I'm extremely curious about the methodology, even more than the results. The kind of distinction they draw seems very difficult to capture in an objective study.
i'm not sure if this is the paper, but this one explains what they mean by "customer experience design". the little table on page 12 mentions radical innovations like making something that your customers actually want, focusing on the "customer journey", talking about "brand attributes", and "storytelling." i think that all means "show your customer why they should want your product," and i'm not sure worrying about kerning is all that critical to it. can't hurt though.
That Peer Insight study citing is from a Fast Company article about design. I think it was the Dec '07 issue. They referenced that statistic in the cover story article as well as in the letter from the editor. The statistic was my inspiration for this post. I have not seen the study myself, so take that out-of-context-statistic (and all others you ever come across) with salt.
