Mark Hurst Discusses Good Experience

Today on Radio Johnny, Jeff Parks talks with Mark Hurst who founded Creative Good, the Gel (Good Experience Live) conference, and is the author of Bit Literacy – Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail overload.

Mark shares stories from past presenters at Gel, as well as ideas from his more popular blog posts that he has been publishing for over a decade. In addition Mark discusses our collective need to look beyond the web and other technologies to find inspiration in creating good experiences for others.

Quotes

We can learn a lot more from people who are different from us, then if we are talking to people who are similar to us. So if you wanted to learn about User Experience and you’re a user experience consultant, why would you go to a conference where everyone else is a user experience consultant?

… a pattern I’ve seen a number of times in Gel presentations where someone comes to the stage to talk about a certain project… you quickly learn they are taking a multi-faceted approach to their career and their life; not simply going deep on one topic but trying to create a good experience in a number of different aspects, simultaneously.

Those few teams who decide to do things differently and really understand the user’s needs and what the ideal experience would be those are the ones who are going to win… what am I saying!? Those are the ones who are winning! Look at any industry right and now and you can pick out the truly customer centered organization because they tend to be the ones in the lead… and that trend is going to continue.

Summary

Drawing on the reality that customer experience is harder than it looks, Mark shares insights from recent blog posts illustrating the need for business to step outside the mental model of the corporation and into the world of the user and their needs and values.

Mark also discusses past presentations from the Gel conference demonstrating that some of the greatest sources of inspiration for designers can be found outside our own peer group and industry.

Show Notes

* Gel (Good experience live) Conference
* Video from Gel conference John Williams – Founder Frog’s Leap Winery
* Video from Gel conference Natasha Schull, Associate Professor at MIT
* Book by Mark Hurst: Bit Literacy – Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail overload
* Blog post: Customer experience is harder than it looks
* Blog post: How to create an experience that sells – and do you want that?
* Blog post: Ignore the customer experience, lose a billion dollars (Walmart case study)
* NY Times Article: