personalisation in design

​Think of your favorite restaurant, bar, gym or coffee shop. You spend a disproportionate amount of time there, making choices every time you visit. Over multiple visits your choices help create a personal record that explicitly reveals your preferences. You would expect the establishment in which you are investing your time and money to remember your likes and dislikes. Make recommendations tailor-made for you. While you may agree/ disagree with their recommendations you will certainly appreciate the availability of bespoke choices created for you.

When a brand says “We remember you and will make your experience seem familiar and comfortable, we know what you like/ dislike (over time and occasion) and we will help you choose your desired experience”  its saying “Thank you for coming back, we want you to spend the least amount of time deciding and the most amount of time enjoying your time with us”.
 
We can break down Personalisation into 3 buckets – Memory, Choice and Prediction.
 
 “Memory” is the first pillar to build given that brands know when-what-how consumers interact with them. Synthesising the signals consumers transmit with every action into a cohesive pattern of individual preferences we should be able to design personalised experiences for each and every one of them. Memory helps acknowledge a relationship and makes it stronger. Memory is the minimum reward a brand can offer for your loyalty.
 
“Choice” is the second pillar. Its about offering customisation within an available sub-set of variables (choose the content you want to see, sections you like to visit on the website, length –duration of content based on your time availability etc.). Again, its not inventing anew as much as its about the giving consumers the tools to experience your brand as they see fit.
 
“Prediction” is the third and the toughest pillar to build. Here the brand is trying to serve the optimal consumer experiences based on their past behaviors or their peer behaviors and /or the current context (location, time, step). Knowledge of patterns in behaviors and the relationship between actions (what action preceeds another and how likely is it that the second action will occur) can inform a brand about the steps it needs to take to smoothen the transitions between desirable actions.