The Fuzzy Front End of Experience Design: Eliciting and Communicating Experience Goals

Abstract

When starting an experience design process, designers should first determine the experience to aim for. In the fuzzy front end of the experience design process, there are often several alternative sources for gaining insight and inspiration in defining this experience. In this paper, we describe the results of a survey where we studied experience design practitioners’ views of experience goal setting and approaches to communicate about these goals with stakeholders. The results from 9 different design cases suggest that “empathic understanding of the users’ world” is the most used source of insight and inspiration in defining experience goals. As an end result, we propose an initial model for an Experience Goal Elicitation Process to clarify the fuzzy front end of experience design. Also, instructions to support designers in defining and evaluating experience goals are presented.