Sometimes 'Meh' is Ideal

Designers are often quick to append the adjective 'delightful' to just about any ideal experience they're working on articulating. But, does every experience actually need to be 'delightful'?

Recently, we were testing a chat-based concept at Doblin with some research participants and one of them remarked at the tone of our prototype:

"These aren't exactly the words I would want to hear if I was in this situation."

They were remarking at a chat bubble simulating what an insurance company might say in the early moments after a customer got in a car accident.

"What sorts of words might you use instead?"

"Well I'm not sure to be honest, but I know I wouldn't use the word 'awesome'. I know the company is trying to help me out, but is it ever 'awesome' that I'm in a car accident?"

So there was a minor text issue, just swap out 'awesome' for something a bit more subdued and call it a day right? Well yes - you could certainly start there - but, perhaps that little 'awesome' slip-up told a bigger story about the intention of our prototype in the first place.

Our design minds had gone right to the core tenants of the old 'delightful experience' toolkit which is loaded to the brim with moments of 'delight', 'peak-end' rules, and yes: 'awesome' tone. But is the average customer sitting on the side of the highway beside their decimated vehicle trying to contact their insurance company actually looking to be delighted?

For a brief moment of research prototype copy-writing, we had lost sight of the ideal experience: one that gets the customer back to where they were before. Back to 'meh' - not delighted.