How we look at an experience to increase its resolution

It is commonly said that when someone gets into an accident, their life’s events slowly flash before their eyes. Thankfully, I have never had such an accident or personal experience like that. However, I do understand that there are these “moments that the brain senses” so to say, such as when time seems to fly by when you are having fun or concentrating, or when you are feeling bored, so you constantly check the clock, but time still seems to creep by quite slowly.

This series of photographs featuring a running horse was taken in 1878 by Eadweard Muybridge with 12 large wooden cameras, which were considered state of the art at that time. There was an ongoing debate at the time about the “gallop,” the unique style of running attributed to horses where they run their fastest. This series of photographs confirmed, for the first time, that “there is indeed a moment where all the horse’s legs are floating above the ground” during a gallop.  This running style is said to be the most efficient manner to move, both physically and biologically, which allows horses to continue running at high speed for extended periods of time.

Whether you are nearsighted or farsighted, the moment you put on new glasses that suit your vision, you instantly feel as if the world has become clear all at once. By listening to music with noise-canceling headphones to block out the background noise amongst your everyday hustle and bustle, each and every musical instrument is able to stand out. This is the so-called “increased resolution” of an experience that is both a physical phenomenon and a personal sensation. It might be a difficult sensation to comprehend for people who have always had good vision, or for those who do not listen to much music. I, for some reason, have great respect for these sorts of experiences that change the way I see things due to certain events, and I look forward to them day after day. We all think about escaping from “incomprehensible” situations daily that make us think things like, something is hard to use even though we do not know what it is, or where we do not understand why something is the way is. But when we obtain new knowledge, and perspectives, or try out new experiences, we will not only become interested in that situation by understanding the reasons, the circumstances, and the unease of it known as friction, but we will also want to observe, investigate, and think of solutions to understand it on a more profound and wider level.

Let’s imagine that you are a proficient designer who excels at putting your thoughts into words. If you are able to accurately capture why something is difficult to use or why it is fun, you will probably think that you will be able to reproduce or avoid these things in other products and services. What do we need in order to increase the resolution of experience and its viewpoint?

Divide and define by time segments

The easiest way to comprehend the experience of something in a higher resolution is to break it down by segments of time. For instance, the experience of “ordering coffee at a coffee shop for takeout” may be considered a simple task at first glance.  We tend to think of the central experience as something simple like, “enjoying coffee.” The following is the general flow of events when considering the behaviors within this experience.

Decide which coffee to order → Pay → Receive → Enjoy coffee

However, each decision and choice surely contain even finer components to them.

Thinking about which coffee to order

　→Are you going with your usual “go to” order?
　→What size should you get?
　→Did you look through the menu and find the item you wanted to order?
　→Should you try one of the new seasonal items?
　→Is there anything out of stock from the menu?
　→Did the barista understand your order correctly?
　→Did they understand that your order is for takeout?
　→Should you add anything extra? Should you not? Should you also buy a snack?
　→You thought about doing takeout, but the coffee shop is pretty empty, so should you spend a little bit of time inside?

Payment

　→Which payment method should you use?
　→Do you have just enough cash on hand to pay?
　→Should you pay with a credit card or electronic payment?Do you have enough on your remaining balance?
　→Should you pay with this coffee shop app?Where can you launch this app on your phone?
　→Do they have a membership card here? Do you have it with you now?

In most cases, we think about and decide on these matters in a split second. There are probably even people who consider and decide on these matters even more meticulously. The quality of this service experience will change greatly depending on whether each of these moments occurs smoothly, is considered troublesome, or is an unfamiliar situation.

Consider the before and after of the experience

We’ll continue to consider the same coffee shop example. When considering the resolution of an experience, you can enhance it even further by taking the moments before and after the central experience into consideration.

The experiences before and after enjoying coffee

　→Deciding which coffee shop to go to
　→The aroma you encounter the moment you enter a coffee shop
　→Taking a look at the ads and menu inside the shop
　→The line you wait in to place your order
　→The wait time until you receive your order
　→Choosing how you will take out your order after receiving it
　(having the barista put it in a bag, carrying it by hand)
　→The experience as you take your coffee to and from where you have decided to drink it 
　→Opening the flap of your cup or inserting a straw to drink your coffee
　→The opening of the cup or the straw touching your lips
　→Enjoying the coffee
　→Throwing away the cup and straw (after properly separating it)

In addition to the memory of the taste of the coffee itself, the experiences before and after enjoying this coffee will be remembered as a single memory.

Consider the dynamics of emotions

Recently, I noticed that the movies and books that deeply move me have some form of “frustration” in them. After looking into it, I found out that this is a standard storytelling technique for things like Hollywood movies. The viewer or reader seems to get a sense of satisfaction from these works when the “frustration” surrounding the anxieties and problems in the beginning is overcome by the wisdom, courage, and growth of the protagonist. 

When you have a fun experience, a good experience, or an inspiring experience, do not just simply enjoy those moments blindly. I believe your experience will be higher resolution when you divide and define each moment and reflect on why you felt the way you did, or when you capture an objective view of your own emotional movements. Furthermore, you should preserve such experiences as your own memories. That is to say, I believe that by remembering in what way and in which directions your emotions moved, you can reproduce, reuse, and utilize those considerations in your own creative or occupational work.

Even with the coffee shop example, your emotional variations in those moments determine the overall value of that situation. This is not just based on the good value or delicious taste of the coffee, but on the memories of the small talk with the baristas, the time you spent after buying your coffee, and the surrounding aromas. Do you think that when those good experiences turn into fond memories, they will help you determine whether you want to go back to that coffee shop or not?

Now then, since you have read this article up to this point, has the “resolution of your experiences” changed a little since before you started reading? I hope your perspective on things, and the way your emotions shift, in response to your future experiences will be sharpened, and the features and details about them become clear. 

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In “A Design In The Life” series, we will provide hints on improving the resolution of the design experience from the perspectives of both designs in daily life and design in digital space. If you have a topic you would like us to cover, please let us know.