Great design shapes how people feel, connect and experience the world around them. In this episode of Varsity’s Roundtable Talk, Derek sits down with Joe Lanzisero, a former Disney Imagineer who spent more than three decades creating immersive, story-driven experiences and now applies the principles of human-centered design to healthcare, business and everyday life.
In their conversation, Derek and Joe explore what Disney taught him about designing for emotion, how universal design can create better experiences for people of every age and how simple choices around lighting, sound and human interaction can reduce stress in healthcare environments. They also discuss the importance of curiosity and creativity as we age and why Joe believes maintaining a sense of wonder can help us stay engaged with the world.
Check out the full episode here.
WHAT DID DISNEY TEACH YOU ABOUT HOW SPACES SHAPE EMOTION?
First and most importantly, it’s understanding the human condition. We hear, we smell, we see, we think. As we move through the world, different lighting, spaces, colors, sounds and smells affect us. When you’re designing for a broad group of people the way we did, you have to work at a higher level of basic human understanding. Then, based on the kind of experience you’re trying to create, you can drill down and be more focused.
WHY IS STORY SO IMPORTANT TO CREATING AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION?
We were always story-driven. There was always a story behind what we were doing. Sometimes we used known characters and movies, where people already had an emotional connection. Other times, we created a backstory or subtext that the design team could use as a measuring stick. Whatever we did needed to have some emotional touchpoint, something people were familiar with. Even with fantasy characters, you wanted to believe they were engaged in some human experience that made you cry, made you feel.
HOW CAN UNIVERSAL DESIGN IMPROVE THE EXPERIENCE OF AGING?
There’s a principle called universal design that I talk about a lot. The philosophy is that when you think about designing for the oldest person and the youngest person, you’re going to create good design because you’re considering physical limitations, capabilities and how people interact with design. Now as I’m aging, I notice things like how easy a package is to open. A very young hand might have a hard time opening it, and a very old hand might too. How can I design that to make it easier?
HOW DOES BAD DESIGN CONTRIBUTE TO STRESS OR CONFUSION?
Bad design is when you haven’t done the hard work of understanding how your audience, your guest or your user is really going to engage with something, what they’re coming with and what you have to provide them with. You have to understand that everybody comes to an experience with a different level of expectation and understanding. You need to strip it down to the simplest core design elements and story elements. Once you’ve got that, you can start layering on top of it. If you don’t start from that core place, you’re going to end up with bad design.
HOW CAN DESIGN HELP REDUCE STRESS IN HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENTS?
I’m a big advocate of lighting and the effect lighting has on people. There are places where task lighting is important, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create little pockets or moments of lighting that warm things up and lower the lighting level. The other thing is sound. Think about where you can mask noise or add music. Most medical experiences are stress-inducing on some level. Anything we can do with music and lighting to bring that stress level down can make a difference, and they’re very simple tools.
