Joe Macleod
Founder of And EndJoe Macleod’s career has spanned the leading web, telecoms and App companies, where he led teams and built a variety of successful products. Most recently as Head of Design at the award-winning digital product studio Ustwo - famed for the game Monument Valley. Here he built the design team into a globally recognised success, working with the world’s favourite brands on some of the best products.
He has been an active and vocal campaigner for creative education in the UK. A steering committee member for the Design and Technology curriculum, National Occupational Standards and the Creative and Cultural Skills organisation.
As the founder of the Include Design campaign, he bought together hundreds of the Worlds design leaders to challenge reduction and devaluing of creative subjects in UK core education. Resulting in the u-turn of the 2014 Conservative government on the issue.
In the last few years, he has turned his attention to the problems in consumerism. Spending 4 years researching bias in the consumer lifecycle through the research project Closure Experiences. This resulted in the Ends book and inspired him to founder the company And End - the Worlds first customer ending business. Here he helps companies grapple with off-boarding in consumer experiences and countering the many issues with consumerism.
He now speaks at conferences, businesses and universities around the world about the important yet overlooked issue of endings in the consumer experience.
Ends Canvas
We create rich, emotional and meaningful experiences to on-board the consumer. In contrast, the off-boarding is barren of emotion and meaning. This sacrifices consumer action, holds back engagement; limiting reflection and responsibility. Long term side effects of this can be seen across sectors. Consequences include climate change, industries fined billions for mis-selling and individuals eroding their online reputations.
This course introduces attendees to the theme of Ends in the consumer lifecycle from a background of consumer and social history. Through group exercises this theme is investigated alongside exploring unique models and techniques. Attendees gain practical skills and tools that improve their design of product, service and digital off-boarding.
Attendees will be among a few people who are engaging in this new approach to product creation. The perspective and skills they learn in this session will bring a unique approach to their work and future product development
The session is broadly applicable to many roles, it is particularly relevant for people in roles such as - product development, marketing, design, service and interaction design, strategy, customer relationship management (CRM).
Ends has influences across industry sectors: Banking, Transport, Sales, Healthcare, Entertainment, Start-Ups, FMCG, Digital, and Sustainability are particularly relevant.
What are take aways:
- A new way of thinking about your product and consumerism;
- Unique models and tools;
- The Ends canvas;
- Free Ends ebook.
How to… end
Designing and delivering great closure experiences for products and businessFace it, all your projects are going to die and you haven’t even designed the end. In a world that is flooded with new apps, services, and products can we really assume that our product won’t be killed off in the evolutionary cycle of the ‘next big thing’? While we blindly focus on creating a user experience for on-boarding and usage we overlook the off-boarding.
Improving the design of endings promises enormous opportunities. Endings improve the accuracy of deleting, reclaiming or removing materials. They raise brand perception through increased communication. Businesses with better endings surprisingly have higher consumer satisfaction. Product creators have an opportunity and responsibility to lead in this emerging field of design. With the world in need of responsible consumer experiences, endings will be a competitive differentiator.
The talk will reveal how shards of the consumer experience break lacking a coherent ending. It will provide examples of how this can be avoided and the improvements people can make. Techniques and approaches will be shared that help discussion, design and delivery of endings for consumers in your own projects and products.
