Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash
Here are four ways new experiences changed history.
The Dawn of the Web: Netscape
The US government invented the early Internet as a safeguard during the Cold War. Early versions of the web existed in the 80s, and versions of the Internet as early as the 50s. But the general public and the marketplace couldn’t use those networks until the invention of the browser in the early 90s. The world was changed forever by the Netscape user experience.
The brilliant interface of the iPhone
Remember the Blackberry? Early smartphones, so-called back then, came on the scene with the merging of PDAs and cell phones. But it took the user experience called multitouch on the first iPhones to drive the explosion of devices in all corners of the world. Now, there are more pocket-sized supercomputers than people on this planet.
Brain chemicals through user experience
Today, social media consumes our attention and provides the most powerful advertising engine in history. All of it was created by the discovery that certain minute online social responses, contained in new types of user experiences, created pleasurable hits of brain chemicals. Now, many of us are hooked.
Answering the call to contactless during a global pandemic
Covid turned the world upside down in early 2020. We were all forced to stay home and reinvent how we work, shop, do business, find entertainment, and simply connect with each other. Some of the user experiences and interfaces existed, many new ones were invented or had to be overhauled.
All these — the invention of the web, the explosion of mobile devices, the takeover of our psyches by social media, and coping with a deadly global disease — changed history. And the user experience researcher was key to that impact.
Countless dedicated, creative UXR’s ensured those experiences worked for real people in the real world.
All outcomes in business — and in life — happen only within the experiences we encounter or provide.
I’m Bob Berry — researcher, speaker, writer, innovator on the subject of compelling experience. Join my newsletter to follow the ways experiences transform life and business.
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