Day 13 - User Experience (n.)⚡️
いらっしゃいませ~! means Welcome~! - (⚡️BetterFriend Project Day 8 - 38)
User Experience
[yoo-zer][ik-speer-ee-uhns]
noun.
: Digital Technology. the perception and response of a person toward design elements of software or digital media while interacting with it. UX
Quick Recap:
We now have,
Product Requirement Doc (Live Doc) - PRD:
⚡️⚡️ BetterFriend PRD Building Publicly v1 ⚡️⚡️
A New Logo & Branding: that feels like a family-owned diner than an alarm clock
Vision:
“Remind me my friends’ birthdays where I will 100% see it. Always reliable.”
User Interface: Text focused. Testing Voice & Video in the future.
“いらっしゃいませ~!” [irasshaimase]
Echoing throughout the store. Every person walking in, they repeat it again and again. Where they can, they are bowing. When they can’t bow, they are lowering their head.
This is the user experience that I am used to coming from Osaka - every restaurant, every convenient store, every gas station. No exceptions. Everybody says:
”Irashaimase~!”
It simply means “Welcome~!”, but when they do it in Japan, it just feels different.
Why is that?
They care about the first impression. The moment you walk through the door they want us to know that they acknowledge us and they are happy that we are spending time there.
This is respect. Deeply ingrained in the Japanese culture. Also deeply instilled in me as a Chinese immigrant born in Japan.
UI vs. UX | User Interface vs. User Experience
I never understood why this was grouped together in software development. To me these two things are very different.
One is a mouse, keyboard, text conversation, buttons, touch screen, microphone (voice receiver).
You can pin point and touch and feel. They are often objects. Hardware.
The other is “feeling”.
Warmth. Relief. Excitement. Passion. Surprise. Joy
Magic Moments #1
I think about the “magic moment” a lot in products.
Like the first time I used Uber in San Francisco in 2013.
I received some free credits from my friend. This was the peak of competition between LYFT and Uber where they were giving out $30~$50 for new riders.
I downloaded the app. Put in the promo code. Shared my location. Told it where I want to go. Pressed the button.
Walla! (or Voilà if you are French)
There’s our car. We got in, we got off. I never wanted to wait for a bus again.
I was surprised, I was relieved, and I was excited that there was now an alternative from public transit where they are not served.
Magic Moment #2
I sent in a selfie. I said “make me a Ghibli character”.
I grew up with Studio Ghibli in Japan. Watched every movie a number of times. I can still visualize the Tanuki movie 平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ (Pom Poko) from 1994.
Since 1985, the whole world at one point or another has watched one or many of their movies. The most iconic ones include となりのトトロ (My Neighbor Totoro), もののけ姫 (Princess Mononoke), 千と千尋の神隠し (Spirted Away).
(All Ghibli Works are here.)
So you can say that when this photo came back to me, the feeling was special. Perhaps more special than others who are not from Japan or are not Ghibli fans.
It gave me a sense of warmth and joy from nostalgia. It gave me excitement for where AI could go. Not without controversy of course.
The Ghibli images went viral. Some condemned the use of art style because Miyazaki the founder once condemned the use of AI for their work 🫣. Most celebrated out of respect for Studio Ghibli’s unique style by turning many memes into Ghibli characters.
One thing that happened for sure, ChatGPT usage from new users grew like crazy. People who are for and against wanted to try it to see if it’s real. The experience of trying this new technology itself was exciting or angry. Either way, it generated a lot of emotions. Apparently, there are a lot more Ghibli fans that I thought in the world.
For me, great User Experience means creating emotions.
The BetterFriend Experience
Making people feel connected is not an easy task. If it was easy, the suicide rate and depression rate wouldn’t be so high in the world.
Sweden is high on this list. I was in Stockholm the capital for 1 month last summer during my sabbatical and I heard a lot of this:
”It’s hard to make new friends as we get older.”
paired with:
”Old friends are married and have kids now. They are busy.”
It’s impossible for me to solve all these problems, but I know focusing on staying in touch with people we care about is what I want to first tackle.
I want them to feel that their friends care about them when they interact with BetterFriend.
And I want them to be inspired, to take a moment to draft a message to their friend who they care about.
What I don’t want - ”It’s Sarah Jones’s birthday next Tuesday on 07.18.25”
What gets me closer -
“Hey Henry, your good friend Sarah Jones is turning 35 next Tuesday on 07.18.25. When was the last time you saw her?”
Maybe in the future -
“Sarah’s more active on Substack these days than Instagram. You can check her recent post here to see what she’s up to: Link”
The copy becomes very important:
My first attempt. This is pretty dry.
Maybe some emojis to make it more fun: 🎉🎂🥳🎈🎊🎁
I am thinking hard about:
The first touch points
The moment the new user land on the website.
The moment the new user opens the whatsapp bot. The welcome message.
How will user get the birthdays that they don’t know without having to admit that they didn’t know the birthday of a loved one?
How do we remind the user the birthdays that are coming up?
How do we encourage the user to write a very personalize message through fond memories and recent social media updates?
In some ways, we are here to teach people how to do a better job to stay in touch. By being able to send "care” and “love” digitally through whatever medium possible.
See ya tomorrow!
⚡️BetterFriend Project Day 8 - 38
Or you could send them gifts, foods whatever it is for their special day. It could be linked your platform with third parties app such as Gojek or Grab. Make that happens will be super cool!