Too often we create brands, experiences, and content that sacrifice humanity on the altar of conversion optimization. In this session, we’ll explore how to make our products feel less like a business transaction and more like a conversation through human-oriented brand, marketing, and experience design. Don’t worry, this won’t be a stern sermon about user personas or focus groups – Meagan knows that conference attendees are people too. Instead she’ll share some of the practical hows and whys of designing for people, not customers. “Perhaps all interaction is about wanting and getting.” –David Mitchell Drawing on her experience as Creative Director at SproutVideo, Meagan will share techniques that you can bring to your work to honor the humanity of users through happiness-driven design and content.

1. Good morning,
WebVisions. Let’s do
this thing!
Meagan Fisher
@owltastic on twitter

2. Previous Job Titles
• Drive thru attendant
• Cashier at a gift shop
• Pizza waitress
• Hotel receptionist

3. “We want to be a
beloved business
whose customers are
loyal advocates.”
The Service Industry

4. How?
Show customers
they are welcome,
supported, & valued.

6. Trying to
create that
“Potato Patch”
feeling

7. But… service
is so annoying.

8. Software
• Consistent
• Streamlined
• Efficient

9. Software
• Consistent
• Streamlined
• Efficient
• Mundane
• Forgettable
• Joyless

10. “We want to be a
beloved business
whose customers are
loyal advocates.”
Online Businesses

11. How?
Show customers
they are welcome,
supported, & valued.

12. Become a beloved business
• Have a (likeable) personality
• Get users to the “kick-ass” zone
• Create a minimum delightful product

13. Have a likeable
personality.

14. Zingerman’s!

15. Even the President loves it.

16. “The initial welcome is crucial... it’s
imperative that our greeting be energized,
fun and out of the ordinary. A poor
greeting—or even worse, no greeting—to
guests sends a negative, unwelcoming
signal. Passive, script-sounding, canned
phrases are only a slight improvement.”
Zingerman’s Customer Service Guide

17. Make the right first impression
1. Fun, out of the ordinary
2. Flat, empty, by-the-book
3. Negative, unwelcoming

18. People form a connection with anything
twitter.com/facespics

19. “Everything has a personality: everything
sends an emotional signal. Even where this
was not the intention of the designer, the
people who view the website infer
personalities and experience emotions…
Horrible personalities instill horrid emotional
states in their users, usually unwittingly.”
Donald A. Norman, Emotional Design: Why
We Love or Hate Everyday Things

20. Accidentally
Horrible vs.
Beloved
Personalities

23. Visual Style =
First Impression

24. “The major
dimensions of
personality are
dominance and
friendliness… positive
emotions are
associated with a
friendly demeanor…
while negative
emotions are associate
with unfriendliness.”

25. Dominant vs. Friendly
• Angular vs. curved
• Heavy vs. light
• High contrast vs. low
• Caps vs. lowercase
• Bold vs. regular
• Dense vs. whitespace

27. Yikes.

30. Dominant vs. Friendly
• Angular vs. curved
• Heavy vs. light
• High contrast vs. low
• Caps vs. lowercase
• Bold vs. regular
• Dense vs. whitespace

32. Dominant vs. Friendly
• Angular vs. curved
• Heavy vs. light
• High contrast vs. low
• Caps vs. lowercase
• Bold vs. regular
• Dense vs. whitespace

34. What kind of personality does
my visual style communicate?
Is it memorable and likeable?
Have a likeable personality

35. Create a design persona.

36. “Freddie Von Chimpenheimer IV is the face of
MailChimp and the embodiment of the brand
personality. Freddie’s stout frame communicates
the power of the application, and his on-the-go
posture lets people know this brand means
business. Freddie always has a kind smile that
welcomes users and makes them feel at home.”
Aarron Walter. “Designing for Emotion.”

40. dribbble.com/gregoryhartman

42. behance.net/gallery/6322595/ZocDoccom

43. …but a mascot
doesn’t make sense
for my company.

44. What would our design persona look like?

45. What does our
content say about
who we are?

46. “How can we leverage
our content to
identify, target, and
engage top innovative
pinfluencers?”

47. @unsuckit & unsuck-it.com

48. cipsum.com

49. sansbullshitsans.com

50. “Publishing content that is self-absorbed in
substance or style alienates readers. If you’re the
only one offering a desirable product or service,
you might not see the effects of narcissistic
content right away, but someone will eventually
come along and eat your lunch by offering the
exact same thing in a user-centered way.”
Erin Kissane. “The Elements of Content Strategy.”

52. This
could be
any B2B
service!
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55. ✓ Grow Your Company with
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customers.
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management.
✓ Manage global sales and
services organizations.

56. “Only NetSuite’s customer service
software gives everyone that
interfaces with the customer access
to complete, key customer data in
real time empowering them to
better support your customers
while driving upsell and cross-sell.”

57. what the hell.

60. Believe in
Something

66. How can your design and content
convey your company’s unique
personality?
How can you show the people
using your service they are
welcomed, supported, valued?

67. Getting users to the
kick-ass zone

68. “How long do your users spend in the ‘I
suck’ (or ‘this product sucks’) zone? Once
they’ve crossed the suck threshold, how long
does it take before they start to feel like they
kick ass? Both of those thresholds are key
milestones on a user’s path to passion, and it’s
often the case that he-who-gets-his-users-
there-first wins.”
Kathy Sierra, Creating Passionate Users

69. I Love Vine Wine

72. Chardonnay
South Africa
“A spicy apple (pie?)
scented wine. Dry with
almost a creamy
texture. The winemaker
blasts classical music to
his vines all day.
Wonder if it helps…”

76. We can make this shorter!
I suck I rule

77. Adding
personality to
the product

79. Creating “Minimum Delightful
Products”
• Remind users of the humanity
behind the interface.
• Include microcopy that’s
informative and enjoyable.

80. “We want people to think of Dropbox as a place to
collaborate, and a big part of that is elevating the people you
connect with. One way we're doing that is thinking about
places we can surface user's faces on the web.”
Daniel Eden, dribbble.com/shots/1972358-Faceholder

84. littlebigdetails.com/

85. “Words don’t always need to be
pressed into service for functional
needs; sometimes they can be
used simply to satisfy our
emotional needs. We’re emotional
creatures… bringing a smile to
your users’ faces can make a world
of difference.”
Christopher Murphy & Nicklas
Persson. “A Pocket Guide to the
Craft of Words, Part 2 - Microcopy.”
Using Microcopy to create
“Minimum Delightful Products”

89. dribbble.com/mariusz

91. dribbble.com/
LumenBigott

92. Creating “Minimum Delightful Products”
• How can we remind users of the
humanity behind the interface? What
elements in our product could have a
human or emotional component to them?
• How can we use our content and imagery
to lighten otherwise frustrating moments
in our product?

93. Treat customers like
they are welcome,
supported, and valued.

94. Become a beloved business
• Have a (likeable) personality
• Get users to the “kick-ass” zone
• Create a minimum delightful product

95. Thanks!
Meagan Fisher
@owltastic on twitter
owltastic.com