I’m going to preface this with saying this is not a scientific analysis. Read on.

I got to play with Facebook Timeline and it was really a great experience. I then popped open Google plus in a new tab and it was very utilitarian – it just presented a list of things I could do. In my new Facebook Timeline profile, I spent a lot of time taking in the aesthetics, I was interacting with it in a non-functional, or non-utilitarian way. I was interacting with it emotionally. It’s like when someone buys a new BMW, they probably star at it, touch it, smell it, take pictures of it. Driving, which is its utility, is just part of the experience. If I were to buy a Kia, I would just drive it – a strictly utilitarian experience.

As a designer, it got me thinking of how the utility versus the experience can play out in web design. How does it relate to user experience and UI.

AdAge once published an article about a similar difference (nicely done, Conrad) between Android and the iPhone. Android users talk about what version their O.S is and battery life and all sorts of utility. iPhone users barely even know what OS they are running. They talk about the experience. Google is trying to get the users to see beyond the utility of the Android – because they know that when it comes down to utility, there is pretty much very little difference in mobile phones and tablets.

Then there is Disney theme parks and 6 Flags. Disney’s commercials rarely show you a theme park, as the main focus at least. It is always the experience. The smile on the kid’s face, the joy on the parent’s face as they plan a trip for their kid to Disney. 6 Flags on the other hand talks about their roller coasters. How big they are, how fast they are and how scary they are. If you really want to compare the utility of roller coasters, there are pretty much 500 of them across the world that are just as fast and just as tall and just as scary. Disney, however, sells the experience of the park. Experience is not tangible.

While I don’t think that selling the utility approach is necessarily a bad thing, I do believe that on mass scale, the emotional experience is what consumers look for and also what brands desire – for users and consumers to have an emotional bond with the brand. I also think that as designers, web designers especially, we have to separate the UI, or User Experience from emotional experience. I think the emotional experience dictates the user experience which is supported by the UI.

I took some screen grabs of the very first screen of these sites to compare first impressions. To see what they were selling, the experience or the utility.

1. Facebook Timeline and Google Plus.

Google Plus is bare bones – and there is nothing wrong with bare bones. I am a fan of bare bones. However, my profile page on Google Plus, again, is just showing me all the things I can do. It is the difference between being shown my prison cell and being shown a penthouse suite. In prison the guards would probably bark out what you can and cannot do. The utility. While being shown a penthouse, I would probably be shown the view – this is everything that is NOT the penthouse, the experience.

Facebook’s new Timeline profile page is a little too busy but that is not the point. That part belongs to the user experience. It is what they are selling. The idea. They are selling me an experience. They are selling me the view that comes with status updates and host of other features.

2. Samsung Galaxy S™ II, Epic™ 4G Touch and the iPhone.

Even the name does not provide for a meaningful experience. Do users really need to connect with S (TM), II, Epic (TM) 4G Touch? The name itself is selling the utility of touch. Users are more concerned now about processors, the AMOLED screen, multi touch and other features. You can see this phone within context here.

The White iPhone. Sure it does not contain any copy, it just displays the phone which is such a great shot at that. The image sells the experience. You want to hold it. You want to see what it looks like. You don’t want to know, up front, if it is epic, or what type of processor it is running.

3. Disney Theme parks and 6 Flags.

A visitor to 6 Flags’ website does not get the experience of the park at all. In stead they are presented with action items and ways to get free parking. It appears that 6 Flags is just eager to put everyone on a conveyor belt and send them off on a joyride.

Disney on the other hand, sells the experience. A little girl having the time of her life, building a memory. It is an emotional experience.

I am not a Facebook, nor Disney, nor Apple fan boy. Well, I might be an Apple fan, but not the crazy creepy kind. I am a fan though, of thoughtful, tasteful, and a completely cohesive designed package. A uniform voice and brand that carries over from the ads you see on TV or the web to the on-site experience. It is a combination of all of these that give the user and consumer a cohesive and pleasant emotional experience.

As I chew on this, I might tweak this article, write part two – more so that I can process as I write more about user experience and user emotional experience.