Xcited to Announce That X: The Experience When Business Meets Design is Now Available
Three-and-a-half years in the making, I’m proud and also relieved to finally announce that X is now available online and in a store near you. I can’t tell you how important this is to me. There were several times along the way including up until the end when I thought this book would never see the light of day. I can’t wait to share it with you.
I tend to spend most of my time sharing my work across the web and at conferences everywhere. If you can, I ask for your support with this book. The first week is very important to authors. Please pick your favorite retailer/etailer and give it a read. Help me spread the word! And please, go for the print book. The story of the book is a real life case study of the book’s purpose.
Seriously. Thank you for all of your support now and over the years.
Amazon | BAM | Barnes and Noble | 800CEOREAD
What is X?
X represents experience. It’s that je ne sais quoi that makes something so special. This book is about X, creating such memorable moments for your customers through every encounter they have with you brand—all day, every day.
While everyone is talking about experience, and have been for years, few have shared what an experience really is, why it’s important at every level, and more so, how do design meaningful and shareable experiences.
X is meant to be an experience in of itself. Its unique approach explores why great products, creative marketing and delightful customer service are no longer enough to succeed. Cleverly designed as an “analog app,” the book introduces the role of “experience architects” to guide readers through the art and science of designing experiences.
Xclusive Facts about X
This is my fourth book with Wiley.
X is the first of the four to feature a cover without a chain (we’re finally breaking free from the shackles of legacy and mediocrity).
I’ve worked on this book every weekend and many weeknights for the last few years.
I took a break from X to publish WTF (What’s the Future of Business). WTF was never on the roadmap and was introduced by Wiley as an ebook originally to serve as a bridge between End of Business as Usual and X. What a wonderful detour!
The original manuscript was tallied at 150,000 words and later revised down to ~40k.There was talk about releasing an uncut version. Instead, I’ll release all of the unpublished chapters as PDFs eventually at Xthebook.com.
The book was designed in partnership with Mekanism, which is a big deal for an award-winning advertising agency to help on a project like this. We go back years and I’m thankful for their friendship.
The shape of the book is modeled after an iPad Air 2.
There is no table of contents in the book. It is instead designed to emulate the apps many of us use on our smartphones and tablets.
The chapter format is also patterned after software releases, trying themes together rather than traditional numeric progression.
The book features original artwork and frameworks to introduce visual storytelling into the experience. The complex process of ideation and development delayed the book several times.
The cover was originally designed in 2013 and redesigned in 2014. The new cover was was published on Amazon and remained there until a few months prior to official launch when we decided to go back to the original design. This is the alternate cover…
The “X” on the cover is not a product of Photoshop, it’s physically cut and built multi-layer stack of Plexiglas with each layer featuring a different texture.
To photograph what would be the cover, the X was placed on a flat screen TV set on its back shooting colors through the layers in a dark room.
During the shoot, we also captured video to showcase the brilliant spectrum of colors, which would become a teaser video to sell the publisher on the concept of the cover design. The video was shot in 2013 and not shared publicly until 2015.
When I first saw the X model live, I expected to see something that stood several feet tall. Instead, I was surprised to learn that it stands at only 5 inches. It looked so big on TV!
The framework for experience architecture introduced in the book was designed to form the letter “X.”
When the book initially went to press, the amount of color saturation on each page initially jammed the process. Everything was re-calibrated to work but not without slightly delaying the release.
Connect with me… Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Youtube | Instagram | Pinterest
