Last week, I stopped at Starbucks on my way to work. Instead of the usual rather large coffee, I ordered an “iced shaken coffee,” slightly sweetened. It was good! And I realized that it blended multiple things that I like – I like iced drinks, I like coffee, and I like sweet drinks… And this drink gave them all to me at once. Whew!
Experience Planning, at it’s best, should also be that way. When staging experiences, your goal is a blending of experiences: you want to entertain and educate, you want your esthetics to mix with the escapist experience. Why? The book claims it “makes the experience richer” … but come on. The real reason is this: offering multiple types of experience is bound to catch more people. If someone isn’t keen on education, then the entertainment or the esthetics aspect of the blended experience might hook him, where focusing on just one type of experience might not have grabbed him as easily, on that particular night.
Libraries and library websites can mix these experience realms into a rich website, providing entertainment, education, escapism, and wrap it up in a pleasing esthetic. And if you provide a positive experience, that customer will come back in order to experience more “positive experiences.” Like an addiction to caffeine.
ps – no posts from me for the next week – I’m officially on vacation for a week!