I just got back from the Customer Alpha event that was part of the broader FTT Embedded Finance, Payments, and Future Identity event, put on by VC Innovations. It was the first time I’ve spoken publicly about my concept of THE UN-WOW, focusing our efforts more on everyday mundane experiences rather than transformative metamorphic experiences. There is more to it than that, so stay tuned for updates as I work on a book on THE UN-WOW.

While in London, I was able to go to the Tate Modern Art Museum. This was quite the shift after visiting museums in Florence with all of the Renaissance representational art. One of the interesting differences between the two is that the art in Florence often was made for patrons who were commissioning artwork, which ultimately was made to please those patrons. The art in the Tate often was made by artists who were trying to please themselves using art as a statement. As a result, the artists’ statements became a key piece of looking at and understanding what the art was meant to represent and the response it was hoping to create.

Regardless of whether sponsored representational or abstract and surreal, through art one can give external voice to one’s internal dialogue to create a social experience.

On today’s episode of Experience by Design podcast, I welcome Ali Fawkes, the Head of Social Innovation at the social design firm Humanly. “Humanly is an award-winning design studio specializing in human-centered design for social impact.” On their website, they continue to describe themselves as, “specialising in inclusive, creative and participatory research and design with seldom-heard and underrepresented groups.”

I came to learn about Ali and Humanly through a paper she co-authored on “Co-designing the Future of Respiratory Healthcare” in the journal CoDesign - the International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts, detailing their work and approach.

Ali is a self-described “art kid,” who found an outlet for her own voice. She went on to get a degree in Fine Art from the University of Kent, as well as additional certifications and degrees in Secondary Art and Special and Inclusive Education from the University of Cambridge. Ali describes co-design efforts she did with students during her work as a secondary school art teacher and educator in schools whose students had special needs.

She describes her journey from that rewarding work to working with Humanly. We discuss how being an outsider with little knowledge about a setting or industry can be a real gift to having open eyes and ears to learn from people who are often not listened to. Ali discusses the ethical considerations and methodologies involved in working with underrepresented groups, emphasizing the importance of truthful representation and co-design approaches. We also discuss the importance of her artistic background as a source of challenging norms and disruption, leading to innovative approaches.

And if doing social design and impact isn’t enough heavy lifting, Ali also participates in strongperson competitions, lifting very heavy things and sometimes having to carry them across distances. Which is not unlike trying to lift complex problems and carry solutions forward.

I always love good art talk on Experience by Design, and especially when it is connected to social impact.

Ali Fawkes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alifawkes/

Humanly: https://www.designhumanly.com/

“Co-designing the Future of Respiratory Healthcare”: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15710882.2025.2603298

I’m off again. This weekend I’ll be heading to London for the Customer Alpha event, where I’ll be delivering the keynote for the conference. “Customer Alpha is a leading customer experience event bringing together a cross-industry community of professionals who never stop striving to better understand and deliver for customers.” How cool is that! I’m excited to be there, and talking about my concept of The UN-WOW. The basic idea is that rather than just focusing on those WOW moments, we need to focus on how to deliver value and connection in those basic day-to-day interactions where people don’t want to be WOW’ed.

A lot of focus on the WOW is around the idea that things only qualify as experiences when they hit that WOW level. So if you are an experience designer, odds are you are going to shoot for that WOW. But that can be a big hill to climb, and it misses the other types of opportunities that exist which don’t involve those dramatically staged moments. Also, staged can feel inauthentic and not organic. To be staged can also feel performative. Performance can also involve a script. The words being spoken are yours, but ones written for you by someone else.

Thus, the UN-WOW is in part a call for the small moments that create connection and a sense of authenticity.

Today’s guest on Experience by Design also has thoughts on the role of making connections in human moments as part of customer experience. Natalie Beckerman, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer at iQor, has experience across many different industries, organizations, and continents. Regardless of where she has been, she has seen the same problems which involve the pursuit of efficiency at the cost of humanity. Part of this lies in not using technology in a way that enhances experiences.

Seeing this problem led her to write her new best selling book, “When Did You Stop Caring: The Call to Reignite Humanity in a World Obsessed with Efficiency.” In her book, she calls for companies to do better for customers and workers by focusing on what matters: people. Using examples from her career and research, she lays out why it makes sense to start caring not only because it is the right thing to do, but because businesses that care do better.

We talk about her career and her book. We also talk about her work with Customer Contact Week, which hosts events around the world. This includes CCW UK which takes place May 11-13, or next week!

Natalie shares her athletic past, including playing on the US National Field Hockey Team and being an All-American at Northwestern University. Along with her Masters degree in Sports Psychology, Natalie links how optimizing performance should be not just about the outcome, but also the impacts that processes, systems, and cultures have on the people who are part of it.

We also celebrate her induction into the Rancocas Valley Regional High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

Learn more:

Natalie Beckerman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliedbeckerman1/

“When did You Stop Caring”: https://www.amazon.com/When-Did-You-Stop-Caring/dp/1969508442

iQor: https://www.iqor.com/

Customer Contact Week Europe: https://europe.customercontactweekdigital.com

This last week of being back from Florence has given me a chance to reflect a bit on he experience of not just being in a foreign country, but being in a completely different kind of physical environment. By that I mean, the city of Florence, or more specifically a city where I was walking everywhere. The origins of Florence date back to around 59 BCE. From that time, the city has continuously grown and evolved to what it is today.

When you look at a map of Florence, you see a lot of twisty and windy streets that are built with cobblestones and buildings that run almost right up against them. From an accessibility standpoint, it presents a lot of challenges as I saw people being pushed in wheelchairs with great effort (or pulling suitcases for that matter). But beyond that, there is a quaintness and opportunity to be in a place where there are more people moving around than cars. Moving freely in a way that was unencumbered by traffic, being able to explore and discover, feeling a certain kind of vibrancy rooted in antiquity but lived in modernity.

And now I am back in the exurbs, which has its own kind of design, whether it be intentional or just organic. Like Florence, homes and streets get built at different times. Some structures are destroyed and then rebuilt, green spaces created, land getting preserved, other land getting constructed. It is not just a dance of history, but also the presence or absence of intentional design.

To talk about designing cities, I welcome Itai Palti to the Experience by Design studios. Itai has a background in architecture and working as an architect. He also is the founder of the Centre for Conscious Design, “an international collective promoting the emergence of healthy built environments using Conscious Design principles.” Together they promote the Conscious Cities Movement, “a global movement that reimagines the built environment as an extension of ourselves and our communities.”

We talk about how architecture can be about community empowerment, creating environments and structures that bring people together rather than drive them apart. Itai talks about the decline of serendipitous connections, especially in cultures that de-emphasize community and prioritize solitude. Between those poles is the need to find compromise in how we build lived environments.

Itai also discussed the importance of using scientific insights into architectural design. We explore how architects need to balance client demands with their desire to create socially impactful design. Accomplishing this goal requires that more than architects be involved, leveraging the expertise from all disciplines to come together in constructive dialogue to combine knowledge to create better cities and communities. Thus, we talk about systems design as well, and how the built environment is a key element in experience design.

After being in Florence for only a few days, which was enough time to enjoy a walkable environment, that is something I can attest to.

Itai Palti on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itaipalti/

The Center for Conscious Design: https://theccd.org/

Conscious Cities Movement: https://theccd.org/conscious-cities/