Sneaking Up on Your Customers
I few months ago I learned about pattern breaking, the act of disrupting people’s expectations as a way to insert a new idea. The mundane things we expect to happen every day in every situation we’ve experienced before create a mental sludge; when we encounter a familiar setting but with unfamiliar outcomes, we are more likely to wake from our slumber. This opportunity creates something akin to a fresh sheet of paper for—right there, in that very moment—you to harness. It’s powerful stuff if you do it well; it’s something captivating speakers do to jolt a drooling, disconnected audience to engage on an idea.
Appreciating pattern breaking helped me appreciate one of the coolest little things I’ve seen in a while: Ghostly International’s use of the UPS reference line for messaging. On one line you see your order number (basic pattern stuff) but the next line is a pattern break, even if it’s a small one.
It’s a simple thing but it’s the sort of pattern breaking that all companies should think about when designing experiences for their customers. Is there a common experience (some boring codes and lines on a UPS envelope) that you can “steal” for your own purposes? Ghostly could even go one further and sneak a secret link on this line which leads the user to a free download of a song.
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