Have you ever walked into a bank and wondered what might be the best way rob this place? Do you walk up inconspicuously to the teller and hand them a note? On the other hand, if you go in guns blazing, which guard should you take out first?
Perhaps you might have just walked into a convenience store and thought, “hmm how can I get away with stealing these CocaCola gummy bears?” Do you hide it in your pocket or purse? Maybe you just simply walk out the door in plain sight hoping no one suspects of you anything.
In other words, when you walk into a room do you automatically start thinking how best to take advantage of a situation from a larger perspective?
Of course not, you’re not a criminal. However, what if I told you that this form of strategic thinking is actually valuable tool?
How criminals think
Let’s use a bank robbery as an example. In order to be completed successfully it requires a set of tools used for planning and strategy. The thief’s objective is to rob a bank and their goal is to do it as safely and as easily as possible without being caught.
Some important things a thief might want to think about are:
- Array of tools used in helping to catch thieves: cameras, guards, visual cues for eyewitnesses
- Location, size of the bank, knowledge of the neighborhood
- Clothing and disguise
- Accomplices and timing
- Escape plan
In general, the way criminals work, is to find a weakness and exploit it. Paul Ekblom interviewed thieves on the London Underground who told him that they would stand near signs warning that “pickpockets” were operating. On noticing the signs, passengers would reassuringly pat whichever pocket contained their wallets, which was a considerable help to the thieves.
Here the thieves are noticing a pattern and taking advantage of our need to affirm that our belongings are still with us.
The design connection
Whether it is a physical disadvantage such as the layout of a bank, or human vulnerability such as memory recall and the need for reassurance, criminals possess a set of tools they can rely on in order to complete their objective.
This ability requires keen observational skill noticing opportunities or patterns, being able to work within a set of constraints and creating a solution for those constraints or problems. Skills such these are invaluable to a designer.
The issue designers often face is clients don’t always know what problem a user may face. In a similar way, a thief can’t contact a bank manager and ask about the bank’s security flaws. That is why observing users and analyzing their behaviors within a system is extremely important.
Misdirection as a design tool
One possibility would be to use the idea of misdirection. This is something that magicians are well versed. The idea is that you distract the viewer with something in order to disguise what is really happening.
General Electric (GE) needed to redesign the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experience at a children’s hospital. They didn’t have the time and certainly could not afford to redesign the MRI itself, but they could misdirect the attention of little children in order to ease their anxiety about a cold and sterile environment.
They decided to turn the experience into an adventure and created several rooms with different storybook themes such as a deep-sea adventure, a space exploration or a prehistoric dinosaur design. The designer, using the art of misdirection, transformed the child’s experience from fearful to fun.
The takeaway
A thief is going to observe everything they can about their target in order to exploit its flaws to their advantage. In designer speak, they are studying a system and designing a solution to solve a problem.
What all of this boils down to is that, while a thief’s goal is wildly different from a designer’s, the skill set and tools required for success share many similarities. Essentially, what makes both successful is that there is a plan and methodology in how the problem is going to be solved.
Notice how none of the requirements in robbing a bank successfully talk about the size of the gun or the amount of horsepower your getaway car has? That’s because you can effectively rob a bank without needing James Bond type gadgets.
The same thing applies to designing a user experience. It’s not features or gimmicks that make good experiences, it’s understanding the problem users are having and designing a good plan to solve it.