Rapid Cross-channel Prototyping Workshop IAS17

ASIS&T INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE SUMMIT 2017
RAPID CROSS-CHANNEL PROTOTYPING
Andreas @Resmini
Vancouver, March 23 2017

WELCOME!
we’ll work on a case and go step-by-step through
the ins and outs of cross-channel experiences
here’s a little breakdown of our activities for today

STAGE #0 (40mins)
welcome, cross-channel and all that jazz
a quick introduction to the idea of
unbounded experiences and to our case

STAGE #1: PROBLEM SPACE (90mins)
identifying actors and actor groups,
actor goals, activities, mapping individual paths
check, verify, discuss

STAGE #2: ECOSYSTEM DRAFT (90mins)
mapping the ecosystem: how-to, initial draft, iterations
LUNCH!
check, verify, discuss

STAGE #3: MORE DIVERGENCE (30mins)
round-robin draft ecosystem critique
groups get to ask questions, comment, and critique
what the other group have been doing

STAGE #4: ASSESSMENT (60mins)
the ecosystem map is refined, challenges and opportunities are
evaluated, a strategic plan laid out to respond to the initial goals
and to the actors’ experience
a specific touchpoint / artifact is singled out for intervention

STAGE #5: INTERVENTION (90mins)
from ecosystem to artifact. Groups formulate the design or
redesign of the touchpoint / artifact and evaluate how it will
affect the ecosystem and the actors’ choices
presentations, reflections, discussion, wrap-up

LUNCHSTASTAGE #1 GE #2 STAGE #3 STAGE #4
STAGE #5
STAGE #0
OVERVIEW

TAKE-AWAYS #1
understand the logic and nature of cross-channel ecosystems
acquire an actor-centered view of experiences

TAKE-AWAYS #2
learn to identify and map actors, paths, touchpoints, and the
seams between them into ecosystems

TAKE-AWAYS #3
learn how to create and use channels for systemic insights

TAKE-AWAYS #4
transform system-level information architecture into context-
and touchpoint-specific insights for better user experience

TRADITIONALLY, DESIGN IMPLIES MAKING “THINGS”
the design tradition of “making” has its roots in the craft
making has been associated with “things” for a long time

THE DESIGN OF SOFTWARE INTERFACES
an initial challenge to the idea of “making things” comes along
with software interfaces between the ‘70s and the ‘80s
interaction design produces “objects” that are not tangible

A SHIFT TOWARDS THE INTANGIBLE
through the years, intangibles have become the norm
design thinking and service design are an example of this shift,
fields of practice and research that approach organizational
processes and services via a design mindset

STILL MAKING “THINGS”
regardless of (in)tangibility, all of these practices are still
“traditional design” in the sense that they focus on producing an
“object””: it might be a UI, a service, a process for managing
patients in a hospital, a chair. Still, it’s a clearly bounded “thing”

CROSS-CHANNEL ECOSYSTEMS IMPLY A NEW FOCUS
the design process here gets centered on “an experience”
this shift brings in emergence, complexity, uncertainty,
and the necessity to move to a bird’s-eye, strategic view
it also brings whomever is having “an experience” center stage

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE
Uber is a service. Sure. But:
in the context of cross-channel design, Uber is a part of a larger
ecosystem that is centered on personal transportation
to me, Uber is a piece of “going somewhere for some purpose”

THAT’S THE EXPERIENCE
unless you are plain interested in just riding Uber cars, that is
(hobbies are hobbies. Who am I to judge, right?)

THAT MEANS UBER DOES NOT OWN IT ALL
the experience itself is not owned nor it is fully managed or
controlled by any single company or organization

NEITHER PRODUCT- NOR SERVICE-BOUNDED
the experience does not stop where “Uber the service” stops
Uber’s role also changes from completely marginal
to absolutely central depending on my own ongoing experience

NEITHER DIGITAL NOR PHYSICAL, BUT BLENDED
a cross-channel ecosystem creates a blended actionable space
that straddles across digital and physical environments

THAT BLENDED SPACE
is the ecosystem inside which a specific experience takes place

OK, BUT WHAT DO YOU MEAN, “AN EXPERIENCE”?
think “paying my taxes”. Or “going to the movies”. Or again
“having the hamster vaccinated”. These are experiences
the way they happen, actors will go through them moving freely
between locations, devices, products, and services

SMS
BUS
KIOSK
HERE’S AN EXAMPLE: GOING TO THE MOVIES
GREEN LINE AND CIRCLES: AN ACTOR’S PATH DESCRIBING AN EXPERIENCE
IMDB
MOVIE

WAIT AGAIN, “ACTORS”?
yes, actors. The people formerly known as the users.
a cross-channel ecosystem is an actor-driven construct,
both in terms of its structure and its content

SO AN “ACTOR” GOES THROUGH “AN EXPERIENCE”
yes, and the systems of actors, tasks, touchpoints, seams,
and channels in which this experience takes place is the
cross-channel ecosystem
the actual path that an actor walks is one of the many
possible trajectories through that specific ecosystem

actors, agents within the ecosystem
youtube.com

actors pursue a future desired state
alphasys.com.au

tasks, any activity these agents perform

touchpoints, individual points
of interaction in a channel

seams, thresholds between touchpoints
and across channels

channels, pervasive ecosystem-level
information layers

ACTORS, TASKS, TOUCHPOINTS, SEAMS, AND CHANNELS?
these are the basic building blocks of any ecosystem
their precise nature is specific to an ecosystem and is
defined pragmatically based on context and goals

OK. ACTORS FIRST
we know actors very well. If we consider human actors, they are
the people formerly known as the users (TPFKATU)
the name change underlines their agency: they are the ones who
effectively shape and create the ecosystem
software agents are or can be actors as well, of course

VERY WELL. TASKS THEN
tasks are all the activities actors perform in their pursuing
any desired future state
buying a ticket to go see a movie, for example,
or logging in to an online system to pay their taxes
tasks are usually coupled with progression through touchpoints

MH. TOUCHPOINTS?
touchpoints are individual points-of-interaction that become part
of the ecosystem as actors connect them freely to move on
towards their desired future state
touchpoints are medium-specific (digital, physical, biological)

WAIT. IS MY PHONE A TOUCHPOINT THEN? OR THE APP?
both. Working with ecosystems implies adopting an
architectural, systemic mindset and a zoom in/out approach
granularity cannot be discussed or set in abstract, but has to
reflect the project’s needs and scope at that moment

SEAMS
seams are thresholds and connections
if you can move from touchpoint A to touchpoint X,
those two are permeable and share a seam
seams allow the transmission and use of
content and information circulating in the ecosystem

SEAMS HAVE INTERESTING PROPERTIES
seams convey information, which is medium-aspecific,
so they can connect touchpoints residing in different channels
and living in different mediums
seams can also of course connect touchpoints
residing in totally different physical locations

OK, CHANNELS. NOW.
channels are a design construct. They do not really exist
the best way to imagine them is to think of pipes
carrying information around the ecosystem
wherever you have a tap, you have a touchpoint
as much as taps live on pipes, touchpoints live on channels

PIPES? TAPS?
channels are pervasive layers that carry information
around the ecosystem, like pipes carry water around
the way they are created is a design decision. They could reflect
the formal sectioning of an EA model, be the result of the
designers’ own biases and interpretation, or anything in between

CHANNELS CONTAIN INFORMATION. AND?
that’s the catch. Channels are containers for specific “types” of
information. These types can be compared to loose categories
for example, a going-to-the-movie ecosystem could have a
“movie-related” channel. In there you would find IMDB, a kiosk
selling tickets, the website for the cinema, and staff

YES, BUT WHY ARE CHANNELS IMPORTANT?
because we are working with information
and our goal is to support better experiences
if staff at the movie theater doesn’t know about tickets or a
kiosk malfunction (that is, they do not live on the same channel
and have no seams between them), we can be pretty sure that
lack of connection will result in a bad experience

UH. AND THE ECOSYSTEM?
the ecosystem is the product of the ontology, the conceptual
boundaries used to organize the experience itself
the ecosystem is a spatial structure in blended space, straddling
non-continuous digital and physical environments
its boundaries are arbitrary and depend on goals and context

NON-LINEAR ECOSYSTEMS VS LINEAR EXPERIENCE
while the ecosystem itself is a non-linear network, actors
trying to achieve a future desired state consider themselves
moving along a personal, linear path of subsequent steps
even more importantly, their experience is a linear narrative

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
A PATH THROUGH THE ECOSYSTEM
GREEN LINE: ACTOR’S PATH THROUGH AN ECOSYSTEM COMPRISING 3 DIFFERENT SYSTEMS

THE ECOSYSTEM’S BACKBONE IS INFORMATION
actors constantly create, remediate, and use information
this information is transferred along the actor’s path and
through the ecosystem, increasing its complexity
designing a successful cross-channel experience means
optimizing the information flows and increasing resilience

OK, SO WHERE DO YOU START FROM?
pragmatically, from the formulation of an individual,
organizational, or social need or pain
conceptually, from an actor’s experience

THE PRAGMATIC STARTING POINT
is an organizational pain.
“We need to increase the rate of paid to free subscriptions”
“We need to improve our <x>”
“We need to enter market <y>”

THE CONCEPTUAL STARTING POINT
is what the actors do, *their* experience.
There is no ecosystem if there is no actor experiencing it

WAIT A SECOND, THAT’S NOT AN ANSWER
it is. While a certain project will be initiated because of
a social, organizational, or individual need or pain, that need or
pain is not what generates the ecosystem
that need or pain is a problem space within an ecosystem
that is usually, at project start, largely unknown

HERE YOU GO AGAIN. NEEDS AND PAINS?
yes. Needs or pains are usually the reason an investigation starts
examples of organizational pain are “not intercepting the actor’s
path because they go to competitors”, “increase our paid-for vs
free customer ratio”, or “enter the online grocery market”
a social pain could be reduce traffic, or promote equality

NOT FOLLOWING. ONE MORE EXAMPLE? PLEASE?
sure. That’s what our case for today is for
suppose the chairs want to “make the summit great again”
this need or desire to improve the summit experience is the
organizational pain that acts as the catalyst for design

WE HAVE AN INITIAL PROBLEM SPACE
what we need to know is who the actors
are and what do they do and think
so let’s start stage #1 and have everyone
get on paper two different artifacts

INDIVIDUAL ARTIFACT #1
what is the summit for you?
(that is, what is your goal or goals?)

INDIVIDUAL ARTIFACT #2
describe your summit experience
(if this is your first time, describe what you’ve seen so
far or describe your experience at another conference)

STAGE #5
STAGE #0
OVERVIEW
STATE YOUR GOALS
DESCRIBE YOUR JOURNEY

D. Willis, Intent Paths (2011) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/uxcrank/albums/72157626618631035

PRIMARY
SECONDARYTERTIARY
-
+
-
+

GMaps
actor
phone
phone
info
actor
phone
AR
actor
phone
Accessing GMaps through phone Accessing local phone info Accessing AR through phone

Waiting for the bus at the bus stop: when does the bus arrive?
actor
bus
stop
person
phoneFacebook

actor
bus
stop
person
phone
actor
bus
app
phone
Facebook

actor
bus
driver
person
actor
person
bus
stop
phoneFacebook
actor
bus
app
phone

GROUP ARTIFACT #1
we have hexagons, markers, stickers
let’s transform your goals and descriptions into paths

STAGE #5
STAGE #0
OVERVIEW
STATE YOUR GOALS
DESCRIBE YOUR JOURNEY
MAKE PATHS

WE HAVE OUR INDIVIDUAL PATHS
now we need to merge them somehow and
create an initial view of our current ecosystem

WE USE A SIMPLE VISUAL VOCABULARY
we turn each and every touchpoint in a circle and
every existing seam in a line, and give the seam a direction

A NOTE ABOUT SEAMS
only attribute a direction you verified exists
and is used in your descriptions

GROUP ARTIFACT #2
there’s more we can add to the map
but let’s give this thing a go and learn while we do

STAGE #5
STAGE #0
OVERVIEW
ECOSYSTEM DRAFT
CHANNELS DRAFT

GROUP ARTIFACT #3
let’s make the ecosystem map better

GROUP ARTIFACT #4
now the hard part: the channels

REMEMBER WHAT WE SAID
channels are a design construct. They do not really exist
the best way to imagine them is to think of pipes
carrying information around the ecosystem

THEY ARE A DESIGN ARTIFACT
the way they are created is a design decision. They could reflect
the formal sectioning of an EA model, be the result of the
designers’ own biases and interpretation, or anything in between

EXAMPLES
a going-to-the-movie ecosystem could have a “movie-related”
channel containing IMDB, ticket kiosks, the website for the
cinema, and possibly staff
a conference experience could have an “official comm” channel
most times it’s possible to identify physical, biological, and digital
primary channels. They are also not usually very useful

REMEMBER: CHANNELS ARE IMPORTANT
they allow us to visualize continuity or gaps in the information
flows that actors totally miss or do not care about because they
do not possess an ecosystem-level view

STAGE #5
STAGE #0
OVERVIEW
ECOSYSTEM DRAFT
CHANNELS DRAFT
ECOSYSTEM REFINEMENT
CHANNELS REFINEMENT

STAGE #5
STAGE #0
OVERVIEW
CRITIQUE

TAKE A LOOK, GIVE FEEDBACK
one group member remains to discuss, take notes, and explain
the other members move to another table to give feedback
we proceed until we complete a full rotation

USE THAT FEEDBACK TO REFINE YOUR MAP
iterate your map once more

STAGE #5
STAGE #0
OVERVIEW
CRITIQUE
REFINEMENT

THANK YOU SO MUCH
please remember to fill in the evaluation forms and do get in
touch if you have questions, doubts, or want to share your own
investigations. Ping me @resmini anytime
have a great summit!

Rapid Cross-channel Prototyping Workshop IAS17

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Rapid Cross-channel Prototyping Workshop IAS17