Making Memories and Place with Julia Beabout

It might seem like an obvious statement, but different kinds of environments require different kinds of designs. Thinking about my kids for instance. As they got older, their tastes and interests changed, which as a result changed their room decor. One of my daughters is always seeking to ‘level up’ her room schwag, looking for design ideas to reflect who she is as a person, and who she aspires to be. Perhaps we can all identify with this part of adolescence. The posters, the black lights, the hanging beads, the lava lamps. Maybe even an Iron Butterfly silk wall hanging. 

So regardless of what kind of environment we are talking about, we need to think about what would be the best design for that environment. A classroom is different from a doctor’s office. A law office is different from a lingerie store. A movie theater is different from a mortuary. 

How then might we design interior environments to support the experiences we are trying to create and encourage?

Today in the Experience by Design Studio, we welcome Carolyn Boldt. Carolyn has over 40 years of experience designing interiors for commercial industries, and is the Co-Founder of CrossFields, an interior design and architecture firm. 

One area in particular she works in is chiropractic offices. We talk about how she approaches her work in general, and how designing chiropractic offices provides unique challenges and opportunities. She describes how she tries to help her clients attract their ideal customers through the spaces she creates. 

We also talk about her online course on design and how to create the proper environments for the best experiences. There are three to six thousand decisions that have to be made in order to open an office, and her course helps to manage that process. 

It is a great conversation about how she went from decorating Barbie Playhouses to doctor’s offices, how the space stations led to a career designing interiors, and how if you are not designing intentionally, you are doing it wrong. 

What is business all about? Is it about profit? Or people? Or both? Another question we can ask is why is there the belief that if you are profitable, then you cannot be people focused, or even people concerned. Such a philosophy is going to seep into every aspect of workplace culture, creating a situation in which people are not only disconnected from the organization, but from each other. One of the things that early sociologists explored is the way that people become disconnected from one another in modern industrial society. The bonds that used to tie us together are now severed. We enter into relationships with other from a purely transactional point of view. We work because we are paid, not because we believe in what we are doing, or are supporting one another. 

And as was said in the movie Office Space, “That will make you work just hard enough not to get fired.”

So, the question becomes how do we create this new workplace culture, or employee experience, that will facilitate these connections. Not only does this make us feel better, but also work better. Rather than calling managers, maybe we need to rethink of the role as facilitator, helping people to achieve better versus threatening them to do better. Or, in summary, make work more human. 

Today in the Experience by Design Studio, we’re excited to welcome Tony Martignetti. Tony is a leadership coach and consultant who specializes in helping leaders and teams navigate change. And leadership is all about navigating the interface between self and other. We dive into strategies around being authentic at work, the need for feeling safe to express oneself, and overcoming the challenge to prioritize collective leadership over individualism. 

It’s chock full of good advice for creating sustainable, intentional leadership focused on lasting impact. And with that, let’s get to it.

Before, our work lives were defined by our relationship with the brands we worked for. Growing up in Detroit, a person might be a “Ford person” or a “GM person”.  The same can be said for those who worked for Mary Kay or Tupperware. Through our association with the brand, we gained a sense of self that was enriched by that association. 

Today, people are feeling the pressure to become their own brands. We seek not to just influence those people with whom we come into direct contact, but everyone everywhere all at once. Being an influencer is exhausting. Or at least it seems to be when looking at those who are fully engaged in it. Constantly putting content on various social media channels. Responding and replying to other people’s posts. Creating and curating a digital experience for them that communicates who you are, or better put how you want to be seen. One of the ironies in all of this is the struggle of appearing authentic when we are portraying ourselves. 

Today in the Experience by Design Studio, we’re excited to welcome Vladimer Botsvadze. Vladimir is a digital marketing and social media content machine. A global digital marketing expert, he has worked with top brands and executives worldwide, guiding them to drive growth and position their brands as market leaders. As a mentor to startups and a judge at the Webby Awards, Vladimer brings a wealth of knowledge on creating business opportunities, running businesses, and leveraging social media channels to build your brand.  

He’s also passionate about communication, and believes it to be the backbone of success. As we discuss in the episode, he put in years of 16 hour days dedicated to building his craft and a strong online presence across social media platforms. With this in mind, we dig in on what are the characteristics of good content, how do we create community around content. Vladimir also walks us through his marketing strategies and mindset for creating with curiosity and persistence in ways that capture attention and make lasting impact.

It is not like we need a building in which to teach. Thinking back to Socrates, he was conducting his teaching in an open-air market, influencing younger generations to the point where he was forced to drink hemlock. At the same, a good educational structure can help. I have taught in a variety of environments, and have seen educational technology go from transparencies to PowerPoints and now Open AI. I have taught in amphitheater set ups, rooms with rolling desks, long tables, and small conference rooms. I’ve had chalkboards and white boards and smart boards. I’ve been in old building and new buildings and everything in between. The question always remains how best to create a structure in which teachers and students can come together to create learning experiences. 

There is a saying in design that all design projects are political, involving different stakeholders, points of view, and institutional power. Designing educational environments is no different. Working for about a quarter century in higher ed has taught me that when going into an educational design project, we need to be prepared to blend the old and the new, the young and the established, the administration and faculty, corporate and academic, and many other groups. This makes the process of creating a design very arduous before the cornerstone is laid.

Today in the Experience by Design Studio, we’re excited to welcome Mary Ruppenthal. Mary is a registered architect, an ESG advocate and associate principal at HED, one of the oldest and largest architecture and engineering firms in the country. She oversees PreK-12 and community education projects at HED and is a specialist in flexible and adaptive learning environments and incorporating wellness into educational and space design.

In today’s conversation we set a baseline around the rise of mental health and wellness in not just educational spaces, but spaces for everyday life. Think schools not just as educational centers, but as community centers that can serve families as well as students. We also explore designing with and for nature, such as biophilic design, and also like nature, we explore dynamism in design such as spaces that can change and adapt to different size groups and informational changes on screens.

While technology may make it seem like we are constantly connected, the truth is that in many ways we have never been more disconnected from one another. The same devices that can bring the world to our fingertips can at the same time drive a barrier in between real moments of authentic connection. In many ways, this divorces us from ourselves regarding our true human nature. As human beings, we not only crave connection but also need connection. While Maslow put love and belonging in the middle of his pyramid, we could easily argue it should be at the top. Or at least, without feelings of belonging and connection, can we ever truly be our selves. 

For experience designers, we should be wondering how we can create experiences that provide for connection and belonging. As social scientists, none of this is new for we have long recognized the fundamental need for connection. However, in a society like the US that seems to prioritize the individual, we can forget that we can’t have an individual without a social. The trick then is how might we turn spaces into conduits for connection and belonging. Or, in order words, how do we reverse the ongoing atomization of our lives.

Today in the Experience by Design Studio, we have the honor of delving into the world of event planning and harnessing serendipity with our special guest, David Adler, CEO of Bizbash.

Throughout our conversation, we'll be diving into the details of soft power, collaboration, and emotional contagion. We'll explore how David's insights can help us create new opportunities and possibilities that might not otherwise exist. 

David is a pioneer in understanding the power of collaboration artists and how they can generate unique ideas and solutions while mobilizing diverse networks towards common goals. We'll also explore his thoughts on fostering collaboration and innovation, intergenerational interaction, and the impact of technology on our social connections. Oh and how to have a good Jeffersonian dinner party.

It’s a great convo we can’t wait to share, so sit back, relax, put your tray tables in an upright position and get ready to explore the art of experience by design with our guest David Adler.

Much of our lives, especially in organizations, is governed by process. In fact, organizations can be evaluated based on how mature their processes are. Technological systems are set up to implement processes that employees are supposed to follow. At the same time, process can be a killer of innovation. When we are wedded to processes, we can lose sight of the practices that people can employ to make customer experiences better. Thus we end up in a tension between process and practice, the established ways of doing things and the emergent skills of how things get done. 

And there are a lot of choices in how we get things done. Technological advances like generative AI, chat bots, and other shiny objects can create the perception that all we need to do to improve our processes and outcomes is just adopt a new technology. In all of these considerations can be lost a key element to customer success: people. It is in the ideas of people and the voices of people that we can find solutions.

Or as Simon Sinek has said, if you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business.

Today on Experience by Design to help us explore the intersection of process, practice, and people is Rick Denton. Rick is the founder and lead for EX4CX, or Execution for Customer Experience. Rick is a long-time customer experience advisor, as well as a keynote speaker and podcaster for the CX Passport Podcast - a weekly talk with guests about customer experience and travel. As a consultant, he has been able to work with such companies as Hilton, Bose, CapitalOne, and Dell.

How can we use technology for the betterment of our customers? E.g., we talk about rethinking displaying information, like if I have to change a flight, the app or website clearly shows what I already paid, and what potential new costs will be before having to go through the checkout process. This way I can make better decisions. The point is to understand what people need and design for that. Not for what your board or even you alone think is best.

When I was growing up, I used to hear a lot of commercials for a group called The Starving Artists Group. The ad would talk about how you could go to a local mall and get paintings and other art work really cheap, because after all the artists were starving and apparently desperate to find food. It also was not a good ad for going into the arts. Afterall, who wants to starve?

But we also cannot deny the importance of the arts, and the essential element of the arts in driving our creativity and even human nature. We can say that the further we get away from our artistic nature, the further we get from our human nature. The trick is then, when doing corporate work, how do we stay in our artistic and creative nature? And how can we remain being artists without starving?

To help us break down the creativity, art and making a living conundrum, we’re excited to welcome to the Experience by Design studios Maximillian Piras, a senior product designer at Headliner. Headliner is a platform that helps podcasters repurpose their content to expand their audience reach and creative output.

Headliner is not just an app to help you turn longer form content into shorter form clips. Rather, their goal is to help you “repurpose your purpose,” by creatively redefining content for different audiences and outlets. In our social media laden world, creators have the challenge of fitting one form of content into many forms of medium. By using the suite of Headliner tools, creators can be freed from the mundane aspects of this process, allowing them to focus on their artistic and creative sides. 

We’ll dive into the innovator's dilemma, which is about balancing sustaining vs disruptive innovation, the challenges and opportunities of AI for creativity, and the power of art to help us reframe problems. There’s a ton of great ideas across this conversation and we can’t wait to share it.  

We’ve all heard the saying that change is hard, but it is more than that. Change is not only hard, but can be threatening, as well as inevitable. Change is something that takes place naturally, and is impossible to stop. When things change around us and we fail to change with it, then what was once familiar can now feel foreign. While before we might have felt like we belonged, now we can feel out of place. These outcomes can be especially true when change is rapid and sudden, as well as something that we are not wanting to have happen. We can see this in the way that societies change, and how parts of society can resist and rebel against those changes. But, regardless of whether we want change to occur or not, change will happen.

The workplace has been undergoing tremendous change of late. From the COVID and work from home, to global teams, to technological transformation, mergers and acquisitions, and shareholders versus stakeholders, much has been discussed and done in terms of how work and organizations should change. 

If change is threatening and scary, then how do we make it less threatening? And how do we get structures to change that have for a long time resisted change? 

To discuss these questions and more, we welcome Paul ter Wal, who started the consulting company Team ANDARE to the Experience by Design studios. We discuss how to keep the human at the center of the organization such as viewing orgs as groups of human beings vs people as a human resources problem. We also explore shifts in mindsets where companies can optimize working environments for employees.

A big part of Paul’s work is the use of Positive Psychology toward creating a sense of place and purpose in organizations. His approach involves facilitating people to do work, rather than managing them. Rather than thinking of change as a goal, we should think about developing instead. Taking it slow and one step at a time can lead the way turning in an entirely new direction. Developing sounds like a more natural and welcomed process rather than an abrupt one. By helping to support the people in organizations, the organizations themselves will benefit in the long run. 

Finally, we talked about Gen X as the forgotten generation.

Gary was part of the first generation to have home video games, and can still remember his Odyssey game console while everyone else was getting an Atari. You might say that left a mark. But he also remembers the fun that you could have just by sitting in front of the television, or computer, and playing some video games. As the games evolved, so did the fun. New consoles and new games meant better graphics, enhanced video, and bigger challenges. Even today he can say with pride that I did knock out Mike Tyson in that video game.

We might say that the “game” has definitely changed in video game design. Video games today can look like movies, and play like them too. Rich narratives, development characters, seemingly live action, complicated controllers that let you feel like you are part of the game itself. All of it has come together to make the gaming industry a multi-billion dollar enterprise with expanded job opportunities, AAA design studios, and an ever-increasing universe of games to play.

This raises the question of how are these games designed to create great experiences? Additionally, what are the potential challenges and issues with the ways in which games have been designed from perspectives that are not diverse.

To discuss these questions and more, we welcome Dr. Jess Tompkins to the Experience by Design studios. We were able to see Jess speak at the 2023 SXSW conference on a panel on diversity in game design. Jess is the UX Research Director at Skeleton Key, a game design studio. She also has a PhD in Media Psychology, with a dissertation that explored the social psychological effects of video games and avatars on self-identified women. At Skeleton Key, she pursues a human-centric approach to game design, using player data and insights to create the best games possible.

We explore how video game design is evolving to be more inclusive. We also discuss how video games can be the foundation for forming online communities. She emphasizes the importance of user-centered and participatory design frameworks to be more responsive to player needs and wants, as well as to think about the larger impacts that games can have on people’s psyches. Finally, we discuss how there is an emerging and growing demand for video games to tell more diverse stories that represent cultures of the world, especially as video games continue to grow globally.

Good health is one of the things that we value as most important in our lives. When other tragedies strike, people often will remark that at least they have their health. And even when all other things are going well, being in poor health (even momentarily with a minor illness) can completely through us out of balance. 

But despite the importance of  our health, our relation to and understanding of our health can be pretty limited. Healthcare literacy and patient literacy continues to be a challenge for most people. And there can be a lot to understand and keep up with giving that healthcare information continues to change as new things emerge (like pandemics), new discoveries are made, and new products are marketed.

So the challenge becomes how do we communicate healthcare information to help providers, patients, and caregivers in their efforts to achieve better healthcare outcomes.

Today’s guest on Experience by Design to help us address these questions is Kristie Kuhl, Global Managing Director of Health and Wellness at the Zeno Group. Kristie began her career as an attorney, but before that majored in art history. We discuss how her beginnings as an art history major helped her understand the complexities and nuances of meaning. She channels this understanding to think about how people receive messages and information, recognizing the importance of meeting them where they are. Her legal background ironically helped understand the need to have clear representation of meaning and the need to communicate in ways that people understand. And her concern for people and desire for positive health outcomes has helped to bring both of her worlds together at the Zeno Group.

We talk about her journey into the world of healthcare communication and what she has learned in the process. We explore how diagnosis is an emotional moment, and that healthcare products are often ones that no one really wants to buy.  We talk about the need to stylize communication for different communities, cultures, and generations. Finally we talk about the importance of communication training for people who have knowledge, and how to connect content to an audience’s humanity.