Dear fellow designers
Design is everywhere. I do not want my fellow designers to think that so-called UI/UX is only for digital products such as websites, web apps, and mobile apps. Don’t limit yourself and be inspired.
Experience is everywhere, Design is everywhere: restaurants, shopping malls, cafes, buses, trains, airports, products like chairs, USB-charging toothbrushes, and so on.
I will explain my point with a few examples.
Let’s see 1st example “Mc Donald”
(1) We can order via an app
(2) We can order via a website
(3) We can go into McDonald and order manually: talk to staff, dine in or takeaway, and he/she will process your order.
(4) Or we can use a self-service Mc Donald's kiosk machine
So here is a lot to take from this big company: we can see how McDonald is offering services via different channels, and touchpoints. We can call/email for any issues and services. There are user experience, customer experience, service design, interaction design, sound design, interior design, visual design, and many disciplines involved. Don’t be intimidated by these above-mentioned terms. We can just focus on the user/consumer point of view only for this article. Users only care about “Food is good”, “Shop is pretty and many people can dine in”, “Staffs are nice”, “It is easy to order online”, and “They have good seasonal promotions and menus”. And they also have cool toys, big collaborations, and a rewards system.
Let’s see 2nd example “Bus” stop button
Left is the Japanese bus stop button and It says “ If you are dropping off, please press this button”. The right is the stop button we can see in most countries. Due to the nature and structure of the Japanese language, such a more caring sentence can fit into the available space. It is also part of their culture.
This example wants me to explore the world and learn more. I would like to enjoy and watch how people of all ages interact with different products.
Design is contextual!
Japanese UX is different from Western UX. Chinese app is so much different from your current using app. Contextual basically means knowing who the users are, consumption habits, culture, environment, devices and it can include personalization, localization and so on.
A few other examples:
We can just learn by watching how government, big or small companies are offering their services via different touchpoints, how they are solving people’s problems and meeting needs.
I hope you enjoy this!
