The Concept of Failing Fast in Experiential Design

Failing Fast in Experiential Design

You’ve probably experienced experiential design in one form or another. Whether you’re at a retail store, museum, office space, or airport, these spaces pull on your multiple senses through engaging visuals, soothing music and interactive elements to communicate an organization’s message. Oftentimes, these experiences tell a story or journey, taking attendees on a trip and leaving them with a positive impression.

But creating an immersive experience requires more than just the perfect Instagram photo op, or a well-branded wayfinding sign. To truly connect with the audience, a brand needs to understand their goals, and then create a story that leads them on a journey toward those goals. This is the concept behind experiential design — and a major element of the practice is the fail fast concept.

In the world of Experiential Design, this philosophy encourages experimenting with ideas at a rapid pace to determine their value. It’s a key principle of the lean startup methodology and Agile software development, but it can be applied to almost any endeavor. For example, if your team is working on an educational project for students, anchoring the experience on learning outcomes and then continually referencing those objectives throughout the process will help you make decisions that support and advance your goal. This will lead to a more successful outcome.

The Concept of Failing Fast in Experiential Design

Failing fast also helps you avoid the sunk cost effect, where you continue to invest in something even when it doesn’t work because you invested time and resources into the idea. To avoid this, you should test your ideas before making a big investment. This can be done through low-fidelity prototypes, like sketches, storyboards, models, and roleplays, or medium-fidelity prototypes with a little more detail added. These prototypes should be used to determine if an initiative is worth pursuing, or if it’s time to stop and try something else.

Ultimately, a fail fast culture is all about taking the fear out of failing by teaching teams that each experiment is a learning opportunity. It’s a valuable lesson in any industry, but especially so in the world of experiential design. So next time you’re thinking about embarking on an immersive project, think twice before committing your entire budget to something that might not deliver on its objectives. Instead, break large initiatives down into smaller increments that can be completed quickly. This will allow you to try and learn at a much faster rate and save your company money in the long run.