This industry op-ed is by Owen Sanderson, Director of Research & Design Strategy at IA Collaborative.
Too often, designers get stuck in a loop. Even the best design teams can get bogged down in the theoretical, endlessly testing and iterating in hopes of creating the perfect new product, whether a new building, service or digital experience. But to design something truly innovative, sometimes it helps to turn off the computer and get outside.
As a design leader, I often organize “analog research” field trips for my teams. When designing digital products for healthcare, retail, or financial services clients, we often start by taking part in real-world experiences in unrelated industries: hospitality, restaurants, sporting events, etc. These experiences push us to think about what it means to be human so that we can design digital products with humans at the center. And we don’t just go on these field trips as a design team; we often invite our clients along.
Sometimes, designers need only look outside their immediate circles of understanding to supercharge innovation. A solution often already exists; it only needs to be lifted and shifted.
One of my favorite analog field visits took place aboard the Scarlet Lady, Virgin Voyages’ cruiseliner based out of Miami. My team invited a group of New York healthcare executives to show them how technology could transform a real-world experience. Together, we walked in the shoes of a typical vacationer, from check-in to the pool deck. Yes, someone had to do this difficult work, so we begrudgingly agreed! We started gathering information about the customer experience the moment we stepped aboard. We immediately realized that checking into the Scarlet Lady was a distinct part of the experience. Virgin’s check-in process starts the moment you book a ticket and get access to a personalized app. After quickly and efficiently boarding the ship via the app, it accompanies cruisers throughout their vacation, offering personalized activity recommendations, restaurant bookings, and 24/7 support. There’s even a special feature called “Shake For Champagne.” With a quick shake of your phone and the press of a button, staff will deliver a bottle of Moët & Chandon to you almost anywhere on board.
The healthcare executives left with new ideas on how a digital experience could get more patients through the doors of its ambulatory facility in Manhattan. They conceptually knew this before spending an afternoon on the Scarlet Lady, but they viscerally understood it afterward. They used what they learned to design a new ambulatory care building that incorporated humanistic architecture, relaxation spaces, and digital in-room interactions – making the patient care journey much smoother and less stressful.
The list of fractured consumer experiences is long, and analog research could help make them better.
Our day-out on the Scarlet Lady could also inform other types of design projects. For example, the hospital could later decide to design an app that provides a fast-track check-in experience for frequent visitors. Like the Virgin Voyages app, the hospital’s app would prepare patients for their visit days (or even weeks) ahead of arrival via punchy, on-brand text notifications. The app would build trust and confidence by adding small, personalized touches, such as an exam room display that greets visitors by name and explains what’s to come.
Sometimes, designers need only look outside their immediate circles of understanding to supercharge innovation. A solution often already exists; it only needs to be lifted and shifted. This tracks with renowned futurist William Gibson, who quipped, “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” That is why I take my design teams on analog research field trips to observe consumers in all types of environments.
Healthcare in the US is complicated and fractured. But what if it didn’t have to be? By designing patient experiences based on how people behave and what they actually want, going to the doctor could be as tech-forward as boarding a cruise ship, tracking a pizza delivery, or zipping through airport security with Clear.
I am certainly not the first to point out the benefits of observing consumers going about their real lives to improve the healthcare system. Over a decade ago, celebrated surgeon and author Atul Gawande urged his clinical colleagues to visit the Cheesecake Factory to advance their thinking. Gawande envied the Cheesecake Factory’s ability to create an efficient but tailored experience at scale, which, as he stated, turns out to be “one of the biggest complaints that people have about healthcare.”
Of course, other consumer experiences are also excessively complicated or unpleasant: air travel, shopping for insurance, renting cars, applying for jobs, signing up for cell phone service. The list of fractured consumer experiences is long, and analog research could help make them better.
Analog Research on the Cheap
Analog design research doesn’t have to be expensive – or happen on a luxury cruise ship – to be successful. Even smaller, lower-stakes opportunities can harness the power of analog thinking.
When another client, a healthcare device company, struggled to get patients to use its device consistently, my team designed a series of field visits to retailers known for successfully analyzing data to deliver a great customer experience. We took executives from the company and my design team to participate in class at OrangeTheory Fitness. Then, we tried out Sleep Number beds at a retail store in Chicago. At first glance, these outings might not seem relevant to a medical device company. However, both of these businesses understand how to tap into consumer data to motivate action – specifically getting people to keep coming back to work out at OrangeTheory gyms and closing the deal at Sleep Number stores by creating personalized sleep profiles for each customer.
Sweaty and sore – and with a slight case of bedhead – we left these field trips with a vision for a new app for the healthcare device company. We leveraged individual customer data to see how the product could fit into each user’s daily life. Then, we designed an app to remind patients to use their medical devices, closely timed to their daily habits. And, after seeing the personalized, human touch at OrangeTheory and SleepNumber, we ensured help was just a touch away when customers got stuck.
Analog research field trips are fun, inexpensive, and deliver lots of value for digital creative teams that spend most of their time behind computer screens. Why not try one the next time your design team is stuck?
How to Plan an Analog Field Trip
STEP 1 – Dream Big
Assemble a group of peers and pose a few framing questions: What is the core problem we’re trying to solve? What industries have already solved it? Where in your day-to-day have you experienced something wonderful or delightful? Brainstorm potential field visits around the answers, grouping similar ideas along the way.
STEP 2 – Plan
Not all analog experiences require weeks of planning. Some can come together in an afternoon depending on the opportunity. Start by triaging your ideas into three categories:
Level I: Observational
These low-stakes visits don’t require planning or permission.
Make it real: Go to a location, observe interactions, take notes and pictures.
Examples: Visit a brick-and-mortar store of a digital-first retailer and watch shoppers. Sit in an airport lounge. Observe a hospital waiting room.
Level II: Planned
A bit more complex, these experiences call for a bit of planning, and sometimes payment.
Make it real: Arrange for a guided tour, pay an expert from an external industry, or design an equivalent interactive experience.
Examples: Host a paid interview with a leader from an adjacent industry. Sign up for a guided tour of a company’s public operations.
Level III: Comprehensive
These are involved field experiences that require lots of behind-the-scenes coordination.
Make it real: Conduct a behind-the-curtain field visit with an industry insider.
Examples: Go behind the scenes with team members at a 5-star hotel in NYC, observing internal meetings and interactions with guests.
STEP 3 – Immerse
Now comes the fun part: experiencing. After the hard work of dreaming up and planning an analog field trip, go do it. Soak it up. Document your findings through pictures, notes, and sketches. Interview users, both staff and customers, to establish best practices. Don’t worry too much about relevance to your own industry in the moment; you will have time to synthesize learnings later.
STEP 4 – Debrief
Now is the time to make sense of everything you experienced. Distill learnings into a digestible format where others who didn’t attend the field visit can process and get inspired by the analog experience.
Owen Sanderson is the Director of Research & Design Strategy at IA Collaborative, a global innovation consultancy. He’s worked in human-centered design over the last decade at IDEO and Deloitte – and now lives on a small island off the coast of Maine.
Angélica Chíncaro is a Senior Design Strategist at IA Collaborative, and a skilled illustrator and cartoonist. Originally hailing from Peru, Angé is a graduate of MIT’s Integrated Design & Management program and now calls Chicago home.
Illustrations created by Angélica Chíncaro.