A place. A person. A product. What is that extra factor that enhances an experience beyond any observable design decision, into the realm of “it just feels right”?
Gary and I took a trip to Seattle over Halloween weekend. We’ve always been fans of Seattle – although we haven’t spent a lot of time there. I was born in Seattle, in fact, but my family moved away before I was old enough to remember it. On this trip, we were lucky to be with particularly awesome friends who took us on a Duck Tour of the city. It was hilariously cheesy and made us want to punch our friend in the face, then hug him for knowing exactly how to force us to have a good time. We also went to the EMP, had brunch at some place I don’t remember the name of, and saw Captain Kirk’s actual chair from the actual effing Enterprise.
25% of awesomeness is derived from the mystical powers of the chair. Or so I've heard.
By all accounts, Seattle on that day with those friends had a completely awesome user experience.
As we got back on the plane home to San Francisco, we mused: could we ever see ourselves living there? Was it the city for us?
It’s a beautiful city. It’s got water, mountains, great food, culture, history, jobs, and plenty of rain (our favorite weather). It’s cleaner than San Francisco, more laid back, more car-friendly. There’s more parks and fewer vagrants. The bicyclists seem to obey traffic laws. People don’t smoke as much, crap in the middle of the street, or desperately avoid eye contact. And yet, we both came to the same conclusion: it just wasn’t quite us.
This happens to everyone. Many of us have had the classic client presentation that ends with “I just don’t like it.” Everything can be technically correct – brilliant even, and it still won’t “feel right.” It’s the reason some people are Macs and some are PCs.
And why some of us are Linuxes. I guess.
It’s why I bought the shoes I’m wearing now instead of the ones next to them that were prettier and probably more comfortable. It’s why some relationships work out and others don’t.
We came home to our relentlessly sunny, filthy, non-left-turning city. We shared a smoke. One of us said, “San Francisco felt right the first time I came here.” The other agreed. Neither of us knew exactly why. I doubt we’ll ever know why.
You can design the crap out of a thing, but in the end sometimes a client’s or a consumer’s choice comes down to an ephemeral, intangible thing, that you will never, ever have control over or understand.
Don’t beat yourself up over it. And if you happen have clients or consumers that for whatever undefinable reason think your stuff “just feels right,” do everything in your power to keep them.
4 Comments
My job is all about preempting whether a piece of gameplay will feel right to as many people as possible. I’ve discovered I’m quite good at it, but it requires a lot of faith in oneself. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating though. That’s why focus testing is important I suppose.
nice piece, but needed a bit more content – the was a nice intro, the conclusion wanst bad, but the was no meat in the sandwich – sorry, almost there, but it ‘didnt quite feel right’
This is right on the money Thea. But what’s the secret? All this lead up and no fabulous explanation for it all? You’re leaving us hanging D:
Ha! In a funny way, I felt the same thing in Seattle. It was green and beautiful, had great stuff to do and the people were awesome but…it wasn’t home. Then again, neither is SF to me. I got that total “this is right” feeling when I moved to Chicago years ago. Which begs the question – why the hell aren’t I there?