Comments on: Your “Experiencing Self” vs. Your “Remembering Self” and the Implications for Software Design !

By: Bernd

Bernd — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:11:59 +0000

@SIG: I liked your post very much, especially the last two sentences;)

And @Zia: It is much more than “just” advertising and the sales process. You can (almost?) say it´s about everything a bank or an investment advisor does for you, and depending on the customer, who is more or less able and/or willing to judge rationally in retrospect, shortterm and longterm, the “emotional stuff”, we might call it the experience, therefore counts immense for many.

But the interesting point about that in the context here might be, that while banks have understood that and therefore customize their advisory services according to different target groups, most enterprise software companies offer “one system for all”, or not?

So it´s not only about improving the experience of software usage per se, but improving the experience in a target group oriented way, or in other words, that software usage should be fun, but that that fun is different for everybody.

There´s a lot to learn (and quite a lot to improve, for most) for enterprise software companies, but that also offers many opportunities;)

Bernd

By: Zia Yusuf

Zia Yusuf — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:41:03 +0000

Sig, thanks for your comment. Nothing better than a blog post that builds on another blog post. I enjoyed reading your much better written discussion about enterprise software, happiness and data. Those 3 words don’t often appear in the same sentence together.

Great post !

Thanks
Zia.

By: Zia Yusuf

Zia Yusuf — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:34:19 +0000

Bernd,

Thank you for your comments. Your comment on the blue suit is an interesting one. Advertising is ofcourse based on many of these approaches and certainly the sales process as you point out.

I once had a pretty bad call with a support person at a tech firm – but all i really remember was that at the end she really apologized and I felt that she was concered with solving the problem – so the memory of it was positive even though it was 2 hours of painful conversation !

Thanks
Zia.

By: sig

sig — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:28:10 +0000

Zia, excellent one – a must see that talk.

Think there is even more parallels to Enterprise Software; in particular the data model one is stuck in. After all what Kahneman talks about is how humans handles data

But alas my comment rambled on and became a post instead, wouldn’t clutter you page here… so here’s the extrapolation… http://bit.ly/dlG53X

Sig

By: bernd

bernd — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:59:22 +0000

i completely agree about the importance of the subjective experience and recollection/memory of the consumption of a service or product for the overall happieness of your customers. and for services/products where the outcome is very difficult to evaluate for a customer, or where the customer is not willing (consciously or subconsciously) to invest in a “rational” evaluation, that experience and its recollection could be all that matters.

bernd

p.s.: actually, my phd thesis were in behavioral finance / marketing and i can not overstate the importance of “the blue suit” for some customers when it comes to investment advice, which has rationally nothing to do with the investment outcome. but its part of their experience and that is how they judge the overall quality of the service.