The term User Experience, or UX, gets thrown around a lot in marketing speak these days, with often only a vague understanding of its true principles. Here’s how the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines User Experience:
“A person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service.”
Don Norman, the man who coined the term while working at Apple, has this perspective on its popular usage:
“I invented the term because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction and the manual. Since then, the term has spread widely, so much so that it is starting to lose its meaning … User Experience, human-centered design, usability; all those things, even affordances. They just sort of entered the vocabulary and no longer have any special meaning. People use them often without having any idea why, what the word means, its origin, history or what it’s about.”
While we can credit Don Norman with the definition, the process itself is somewhat ambiguous and far from definitive, leaving its employment to our own interpretation. The fact is … the science of User Experience has been around for a long time. Yes, I referred to User Experience as a science, because it’s knowledge; facts or principles gained by systematic study. These “facts” can be ascertained from the iterative approach of study. That’s right, folks, User Experience is an iterative process.
For some brands, this iterative process has been made an integral part of product design. Companies such as Dyson, Ford, Google and Apple are just a few of the well-known names that have become advocates of User Experience. They build models, test them, build more, test them, etc . Marketing initiatives also have lifecycles like products. These campaigns or initiatives can also be tested, released, improved upon and so on.
The following four conditional aspects are key to uncovering and interpreting data for any User Experience study:
- Our knowledge and experience
- Our client’s objectives
- Our audience’s needs/wants
- Outlying circumstances
OK, so where does the Robocop analogy come into play? Let’s look at what a Hollywood interpretation of productizing the Human Element can teach us.
1987’s sci-fi/action/satirical cult classic Omni Consumer Products creates a human/robot hybrid to combat rising crime in Old Detroit … They name him Robocop.
Robocop is able to expose departmental corruption, crush crime and survive multiple deadly threats, partly due to his superhuman strength and impenetrable armor, yes, but also because his programming is based on clear, impactful principals inherent to the moral code.
The Prime Directives:
These principals, known as the Prime Directives, were the unbreakable rules to which Robocop was bound. These directives are analogous to the fundamental guidelines of developing a User Experience strategy.
- Serve the public trust.
- Protect the innocent.
- Uphold the law
- CLASSIFIED: Do no harm to the creator.
1. Serve the Public Trust
This directive speaks to the notion that whatever trust our audience places in a brand, we must, as marketers, respect and reciprocate it. We cannot force participation or a desired reaction. It has to be natural, and it has to be authentic. It can’t be overtly about the brand. There has to be something in it for the participants. There has to be a common connection between our audience and our client.
2. Protect the Innocent
Your client is innocent. They have hired you to craft their message and put their products and/or services in consumers’ hands. How we become successful and do something differentiating relies on our ability to be agile in our methodologies.
3. Uphold the Law
User Experience is defined as a person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service. To consider user wants and still be successful, we must find the right balance between our audience’s objectives and client’s objectives. These two things rarely align naturally, so an ongoing investigative process gathering our audience’s perceptions and responses is crucial, allowing us to constantly adjust along the way. The fundamental take away from this narrative is that UX is iterative.
4. Do no harm to the creator
This one speaks to us … the marketing people. This is the hardest and most complicated directive; it was classified and hidden from Robocop in the original movie, rewritten many times in the original script and even deleted in Robocop 3. But it seems simple, right? If we follow the first 3 directives we will not negatively impact the client and won’t get fired. But, not every effort is going to be a complete success. Even then, there’s always something to be learned. Being able to plan accordingly and identify actions that are acceptable, if not ideal, is just one outcome of User Experience.
So, let’s break this down Robocop style…
Remember the four conditional aspects for interpreting data that I mentioned earlier? Let’s look at how Robocop interpreted data based on these as they applied to his scenario.
- His knowledge and experience
- OCP/Law enforcement objectives
- The public’s needs/wants
- Outlying circumstances
The fact that he is part man and part machine gives him the ability to earn intrigue and command respect. His moral programming allows him to escape the traps that often come along with a position of power, and his training and intuition allow him to overcome obstacles and prevail in the end. Robocop was designed to serve the public trust.
His signature tagline – “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me” – becomes a staple throughout the series. Robocop never harms a single civilian and even tries to employ the same restraint when dealing with certified bad guys. Robocop serves to protect.
Our protagonist learns very quickly that there are outlying circumstances beyond his control … his memory, department corruption and bad guys that outnumber him in manpower and firepower. He quickly adopts an “agile methodology” and employs an iterative approach to dealing with his biggest adversary, Clarence Boddicker and, ultimately, Dick Jones. Robocop changes his strategy, but not selfishly. His ultimate strategy balances redeeming his reputation with doing right by his city. Robocop upholds the law.
In the end, Robocop is successful, arresting Clarence Boddicker and putting an end to Dick Jones. But, it comes with a price. When Robocop first attempts to arrest Dick Jones, he realizes there is a 4th and previously unknown directive. It’s an outlying circumstance that he again has to adapt to. And he, ultimately, gets himself in a situation in which he must regroup and redevelop his strategy … yet again. In the end, Robocop is triumphant and devises a plan to take action and, ultimately, regains the trust of OCP and restores OCP’s reputation with the public, fulfilling the 4th directive … do no harm to the creator.
So there you go … the real takeaway here is that if you remember the beginning of the movie, Robocop was just a prototype – a prototype that goes through the systematic process of data interpretation and course correction to strike a balance between audience and creator.
Thank you Hollywood, for creating a sci-fi thriller to teach us the fundamentals of User Experience.
This article is based off a presentation delivered by Scott Burns and myself at the 2013 Event Marketing Summit.
To learn more about User Experience, please contact Chris Douglas at ChrisD@theswitch.us.
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