An unexpected moment in experience design

Posted: January 29th, 2010 | Author: ajrigau | Filed under: ContemporaryCulture, DesignThinking, Personal | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »


.
Yesterday I placed an order off Film Baby, an online independent film distributor. Like in any other seller, I chose what I wanted to purchase, added to a cart, checked out, and within minutes I received an order confirmation email. A few hours later, I was alerted that my movie was already under way. Upon review of the shipment confirmation, I found an unexpected surprise in the text: humor and personality.

Please rest assured that we’ve taken great care in the shipping of your DVD.

We hold true to an ancient DVD shipping tradition passed down for over 5000 years. This very intensive practice is only achieved after years of training, meditation, purity of mind, and deep breathing exercises.

After a rigorous 17 step process of verifying the authenticity of your DVD, we donned silk gloves and placed it into a sacred box made of magic and lined with Unicorn fur, tied the box with a strand of Gypsy hair, and wrapped the whole thing in a snazzy looking faux gold leaf paper, with elm leaf inlay from Costco. Unfortunately, by the time it gets to you, all of that fancy stuff will likely have been picked clean by the greedy postal service employees. Please don’t be surprised to see just a plain cardboard box.

It’s surprising to see how my opinion of a seller can be so suddenly shaped but such a small detail. I now only wonder if this is the only message, or if there is more than one. I guess I will have to order another movie to find out…