FABERNOVEL is a digital strategy and design firm that believes the future is already here and aims to distribute it to tomorrow's industry leaders. In a new economy where nothing is established, they help clients adapt to changing user experiences that are becoming increasingly simple, efficient, and personalized. The document discusses how incorporating imperfections or "asperities" can make experiences more emotionally engaging for users by conveying a range of emotions along their journey. It provides examples of how booking.com creates anxiety to increase relief and happiness, while Google Assistant uses unpredictable aspects to develop an emotional connection despite its limitations.

2. New economy
new rules
-
Stéphane Distinguin
CEO & founder, FABERNOVEL
The future is already here. FABERNOVEL’s ambition
is to distribute it to tomorrow’s industry leaders for
an open world and a fair society. In this New
Economy, nothing is established. The winner’s
supremacy cannot last forever.

3. Ingénieurs
Entrepreneurs
Engineers CreativesAnalystsDesigners Data Scientists
Founded in
2003
2017 turnover
37M€
350employees
3continents

4. 2012 - today (o going)
Over 20 projects from defining
digital strategies to designing new
online and offline experiences
2017 - 2018
Digital strategy for the Paris
Fashion Week
2017 - today (ongoing)
Study about the transformations
induced by digital on the apparel
sector
Some references
-
2014 - today (ongoing)
Studies about the 4 superpowers that overperform in the
Network Economy : Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.

5. Today
User experience is becoming ever
more frictionless.
UX has been upgraded.

6. We have been talking about
new user experience
“standards” for a while now
Simplicity | Efficiency | Personalization

7. Simplicity
Amazon’s ease of use
Since 2017, Amazon has been
trying to position itself on the
fashion industry
In addition to its Prime Wardrobe
offer, which enables prime
members to try before they buy,
Amazon launched echo look
which analyzes your clothing
style and makes fashionable
recommendations through
machine learning

8. The rapidity and
flexibility of brands
like Gucci and Farfetch
In 2017, Gucci teamed up with
Farfetch to launch F90: in 90
minutes, Farfetch can deliver the
Gucci article of your choice
wherever you are.
The service is available in 10 cities
including London, NYC, Paris,
Tokyo, Los Angeles and Dubai
Efficiency

9. Spotify’s customized
recommendations
A unique track curation, generated
weekly by AI algorithms for all Spotify
users.
A curation that we jealously keep to
ourselves.
Personalization

10. Sublimeright?

11. Sublime
-
right?
The experience:
On desktop, mobile or in the actual
apartments.
For the final user or for the Airbnb employee.
The experience is simple, intuitive and
reliable.

12. similar ?
Sublime, but

13. Who’s who ?

16. Browsing the
Chanel or Dior
websites: the same
experience
Indistinguishable.

17. A very similar
product and
associated services
Identical.

18. Same services, equivalent pricing,
similar cars available in the same place
Interchangeable.

19. Great news, user experience has been
upscaled

20. In the end, are these experiences
becoming boring?

21. Simple
Effective
Personalized
Too sleek
Too mechanical
Too predictable

22. What if we
Spiced up
these experiences?

23. Emotion
Ex-movere
Ex : out of oneself
Movere : movement
-
Emotions are the physical, involuntary and unconscious
manifestation triggered in response to external events or by the
sensitivity of one person.
These emotions galvanize us into action and allow us to interact
with our environment.
They have been neglected in designing experiences and in the
business area because they are considered unreasonable and
too intimate.
What are emotions ?
-
7main
categories

24. What do these people have
in common?

25. Bob Dylan
American singer and songwriter

26. Lionel Messi
Professional football
player

27. Winnie Harlow
Top model

28. They have imperfections

29. Winnie Harlow
A form of modernity to
assume her
imperfection, providing
undeniable charm
Lionel Messi
Only one meter sixty-nine but a great agility and
incredible dribbling skills
Bob Dylan
Soul and truth
rather than
perfection

30. The imperfections will create strong
emotional charges: from imperfect, they
become exceptional
-

31. Imperfection,
the designer’s new quest?

32. An imperfection is :
Why ?
-
Unique
Authentic
Intimate
The tendency to prefer imperfect things: a known behavioural bias

33. This is not a new interrogation in the field of object design
-
Endeavour to create imperfections, which will become distinctive signs inside a mass production.
Another sense of luxury based on sensitive traces of their preciousness.
Collection Nobody’s Perfect (2012)
Gaetano Pesce, Italian designer, let craftsmen put the
finishing touches to a seat he had designed.
Vases “Programmer des systèmes d’objets”, VIA (2009)
François Brument, designer, has designed a program to
generate vases thanks to the voice.

34. Rather than “imperfection”,
we prefer the word asperity.

35. Using asperity to differentiate
oneself
-
“Find a flaw, make sure that what you do is
noticed and remarkable.
Make an impression. Add some acidity, a
surprise, some bitterness...
Dare to go off the beaten path.
That's what I call asperity. It’s about trying to do
something different."
Alain Ducasse

36. Asperity, n :
Inequality, roughness, protrusion
that gives roughness to a surface:
‘The roughness of the ground, of a
rock’.
Harshness of tone or manner:
‘he pointed this out with some
asperity’

37. Imperfection,
A crack in a
journey
Asperity,
The projecting part of an
uneven surface

38. The new mission for designers: use
asperity to create a
more emotional link
with the user

39. How to use it?
2 examples

40. Decoding: how do asperities create an emotional bond?
We have tested 2 significant user experiences
-
Booking.com
The experience of booking
an accommodation
Google Home
The experience of chatting with
my personal home assistant

41. Booking a hotel room
Case 1
booking.com

42. CASES
Why ?
-
Spent on travel
websites before
booking
1st online hotel
reservation site in Europe.
Booking.com does its
best to encourage
conversion and guide
the user all along his
online booking journey
Sources:
Traveler’s Road to Decision 2015, Etude Liligo.com, novembre 2014
7Annual market growth
rate 43Penetration rate for
online players within
the travel industry
% %
+2 HoursTravelocity
Orbitz
Airbnbvente-privee.com
Hostelworld
Karavel
Lastminute.com
myholidays.com
eDreams
ExpediaHotels.com
Numerous competitors

43. CASES
I’m preparing my holidays
There are some results! Prices
are low! It will be for sure the
cheapest deal I can find!
I’m looking for a Hotel room
that fits my budget
The experience of booking an accommodation
-
Desire
Fear
Desire

44. CASES
The experience of booking an accommodation
-
I’m seeking the “rare pearl”
I’m hesitating
This other hotel looks really
good. I can even cancel for free.
Hurry up! Only one room left,
I'm going to miss it!
I need to hurry ! Someone just
booked the last room! It’s no
longer available! Damn I should
have done it earlier!
Anger
Happiness
Jealousy
Fear

45. CASES
Asperities distributed across the journey
For the user:
a genuine emotional obstacle course. Stressful yet
terribly effective
Anxiety to achieve relief and
happiness
The booking.com experience: create anxiety to exacerbate
the relief and happiness of booking
-
Conception constraint: business type

46. Case 2
Google
assistant
The OK Google experience

47. CASES
Alexa
by Amazon
Why
?
-
Google, the user experience
champion, invests in new
interfaces.
The Google Assistant was
launched in 2016 in the US.
In 2018 Q1, Google took the
top spot, beating Amazon
for the first time, shipping
3.2 million of its Google
Home and Home Mini
devices, against the 2.5
million Echo devices
shipped by Amazon
68Response rate
%
90Rate of complete and
correct responses
%
10 million Google Homes sold in
only three months
1sale
/ second
Bixby
by Samsung
Siri
by Apple
Cortana
by Microsoft

48. ATTENDRISSEMENT
CASES
1. Let’s have fun
I want Google to entertain me
Humour
The OK Google experience
-

49. ATTENDRISSEMENT
CASES
2. Do me a favor
I want Google to make an
appointment for me
Authenticity
The OK Google experience
-

50. CASES
The Google experience : a functional experience, sometimes a
bit awkward
-
For the user:
Develop an emotional connexion with his
assistant thanks to its unpredictable character
and accept its current limitations.
For the designer, sporadic asperities all along the journey
Keep using the assistant
Conception constraint: technological

51. The emotions conveyed by the asperities
are an opportunity to create a singular,
differentiating bond.
What are the key learnings of these different cases ?
-
For the user: a rich palette of
emotions, whose negative emotions
do not have to be proscribed
For the designer: a game of intensity
on the asperities to arouse different
type of emotions

52. The palette of shades used in terms of asperity
-
Harsh
Awkward

53. Towards
endearing and
sustainable
experiences

54. The tools to achieve this
2018, a new playground
to conquer!

55. NOTECH HIGHTECH

56. Small attentions
Sézane
French fashion brand
New collections each month
Hundreds of women line up outside the
Parisian boutique for each collection.
Boutique is called L'Appartement because
our living space looks like the Apartment
For their clients' birthdays, a personal note
came with a book

57. Semantic field
and surprises
Mailchimp
Email marketing service
Encourages users through word choice
They use reassuring, comforting terms for
moment of truth

58. Machine learning :
User profiler
Possibilities:
Understanding behaviour
Contextualizing the experience
Making appropriate recommendations
Anticipating choices

59. Sensors + AI :
Actions executor
Possibilities:
Detect users' physical signals
Convert these signals into
emotions
Classify and label emotions
Trigger appropriate actions

60. Emotion Recognition API
: Emotions translator
Possibilities:
Recognition of vocal emotions
Detect the meaning of words,
irony or sarcasm in the text
Recognition of the different
tones of voice

61. New interfaces
are a new
playground:
They are both useful to
express and capture
emotions

63. Q&A

64. Thank
you!
Distribute
the Future PARIS
17, rue du faubourg du Temple, 75010 Paris | contact@fabernovel.com
Caroline Pandraud
Partner
+33 6 24 63 27 86 | caroline.pandraud@fabernovel.com
Marina Dislich
Communication Manager
marina.dislich@fabernovel.com
Contributeurs :
Mathilde Maître, Head of Design
Kirene Meralli, Lead Project Analyst
Anthony Marois, Lead Project Engineer
Charlotte Bourcier, Design Strategist
Fiona Grunberg , Senior Art Director