Light, Ethical, Accessible, Dataful (LEAD): Publicis Sapient’s Elements of Good Experiences

Publicis Sapient Experience
4 min readSep 5, 2020

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LEAD was inspired by Samin Nosrat’s NYT Bestselling Cookbook “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking”

LEAD is Publicis Sapient’s open source approach to describing good experiences that are powered by computation. It’s a simple, but powerful idea that’s been co-crafted by designers across the world at 50+ offices globally. If you’d like to LEAD-ify your digital transformation efforts, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

» Learn more about Publicis Sapient Experience Design

LEAD iconography is available on Github

Light experiences are immediate. They are defined by their speed, timeliness and responsiveness to the intent and context of their audiences.

Heavy experiences are, by contrast, slow to receive and respond, serve only the purpose of their maker and can cognitively overwhelm, confuse or frustrate the audience interacting with them.

We can measure experience lightness by its Velocity — the speed with which it performs and enables the person interacting with it to reach a resolution or proceed to the following step in their journey.

  • Fast, Quick, Speedy: The speed with which it performs and enables the person interacting with it, to reach a resolution or proceed to the next step in their journey.
  • Timely, Cut-Through, Contextual: When the interactions, timing and frequency are aligned with the audiences’ needs and expectations.
  • Smooth, Nimble, Seamless: When the experience is easy to receive, understand and moved the audience seamlessly forward.
  • Focused, Frictionless, Performant: When the experience allows full focus on the product rather than friction on the platform that enables it.
LEAD iconography is available on Github

Ethical experiences are truthful. They are open, honest and transparent. They understand the context of an audiences’ values.

Unethical experiences are divisive, deceitful, hide details and are disrespectful to either the person interacting with them, or backstage cast members fulfilling the service.

We can measure the ethical nature of interactions by their Values — alignment with principles, rules and codes of conduct, and the moral standards of the services provided as perceived by its audience.

  • Conscious, Safe, Resonant: Alignment with principles, rules, codes of conduct, and the moral standards of the services provided as perceived by their audience.
  • Honest, Legitimate, Trustworthy: When the information given to the audience comes from a place of truth and creates a sense of trust with no hidden abuse.
  • Transparent, Open, Respectful: When the experience enables a decision by providing all relevant data, terms and conditions.
  • Unbiased, Principled, Purposeful: When the business’ mission is immediately apparent in the experience DNA, and makes you feel in control instead of just led.
LEAD iconography is available on Github

Accessible experience are frictionless. They are inclusive, embrace diversity and are consistent across all touchpoints.

Impenetrable experiences are constructed without care and attention, which prevents them from being universally available, compatible, usable or otherwise easy to operate.

We can measure accessibility of experiences by their Viscosity — how easy an experience is to enter at its surface and how it facilitates the audience’s progress through its interactions.

  • Empathetic, Inclusive, Inviting: Design with care and attention by being universally available, compatible, usable in the native language of the audience.
  • Easy, Contextual, Navigable: Facilitate finding, downloading, installing, and getting started while facilitating the audiences’ progress through its interactions.
  • Compliant, Conforming, Convenient: Adhere to common standards of accessibility and leveraging a11y patterns in the ongoing development.
  • Clear, Simple, Intuitive: Orienting to the audience and providing a clear context in which to move around within it that feels obvious.
LEAD iconography is available on Github

Dataful experiences are defined by their intelligence. They personalize interactions and anticipate the audiences’ situation and needs.

Data-less experiences are generic and passive. They do not learn, give a one-size-fits-all experience and make the audience work harder to complete tasks.

We can measure dataful by assessing Veracity — how the experience utilizes information by guiding the audience to choices and aids completion and fulfillment of their tasks.

  • Informed, Accurate, Precise: Is the data presented in the experience, correct and in the right place, at the right time to be useful?
  • Insightful, Reliable, Real-time: Was the provision of data an aspect of the experience that can be relied upon as instantaneous every time?
  • Continuous, Complete, Comprehensive: When presented, is the data in the interaction of sufficient fidelity and quantity so as to improve transacting with it?
  • Measured, Personalized, Customizable: Was data utilised so as to make the interactions meaningful within the audiences’ context?

» Learn about careers at Publicis Sapient

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