The attention for how people experience things – whether they are customers, patients, citizens, guests, students or employees – is growing day by day. Clear language for this development is however still lacking.
In my research I have constructed a foundation for the so-called experience economy to give insight into what the roles of organizations and individuals in this economy can be.
Experience is not new, but the immense attention for experiences is. Everything, from detergent to the admission in a hospital is called ‘an experience’ all of a sudden, which complicates the communication on this subject.
We can also see a dominant focus in the discourse, on producing and staging experiences as if they were products, on the management of pleasurable sensations and emotions and on the commercial value of experiences.
This focus has led to a blind spot for other concepts of experience, other effects and other values that play a crucial role in people’s experiences.
In ‘For the love of Experience’ I not only explain what happens in that blind spot but I also give specific insights on learning experiences for organizations that wish to design these.
The experience economy offers a plethora of opportunities to create value for organizations and individuals alike, but to make use of these opportunities the individual has to be the centre of attention.
After all, it’s not the organization that decides what is an experience, but it is the individual.
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Research Outline (download)
Chapter 2: Research Context (download)
Chapter 3: Experience concepts in an integrative theory (download)
Chapter 4: Effects of experience in an integrative theory (download)
Chapter 5: Values of experience in an integrative theory (download)
Chapter 6: Research design (download)
Chapter 7: Analysis of interviews on free choice learning experiences (download)
Chapter 8: Conclusion (download)
Do Not Assume... 
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