the same time, the idea of personalization is the quintessential tool for experience architecture. So it can be used to design beautiful customer journeys.

Imagine you’re walking by a store, and you’re notified by a text to your smart phone to open an app, and that app asks you, “How can we help you today?”

You’re presented with a few options:

“Just browsing, thank you.”

“I need help with . . . or looking for . . .”

“I’m here to earn rewards.”

“Tell me what’s new and possible with this cool new tech!”

You walk into the store, and what was once an experience centered around transactions (payments, customer service, returns, information) has been completely redesigned. In fact, there are no lines anywhere. The store has been designed to perform like the best online sites. The technology for this is available and one retailer is making great use of it.

Telstra’s New “Discovery” Store

Telstra is Australia’s largest telecom and media company. In addition to building and operating telecommunications networks it markets voice, mobile, Internet access, pay television, and other entertainment products and services. The company is also blazing the trail for the future of retail.

While I was visiting the executive team in Sydney, I was invited to something quite special—the grand opening of Telstra’s $112 million refurbishment of its flagship retail store, which also serves as a test bed and state-of-the-art technology hub. Attached to its headquarters, the new “Discovery” store isn’t just a beautiful use of space, it’s a tribute to experience architecture, in which the company has wedded technology, user experience, and spatial design in a romancing experience that evokes emotions, tantalizes the senses, and promotes mutually beneficial transactions that don’t feel like transactions at all.

My good friend, Monty Hamilton, who at the time was leading digital transformation at Telstra, working with the retail innovation team, invited me on a personal tour.

What does the experience look and feel like? It starts when you approach the store. Beacons activate the Telstra app to greet incoming customers, and they can select the reason for their visit, which is then sent to the store’s floor manager via tablet.  Once a Telstra Advisor is available to greet the customer, a notification will be sent to the customer with a picture of their advisor and a location in-store to meet him or her.  

Even Apple’s retail team could learn a thing or two about Telstra’s UX approach to in-store activity.

It’s open and spacious, of course. It’s also incredibly well organized. But a few other key things struck me instantly. First, the wooden slats on the ceiling were noticeably, but barely I should say, different. Some were tightly grouped. Others were slatted with distinct gaps. When I asked about this, I was told that these configurations subtly direct customers to key areas in the store. Those more tightly grouped represent the most important destinations.

Second, I noticed the absence of a register or sections that separated the customer from Telstra representatives. Instead the store features small, open podiums and rectangular tables and chairs, such as at coffeehouses or a library, which are meant to bring people closer together while also flattening the engagement experience, making it more natural and friendly.

Advisors can also use tablets to serve customers from anywhere in the store. The plan is that they will eventually even be able to order a tea or coffee for customers from their tablets.

They’ve had world-class training, and it shows. I never saw a representative leave the sight of their customer even when they went to get a product.

Telstra introduced a subtle but enchanting feature of the design is that all products are shelved behind translucent doors that slide open, which adds a certain grandeur to the browsing experience.

One of my favorite features is the “Sandbox.” Situated at a waist-high stance, this grand table, like a giant iPad, features a vibrant and interactive service. Customers can compare handsets and other products by placing them on a digital display to access information, including price, battery, speed, and reviews.

Products Are Shelved Behind Translucent Sliding Doors

The Telstra Discover store also features:

Digital tickets that provide customers with an easy interactive way to find out more about the products and services. They also make it faster for customers to purchase items, as employees can scan the ticket directly on the floor rather than returning to a service desk. Customers place their personal ticket on the designated spot next to the product and, voila!, the essential information is saved seamlessly and transparently. If they choose not to buy on the spot, they can input their ticket online to view a customized portal featuring only the products they selected earlier.

Connected Life: A space where customers can explore how technology can enhance their day-to-day lives and consider what a connected life will look like in the future.

Connected Business: A dedicated space for business customers to learn more about Telstra’s business offerings, either by speaking directly with a business expert or by exploring an interactive screen in their own time.

Center Stage: An impressive three-story-high interactive screen displaying localized digital media content for customers to engage with.

Media Fountains: Interactive displays that bring Telstra’s media properties including movies, music, and sports to life for customers.

The Sandbox

Digital Tickets for Interactive Information and Faster Purchasing

Former CEO David Thodey shared his reasons for the company’s massive investment in customer experience and why it’s just the beginning in a thoughtful way in announcing the opening of the store:⁴

Technology is constantly changing, and the needs of our customers change rapidly, too. Our customers are telling us that they appreciate our more personalized approach to service. We also know they like to touch and experience things in a store and they also like the choice, speed, and convenience of digital channels.

This store delivers all of that, in an environment where the physical and digital worlds come together and customers can move seamlessly between them.

Implementing this grand vision required training of the staff, installation of new support processes, and technology, of course. That’s a significant investment. But it’s paying off.

THE RESULTS

NPS is up at an astronomical level.

Revenue is up.

Sales conversions are up.

And this is just the beginning. As more and more customers shared these experiences, Telstra is creating an infinite loop (a Circle of Life) of ultimate moments of truth.

Steve Jobs believed in challenging the status quo. “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?,”² he once asked.

We’ve reviewed many case studies of innovative experience architecture and many other examples are available for you to review online (www.xthebook.com). But I wanted to share with you one example of a complete experience universe to demonstrate just how much you can do in your work ahead.

THE iPAD AS THE CENTER OF APPLE’S EXPERIENCE ARCHITECTURE

Even though many experts point to the cult of Apple as the quintessential case study for brand, design, innovation, and so on, I would like to walk you through, quite simply, a sample Apple experience flow.

This isn’t a scientific analysis of Apple’s experience architecture, but instead an honest POV with me playing the role of an everyday consumer in the market for a tablet. By taking a step back at this point, we can see how the stories shared in this book come to life as an entire experience ecosystem aka Sphere of Experience.

You’ll see that Apple invests in creating human-centered experiences that complement one another. It’s practically effortless and frictionless. It’s thoughtful and its complexity is almost invisible.

This is just one example and a sliver of Apple’s experience architecture at that. But walking through the iPad journey is an authentic experience flow that will inspire a grander perspective and approach to your work.

APPLE’S EXPERIENCE ARCHITECTURE

Using a basic Philips experience flow model as a template, Krystal Lauk helped visualize the Apple iPad ecosystem that we’re about to review. It brings together the elements of UX + BX + CX to add up to X.

Now, let’s take a journey into Apple’s experience architecture to see things from an experiential perspective, considering each of the key components that bring its experience to life.

A VISION PEOPLE CAN ALIGN WITH AND WANT TO BE PART OF

Before we begin, I’m sure you’ll ask why we’re focusing on the iPad Air and not the Apple Watch. The watch still stirs debate as to whether it is reflective of Apple’s glory days or instead the first sign of a post-Jobs Apple, searching for its way. That’s not what this chapter is about.

When the new iPad Air shipped, Apple artfully expressed the essence of what made it special:

Before we thought about what goes into it, we thought about what you’ll get out of it.³

Those words were the first to greet visitors on the iPad Air’s landing page dedicated to Design.

The company is clearly saying that it believes features, specifications, and capabilities are secondary. Their customers come first. You can already feel it. It’s completely human-centered.

Through the product’s design, the company also speaks clearly, saying that complexity should be invisible and it wants to offer an experience that comes naturally.

So intent has Apple been to eradicate mediumism that it has held itself to the standard that the best design is often the one you hardly notice. This is Apple’s core. What you don’t see is just as important as what you do.

The most amazing thing about the iPad Air series products is that, according to the company, users sometimes forget they’re holding them. Customers and what they’re able to do, and to become, are at the center of the iPad Air’s design.

Of course the elegance of the design does draw attention; in fact it pulls powerfully on us. We actually feel it. Apple isn’t creating at the product level. It’s competing for the heart as well as the mind; it’s serving people’s dreams.

Apple is a master of the “embrace.”

THE APPLE EXPERIENCE FLOW

Let’s dive into Apple’s experience flow by entering its website. The experience is simple yet remarkable. When you visit Apple.com the company brings you immediately into a human experience, introducing you to the magic of its products through the shared experiences of people like you.

On the page dedicated to the iPad, visitors are introduced to a link where real stories are shared:

We’ve been inspired by stories of how iPad has transformed the way people play, work, learn, create, and connect. So when we designed iPad Air, we started thinking about its purpose. How you’ll hold it, what you’ll do with it, where you’ll take it. And we built on the idea that iPad is defined by how people use it. So it can do whatever you want it to do. And be whatever you want it to be.

You’re intrigued. You were thinking that you wanted the iPad because it’s cool and you would love to have something in between phone and laptop. There’s much you’d love to do with it—email, surfing, Facebook and Twitter, games. But now you’re wondering about what you haven’t thought of. What else can you do? What’s possible? What are other people doing?

In this embrace, Apple is offering a strong story opening; it is making you the protagonist and alluding to all of the adventures you’ll be going on and how you will be transformed by them. It is saying that you are about to go on a hero’s journey. It is also connecting your zero moment of truth to others’ ultimate moments of truth.

Apple’s Story Space

CONNECTING ZMOT TO UMOT THROUGH STORY

Apple spotlights shared experiences the connective tissue, and it is careful to include the experiences of a wide range of people—carefully selected personas so that all visitors will find someone they especially relate to.

The value of the iPad is user-defined. Instead of Apple telling you what to think about the iPad, it has people like yourself tell you, and it has them do so with stories.

YOUR HERO’S JOURNEY

Having skillfully embraced you, Apple proceeds to continue the story, leading you on an adventure, which you go on at your own choosing. This is not funneling. The company asks, “What will your verse be?”

You are in charge; you are the hero. And you are validated and appreciated.

Apple tells you that each of us has something to share: a voice, a passion, a perspective. Because Apple is saying that it believes in what you have to offer the world, you feel inspired about adding a stanza to the world’s story.

AN ECOSYSTEM OF IF-THENs

Apple’s thoughtfulness continues. It created a story space for you to explore with many if this, then that (IFTT) scenarios. It provides a host of appealing engagement points, and for each a story unfolds in which you are led through opportunities to take actions, share reactions, or simply transact.

Let’s say you choose to learn more as the next step in your journey. You click on “Explore their stories.” The page is clean, almost bare. You’re led to a short film.

Through both vibrant visuals and auditory storytelling, you are presented with your first challenge, should you choose to engage with it. The voiceover of the video says:⁴

You don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute.

We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.

Medicine, law, business, engineering—these are noble pursuits necessary to sustain life.

But poetry, beauty, romance, love—these are what we stay alive for.

You may contribute a verse.

What will your verse be?

COMPELLED TOWARD THE FIRST MOMENT OF TRUTH

You’re inspired to buy. Now you come to your First Moment of Truth (FMOT).

You click on the store tab and are immediately presented with a simple path toward purchase. You click “iPad” where the family of products is laid out before you. You can compare models, explore each line, or simply choose the Air you want.

Everything about the site is designed to be effortless and to lead to purchase in a sales-free manner. The text and design are simple and useful, and you can also talk to a representative, presented to you as a real, flesh-and-blood human. It’s human and activity-centered as well as simple and elegant.

But what if you don’t want to talk to an Apple representative? You’d rather learn from other users. Apple has provided an introduction to an online community with one click.

UNIFYING THE DIGITAL AND REAL WORLDS

Let’s say you’re still not quite ready to make a purchase. You’ve decided you want to actually hold the iPad and explore its UI and its aesthetics before making a decision. Apple has designed an enchanting real-world experience for that. To use the word shrine to describe the Apple store wouldn’t be inappropriate to some. The stores are cathedrals in praise of design, creativity, and dreams. That’s one reason why when retail sales in general declined around 2 percent in 2009, Apple’s retail sales rose roughly 7 percent.⁵

Apple’s stores are not only places of worship, they are exciting destinations. The story is building; your adventure is getting even more thrilling. And you are still the hero of the adventure. You are here to discover, not to be sold. In fact, the team is trained to “not sell” and instead guide you.

In 2011, the Wall Street Journal published an inside look at Apple’s retail success, “Secrets from Apple’s Genius Bar: Full Loyalty, No Negativity.”⁶ Yukari Iwatani Kane and Ian Sherr took on the role of investigative reporters and examined confidential training manuals, reviewed recordings of store meetings, and interviewed more than a dozen current and former employees. Here are three secrets that the pair learned in their inspection:

1. Apple’s intensive control of how employees interact with customers

2. Scripted training for onsite tech support

3. Consideration of every store detail down to the preloaded photos and music on demo devices

Employees are taught specifically not to persuade, but rather to help customers solve problems or address needs and aspirations. “Your job is to understand all of your customers’ needs—some of which they may not even realize they have,” one training manual reads.

In fact, employees receive no sales commissions and have no sales quotas. David Ambrose, 26 years old, who worked at an Apple store in Arlington, Virginia, until 2007, told the article’s authors, “You were never trying to close a sale. It was about finding solutions for a customer and finding their pain-points.” That’s true customer centricity.

In the training manuals, Apple lays out its “steps of service” using the acronym APPLE:

Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome.

Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs.

Present a solution for the customer to take home today.

Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns.

End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.

Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online stores, Angela Ahrendts, who joined Apple in April 2014 to oversee its retail operations,⁸ is the first Apple executive to oversee both the in-store and online retail empire. She shared her support of the Apple selling philosophy in a FastCompany⁹ article. “I don’t want to be sold to when I walk into a store,” she said. “The job is to be a brilliant brand ambassador. Don’t sell! No! Because that’s a turnoff. Build an amazing brand experience, and then it will just naturally happen.” Apple has taken you through your first two moments of truth from ZMOT to FMOT in a seamless manner.

It’s important to note the continuity of your experience from online to store. The experience flow is smooth as well as engaging and rewarding.

FROM SMOT TO UMOT

The adventure continues. Let’s look at how Apple walks you through the metamorphosis from customer into fangirl or fanboy, inspiring you with quality of the Second Moment of Truth (SMOT) experience to share your experience in an Ultimate Moment of Truth that may become someone else’s Zero Moment of Truth and the micro-experiences that carry them forward. This begins with the packaging.

Opening any Apple box is magical. As we reviewed earlier, the packaging is its own story arc. Here Apple offers a story climax; getting the product home and opening it truly is a thrilling end to the product discovery adventure. The box itself is so appealing that most people I know keep it so that the magical moment of opening it can be passed on to the person they sell it to when they buy the next upgrade.

Even the bag you bring your product home in is special. Michelle Greenwald, who writes about innovation, marketing, and branding for Forbes, praised “the plastic shopping bags with cords that can be used as a backpack.”

Apple understands that an emotion can be forged when a product is purchased and the experience of ownership begins. Adam Lashinsky, senior editor at large at Forbes and author of Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired and Secretive Company Really Works,¹¹ revealed that Apple employs a small team to open boxes:

iPad Air Unboxing via iPhoneinCanada.ca Unboxing Story Arc by Kate Briggs.¹⁰

To fully grasp how seriously Apple executives sweat the small stuff, consider this: For months, a packaging designer was holed up in this room performing the most mundane of tasks—opening boxes.

At one point during the iPod launch, Lashinsky shares, Apple’s packaging room was filled with hundreds of iPod box prototypes:

One after another, the designer created and tested an endless series of arrows, colors, and tapes for a tiny tab designed to show the consumer where to pull back the invisible, full-bleed sticker adhered to the top of the clear iPod box. Getting it just right was this particular designer’s obsession.

What’s more, it wasn’t just about one box. The tabs were placed so that when Apple’s factory packed multiple boxes for shipping to retail stores, there was a natural negative space between the boxes that protected and preserved the tab.

BY JOVE, IT’S GENIUS!

Getting your product home is a story climax, but it’s not the end of the story. Apple has ensured that the experience continues. First and foremost, you are now part of the iPad community. You can write your story inspired by how you use the iPad Air.

Its customer experience architecture now thoughtfully balances the “buy” and “own” sides of customer relationship management.

Should you ever need help fixing or optimize your device, Apple’s Genius Bar is there to help. The Genius Bar is just another way in which Apple makes you the center of experience.

The genius behind the Genius Bar is that it is a linchpin in strengthening customer relationships. No matter how much you invest in customer service today or how well you train customer service representatives, it’s generally not enough. Apple has excelled because it has empowered its support people to be truly supportive. These employees are carefully selected for their desire to be customer-centric, to be relationship builders, not just problem solvers.

Consider this edited (it was longer than this) job listing for a Genius Bar opening.¹² Imagine if every company invested in the “own” side of the experience like this:

You’re here to not only help fix equipment, but to restore positive customer relationships, with free technical advice and timely repairs.

A candidate we’ll love:

1. You provide white-glove treatment to customers.

2. You enjoy meeting people and building a relationship with customers.

3. You have a burning desire to solve problems.

4. You can communicate technical concepts in layman’s terms.

5. You have a sense of urgency—but also the ability to keep your cool.

A position you’ll love:

1. Solving problems—things happen and you’re there to fix them.

2. Juggling customer and product issues with a genuine sense of urgency.

3. Having passion about customer service and a commitment to exceeding expectations.

A job at an Apple store is a chance to use both your hands and heart. To contribute meaningfully to people’s lives with your technical knowhow.

To delight. Enrich. Impress. Engage. Inspire.

NEED PERSONALIZED TRAINING? THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!

And still the adventure continues. Not only can you receive highly skilled and always courteous service at the Genius Bar, you can also choose to get more in-depth service.

The company’s One-to-One fee-based service provides personalized instruction, setup, and training. Note that Apple refers to the One-to-One program as a membership club. This creates a sense of belonging, of community, another link in the chain of the circle of trust.

APPLE HELPS YOU MAKE A DENT IN THE UNIVERSE

Apple’s experience architecture has crafted a comprehensive customer journey in which the high standards for experience are met or exceeded every step of the way. This is why it has made much more than “a dent in the universe.”

Apple has been a pioneer, but with the tools and techniques introduced in this book, all companies can join in the adventure to this new world of X.