Brand Asset Valuator

Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) is a metric applied for the measurement of brand value of an entity. BAV was developed by Young and Rubicam. BAV measures a brand under the two broad categories: Brand Vitality and Brand Stature. Brand Vitality refers to the growth potential of the brand. Brand Vitality is sub-divided into Differentiation and … Read more

Mental Models

Mental models are psychological representations of real, hypothetical, or imaginary situations. They were first postulated in the late 1800’s by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce but it was the Scottish psychologist, Kenneth Craik, in 1943, who describes mental models as the mind constructs “small-scale models” of reality that it uses to anticipate events, to … Read more

Capture the Hearts to Change the Minds and Win Your Customers

Humans are irrational. We think we make rational decisions but science tells us we are incapable of making rational decisions. We cannot make a decision without emotions. It is the emotional part of our brain that informs our rational part to make a decision. And if the feeling is strong enough, we will justify our decisions to … Read more

Artificial Intelligence Experience Design Principles

As was the case with the mobile revolution, and the web before that, machine learning is causing us to rethink, restructure, and reconsider what’s possible in virtually every experience we build. At Google, they call this Human-Centered Machine Learning – staying grounded in human needs while solving for them—in ways that are uniquely possible through … Read more

Customer Engagement and Machine Learning

Today’s consumers are overwhelmed by a constant deluge of advertisements and promotions. They are tired of the noise and fatigued by all the product options. They increasingly desire the personalized attention they get from Amazon, Netflix and other brands they interact with. We are living in an experience economy where mere goods and services are … Read more

Death of the Password with Better Authentication Design

I recently attended Jared Spool’s presentation “Insecure & Unintuitive: How We Need to Fix the UX of Security.” If you haven’t heard Jared speak then I recommend that you do. Jared is both highly entertaining and highly informative. In this presentation, Jared shared how organizations are losing millions of dollars because people don’t remember their … Read more

Experience Design Principles for Machine Learning

I find myself going back to Fabien Girardin’s excellent article, Experience Design in the Machine Learning Era, and mining it for more gold. Fabien shares: “Nowadays, the design of many digital services does not only rely on data manipulation and information design but also on systems that learn from their users. If you would open the … Read more

Fogg’s Seven Strategies to Influence Behavior in Experience Design

According to Dr. BJ Fogg, founder of the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University and the Fogg Behavioral Model, persuasive technology uses seven strategies to influence behavior: Reduction – Simplify the task the user is trying to do. Tunneling – A step-by-step sequence of activities that guides 
the user through the behavior. Tailoring – Provide feedback … Read more

Experience Design, Machine Learning and the Platinum Rule

The Golden Rule or law of reciprocity is the principle of treating others as one would wish to be treated. It is a maxim of altruism seen in many religions and cultures. Simply stated, “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.” As a child, I learned it as “Do onto others as you would want them to do … Read more

Many Ways to Think About Your Personas

Ten years ago, I wrote in “Product Design: Bridging the Gap Between Product Management & Development” for Pragmatic Marketer that: “Personas are a stand-in for a unique group of people who share common goals. They are fictional representatives—archetypes based on the users’ behaviors, attitudes, and goals.” The concepts of a persona have been around for … Read more

Group Personas

In some cases, you may only need to define a limited set of primary and secondary personas. It may be important to make the distinction between your buyer, user and influencer personas. But as you think through your scenarios, if you find groups of personas interacting with the environment or with other personas, you may … Read more

My Favorite Toy and Design Thinking

My favorite toy as a child was a broken single reflex camera. It served as everything from my Star Trek tricorder to a spaceship for my little toy men. My parents would have never guessed it. I wouldn’t have guessed it either. But if my parents had observed my play and asked me a few … Read more