Give the Moment What the Moment Needs

Chris Bryant, at ProductCamp SoCal last year, said “Give the moment what the moment needs” I jotted this down and it really stuck with me. 

Cherish yesterday, dream of tomorrow and live for today. This has been a mantra of mine for as long as I can remember. It reminds me not to dwell on any regrets of my past but focus on the good times and the lessons learned. And when thinking of the future, don’t worry too much about the bad things that could happen but focus on all the good things that can – prepare for the worst,  hope for the best, and expect the unexpected.

Live for today reminds me that the most important thing we can do is neither dwell on the past nor plan too much for the future because the most important time is now. And focusing on “now” is a real challenge in the fast pace, ever-changing times we live in – especially with our friend, technology, changing our reality at an exponential rate.

This also applies to what we do as experience designers. Experience design is all about designing the experience of the moment and all the moments around a moment. To paraphrases Pine and Gilmore, experience is not about entertainment but engagement. As experience designers, we are no longer in the business of delightment but enchantment.

At the highest level, an experience is not just memorable but inspirational and life-changing.

By the way… to some degree, we are all experience designers… consciously or unconsciously designing our life and the lives of the people around us.