DEEP IMPACT OR ARMAGEDDON?

Moving from Idea to Design

Hi, I’m Carolyn (Chandler)…@chanan

Author, & UX Design Instructor for:

Almost every quarter there are common problems people want to address.

• How can we use new technologies to engage students in the classroom?

• How can we help people find well-fitting places to live?

• How can we make the everyday commute less painful?

Sometimes the general product idea is very similar as well.

IDEA:Make the everyday commute less painful by integrating data from multiple sources (schedule, location, weather, traffic) to proactively alert users of travel issues, recommended schedules, or alternatives.

Which leads to the question…

When the idea is essentially the same, what differentiates one experience from another?

Differences may come out in a variety of ways, but differences in experience design can be be crucial…

EXPERIENCE DESIGN considers…

Who the primary users areWhy they care about your product NOWHow it fits into their livesHow they feel when using it…which drives decisions about platforms, features, and density of the interface

To illustrate the difference this makes…

Let’s talk about disaster movies.Which are kind of like start-ups.

When talking about movies that execute against the same idea, not much beats Deep Impact and Armageddon.

When a “planet-killer” sized comet is discovered to be on an imminent collision course with Earth, an international space effort - led by the United States - sets out to deflect the object by setting off nuclear weapons deep inside its core so that it will miss Earth and, therefore, save humanity.

Bryce Zabel. movie smackdown

SIMILAR IDEA

SIMILAR RELEASE DATE

MAY 1998 JULY 1998

SIMILAR “ZEITGEIST”What inspired the killer comet idea?

Hale-Bop

Spotted in 1995 by amateur astronomers

Passed “near” Earth in 1997 – 212, 236, 887 miles away

SIMILARLY PANNED BY CRITICS

Deep Impact

Armageddon

BUT NOT SIMILAR BY AUDIENCES

Deep Impact

Armageddon

DIFFERENT BOX OFFICE RESULTS

$75,000,000

$41,152,375

$220,623,306

$67,422,722

$140,000,000

$36,089,972

$553,709,788

$104,806,521

Budget (est):

USA OpeningWeekend:

Gross worldwide:

Rentals:

Armageddon went on to beat Saving Private Ryan as the highest grossing film of 1998.

How are Deep Impact and Armageddon different when it comes to the experience?

WHY ARE BIG DISASTER MOVIES POPULAR?• Intensity of “it could happen”• Thrilling action with killer special effects• Familiar actors having intense emotions

and relationships

mindlesslythrilling

deeply thought-

provoking

What criteria should we use when comparing the experience of the two movies?

Based on research I picked:

EmotionActionHumorCharacterPlot

EMOTION SCALE

minor fight,

touching moment

1 2 3 4 5

sobbing (joy or

sadness)

slight tension

CHARACTER SCALE

intro to A-lister, great

B-lister moment

1 2 3 4 5

super-quotable

moment, esp. for A-list character

mediocre intro or minor

character

ACTION SCALE

1 2 3 4 5

something minor blows up

cat jumps out at actor

something major blows up, A-

lister gets killed (or do they?)

Then I watched both movies and rated them, minute by minute.

EVERY MINUTE…

DEEP IMPACT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 210

1

2

3

4

5

EmotionActionHumorCharacterPlot

DEEP IMPACT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 210

1

2

3

4

5

EmotionActionHumorCharacterPlot

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 210

1

2

3

4

5

EmotionActionHumorCharacterPlot

ARMAGEDDON

DEEP IMPACT

ARMAGEDDON

DEEP IM-

PACT

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

EmotionActionHumorCharacterPlot

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 1450

1

2

3

4

5

6

EmotionActionHumorCharacterPlot

Critics of Armageddon dinged, among other things, the frenetic pace.

But differences between critics and the primary audiences seem to show here.

CRITIC AND INVESTOR, DIVIDED FROM AUDIENCE

“Deep Impact attempts a realistic response to a cosmic threat. “Armageddon is just a warm-up exercise in loud stupidity from the patron saint of the loud and stupid, Michael Bay, who would take this practice run and get much, much better at being even louder and more stupid…”

THOSE WHO PREFER DEEP IMPACT – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

“Have you ever seen Michael Bay? It's the face of abject stupid mediocrity and the blank-eyed stare of the never-grown-up slow adolescent.”

“The difference? Maybe that [Armageddon] wasn't, you know, boring as hell?”– user review

THOSE WHO PREFER ARMAGEDDON- WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

WHY ARE BIG DISASTER MOVIES POPULAR?

mindlessly

thrilling

deeply thought-

provoking

FANTASY TRAGEDY

DOCUDRAMA

FANTAGEDY

ARMAGEDDON DEEP IMPACT

Big-budget blockbusters generally target the theater-going crowd.

AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS

• Adults18-29 are 71%* more likely than all U.S. adults to have seen a movie at a theater on opening weekend in the past 12 months.

• Action movies also play well overseas.

*Scarborough USA + Release 2 2011

For a lot of heavily marketed Hollywood blockbusters, the pitch to investors doesn’t even include a script.

It includes an IDEA and some kind of UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

For a lot of heavily marketed Hollywood blockbusters, the pitch to investors doesn’t even include a script.

It includes an IDEA and some kind of unfair advantage.• A box-office A-list actor• A director with a proven track record• Access to material no one else has

Mimi Leder TV, The Peacemaker, TV

…

Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall

Tea Leoni, Elijah Wood, Leelee Sobieski

Michael Bay music videos, The Rock Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck

Liv Tyler

Owen Wilson, Billy Bob Thornton, Steve Buscemi

Director:

Big Box Office:

Draws:

Semi-Known:

HOW THEY COMPARE

AND ROMANCE?

Critics aren’t your target audience for DESIGN.

Neither are your investors or stakeholders. They depend on the person with the design vision to be the director.

EmotionActionHumorCharacterPlot

These are a good

starting point fo

r

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

EmotionActionHumorCharacterPlot

You FEEL Bay has design principles at work

Character introductions must include humor or action, preferably both.

Maintain a constant high through plot twists (surprise), relationship drama (happiness/sadness/anger), or explosions (fear)

WHAT IS YOUR SCALE?

Emotion?Action?Trust?Pleasure?Meaning?

A CHALLENGEIf you’re working on a project and you don’t feel you have a scale, or design principles – hold a brainstorm with your team and start finding them!

DESIGN PRINCIPLES ARE…Guiding statements that intentionally constrain design decisions in a way that help you meet your team’s vision.

An activity that helps you communicate the power of constraints, like design principles

You’re an event planning company who specializes in designing interesting, custom events for sales professionals who want to spend quality time with their customers.

Your client is an athletic footwear company. They want an active event to engage buyers from retail stores.

Spend 5 minutes designing an event with only the info above.

Activity

Context

# of Attendees

MusicWaterMuseum*

Competing*Finding hidden thingsMaking something

10 customers50 customers200 customers*

Randomly Pick 1 of each and design for 5 more minutes

The results were much more interesting and real. Participants were also much more excited about them. Then we told them about the power of constraints.

TrustYour AccountantYour MomSpock

Use your scale to explore constraints

A customer calls about a billing issue. How would Spock respond?

Designing with design principles makes it more likely…You’ll have deeper impact than Deep Impact.

Adventures in Experience Design: Activities for Beginners (December release)

A Project Guide to UX Design (available on Amazon)

Carolyn Chandler@chanancarolyn@admci.orgADMCi: admci.orgStarter League: starterleague.com

THE END…?