In this episode of Meaningful Work Matters, Andrew Soren spoke with Mat Duerden, a professor of experience, design and management in the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University.
Duerden’s work in both research and teaching focuses on making experiences more impactful, particularly infusing meaning through designed experiences. He is passionate about finding meaning in every facet of life and designing experiences to help individuals do so.
Experience Design
Most moments, according to Duerden, will be ordinary and will likely be fleeting. This is because most of our day is defined by a continuous stream of consciousness, allowing the brain to operate efficiently without conscious effort.
Experience design is all about creating extraordinary experiences, which Duerden says generally fall into one or more of these categories: memorable, meaningful, and transformative. Each extraordinary experience involves varying degrees of emotional response, personal insight, and behavioral change.
Memorable experiences are triggered by emotional reactions that prompt the brain to acknowledge the moment and imprint it for future recollection. Meaningful experiences involve emotional reactions leading to personal insights or reflections that alter one's perception of themselves or the world. Transformative experiences go a step further, encompassing emotional reactions, personal insights, and significant changes in behavior or outlook.
Duerden also highlights the temporal aspect of experiences, noting that the impact of an experience may not be immediately apparent but can evolve over time through reflection
Duerden highlights that experience design finds much of its inspiration from the theater, particularly the idea of staging concepts to elicit a specific feeling or outcome. He draws parallels between theater terminology and experience design, mentioning concepts like staging experiences, audience versus actor participation, and front stage versus backstage contributors.
Duerden’s ongoing research focuses on designing experiences that create intentional flows of ordinary and extraordinary moments. This intentional orchestration aims to optimize attention and engagement, ultimately shaping individuals' perceptions and behaviors.
Brilliant at the Basics
Duerden breaks down the types of extraordinary experiences even further, providing details about what these would look like within the context of a work environment. He introduces the concept of experience maps, also known as journey or touchpoint maps, as a powerful tool for experience design.
These maps break down experiences into individual touchpoints, highlighting significant shifts in attention or experience. In a workday, these touchpoints would include everything from the commute to work to interactions with coworkers to actual tasks. Identifying the reactions one has to each of these touchpoints can understand why they are having the experience that they are during their workday.
In a work environment, Duerden says it is important to understand employees' daily experiences and suggests collaborative efforts to map out current experiences to identify areas for improvement.
But, before trying to create an extraordinary experience, Duerden says that a manager must become adept at the basics of the employee experience, underscoring the need for empathy and attention to detail in experience design.
Duerden also introduces the concept of experiential competencies in the workplace, such as storytelling and reflection, as essential skills for deriving meaning from experiences. He suggests that organizations can promote reflection through intentional nudges and help employees develop competencies to unpack and derive meaning from their experiences effectively.
Meaning is Learning
Duerden explains that meaning is inherently connected to learning, as meaningful experiences involve a connection with one's identity or worldview that either reinforces or challenges existing beliefs or values. He draws from philosophical perspectives, discussing the oscillation between existential anxiety and authenticity in life and how designing experiences can offer opportunities for individuals to confront or resolve these states.
In a work environment, Duerden encourages managers to move beyond mere compliance, where employees perform tasks due to external rewards or threats, and lean towards intrinsic motivation driven by a deeper sense of meaning.
Co-Creation of Work Experiences
Duerden also reflects on the co-creation of experiences, emphasizing the importance of human-centered design and collaborative problem-solving in creating meaningful work experiences. Managers should be focused on increasing employee voice and sense of control within organizations for enhancing well-being.
He suggests that co-creation of the work experience itself is a powerful way to achieve this, as it fosters autonomy, competence, and relatedness among employees. Duerden advocates for a needs-based approach to experience design, suggesting that organizations should engage in ongoing conversations with employees to better understand their unique perspectives and preferences.
For Duerden, there are many parallels between storytelling and experience design, because of the importance of grounding stories in compelling needs for effective communication and problem-solving.
Overall, experience design hinges on the idea of humanity, as it requires the understanding of individual needs and the value of curiosity in driving meaningful experiences.
More Resources on Experience Design
For those looking to learn more about experience design, Duerden suggests his book Designing Experiences, along with other texts like Idea Flow and The Power of Moments.