Free Transcript of Episode 2.17 WEAR AN EXPERIENCE: Empathic Semiotic Hacks So You Know Your Audience!
Semiosis 101 Season 2, Video 17 Transcript
Hello readers.
In this free transcript for the video published on Semiosis 101 on 30 Aug 2023, we discuss synthesise a working hypothesis and the designer’s tool of an audience persona with Semiosis, to visualise a target audience. The main focus is to explore how, using a working hypothesis, creatives can phenomenologically ‘wear an experience,’ to understand their target audience.
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…
…and here is the video’s transcript.
NOTE: As with any video transcript the tone used is conversational. The following transcript text features ad libs, and therefore should be read in the spirit of any semi-scripted video.
Welcome to Semiosis 101 season two’s seventeenth semiotic video.
If you have watched Semiosis 101 video before then you will already know I am Dave Wood.
Season two’s semiotic theme is a Semiotic Rosetta Stone, which is a metaphor to the unlocking and designer-centric translation of Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic theory of Semiosis - sign-action.
Why do you need Semiosis 101?
Peirce’s writing and terminology is very …obtuse.
In this video… “WEAR AN EXPERIENCE: Empathic Semiotic Hacks So You Know Your Audience!” we will synthesise a working hypothesis and the designer’s tool of an audience persona with Semiosis, to visualise a target audience. In the next ten minutes, we will use three quick target audience persona examples using D&AD design briefs to do this.
Hit subscribe and I will explain how to ‘wear an experience’…
In last week’s video I randomly chose one target audience from a 2020 D&AD design brief. There were three other audience examples that the brands Audible, HSBC and Intel had identified.
I will now use those three examples in this video to explore how, using a working hypothesis, creatives can phenomenologically ‘wear an experience,’ to understand their target audience.
This will reveal audience existential insights that suggest qualities, which can then be used in any visual communication outcome to semiotically trigger the target audience’s recognition, hook their attention and retain their interest.
We are using a particular form of logic to do this, a logic of design called abductive reasoning. This logic focuses on the best available answer rather than reasoned pure truth (deductive) or a scientific proof (inductive). This is perfect for ideation.
Two weeks ago I reviewed two books, one of them being Wollen’s Signs and Meaning in the Cinema. Last month I used an example of a ‘cinema-going’ target audience, to begin explaining how abductive reasoning can be used in conjunction with Semiosis.
I will now quickly introduce you to the design tool of a persona which we will semiotically and phenomenologically be hacking this week. I write more on this subject in my 2014 book Interface Design (quick plug - this book is to be reissued in 2024 by Bloomsbury Publishing).
A persona is an archetype (not a stereotype) created to represent the target audience in a form of a profile with a (fake) name, a (fake) photo and various amounts of information on each type of audience member to provide a variety of target audience points of view.
Personas are essentially a character sheet created from information gathered about the target audience. Using a cinematic lens here, the persona is a tool to humanise abstract and tenuous pieces of audience information into a believable but fictional character.
Designers, especially within Interaction Design, use personas to generate realistic ideas based around the character’s needs in order to. drive the target audience to the design’s set goal. Personas are a way for designers to ‘wear an experience,’ as when creatives are in doubt about some decision they are making during ideation, the persona becomes the audience’s representative. The creative can ask themselves, ‘What would persona A or B want at this point?’
So, now we have established the persona tool, let us hack it.
After all, the persona is essentially a working hypothesis of the target audience.
In Audible’s 2020 D&AD design brief they identify their desired target audience as…
“‘Leisure Upgraders’- city dwellers aged 25 and over who see leisure time as a source of pleasure and crave a sense of self-improvement. Despite the fact that they enjoy a wide array of pastimes, they are time poor and seek effective ways of learning additional skills, finding self-improving activities and trying new experiences.”
So what can we abductively reason from this pen portrait to kick-start our audience research. What does it immediately reveal of the shared lived experience qualities that creatives can then semiotically use to craft familiar visual ‘hooks,’ to gain the audience’s attention?
What new understanding can creatives gain by applying four existential lenses of the audience’s lived body/time/space/human relationship to this ‘Leisure Upgraders’ subsection of humanity?
Okay, we only have a minute here to cover a lot of ground, so I will start off the persona.
They are time poor. Is this because of socialising or is it family/work balance. As a working hypothesis their lived time can be either scenario until you know for sure.
Through an existential lived body lens we can reason that the description suggests a focus on themselves - their own development.
Whether they are single or have a young family, the Audible’s subset are clearly those people who can, to self-improve, create an existential lived space to listen to podcasts.
This does not imply that their lived human relationships are selfish, just that they will be taking some “me-time.”
The immediate qualities that this persona scenario suggests is a quiet space that shuts out other stimuli.
In HSBC’s 2020 D&AD design brief they identify their desired target audience as…
“Your audience is everyone and anyone setting foot in an airport space, those with an international mindset and a love of travel who are excited about the opportunities the world has to offer.”
Once more this week, what can we abductively reason from this pen portrait to kick-start our audience research. What does it immediately reveal of the wide but specific subsection of humanity?
What shared lived experience qualities can creatives reveal to then semiotically craft familiar visual ‘hooks’ to gain that audience’s attention?
What new understanding can creatives gain by applying four existential lenses of the audience’s lived body/time/space/human relationship to this ‘everyone’ audience portrait? Surely, this is impossible as we cannot design FOR EVERYONE?
Okay, again only one minute to cover a lot of ground here.
We cannot design for ‘everyone’ so what can we abductively reason here from the description, to begin forming a working hypothesis to build persona?
The description is very… open.
The brief’s need is to… “Bring to life HSBC’s brand promise” while in the airport. So we can hypothesise and ‘wear an experience.’
We can rule out those visitors with little time to get from security to their gate. An initial hypothesis could select only those airport visitors with time to kill (lived time), who are wandering around waiting (lived body and space), and may be looking to avoid or to start a conversation while they wait with another human (relationship).
This suggests a quality of eyes scanning for something to spark interest?
In Intel’s 2020 D&AD design brief they identify their desired target audience as…
“The ‘overwhelmed audience’ based in the UK who struggle with the sheer scale of PC and laptop choices. Their average age is 65 and they seek out advice from family and friends. They predominantly use their devices for productivity (emails, etc), video streaming, and casual gaming.”
Finally this week, let us see what we can abductively reason from this pen portrait of this specific subsection of humanity, to ‘wear as an experience.’ What are the qualities here that provides valuable insights to begin semiotically crafting the familiar visual ‘hooks’ by encoding Iconic representation?
Let us once more apply the four existential lenses of lived body/time/space/human relationship to this ‘overwhelmed’ subsection of humanity in the UK.
Okay, time is nearly up this week. Using abductive reasoning what initial working hypothesis can be usefully formed from Intel’s ‘overwhelmed’ target audience?
Well, they are all around retirement age, so as a generation they did not grow up with this technology as ‘digital natives.’
We can form a persona of our audience’s lived experiences pre-retirement, during their working life they have avoided exposure to hardware (lived time).
This suggests a lived space of limited technological access, and a lived body that is more familiar with analogue items.
The fact they can seek help suggests a limited support network of lived relationships they can draw on. But these are tenuous and not sustainable.
Semiotically, this suggest visual qualities to support their new digital steps, that need to come from familiar analogue themes.
To end this seventeenth season two video, we have had a whistle stop ride through forming initial working hypotheses on three target audiences, from only rudimentary information. But we very quickly hypothesised a quality from each hypothesis to kick start ideation and Iconic representation of that quality.
Are each of these initial qualities the solution to the brand’s brief?
Of course not. It is just the first step in a long creative process. A working hypothesis is just a tool, but a tool that can be endlessly adjusted as more is discovered. The structure of a persona can be hacked with the four existential lenses, to reveal familiar qualities they all will recognise. This can then kick start the semiotic crafting of the visual language to ‘hook’ the audience’s attention.
More on this next week.
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…