Hi and welcome to Lesson 1 of User Experience: The Beginners Guide!

I'll try to give you an overview of what user experience is, and why you should care about it. We will explain what is covered by the term ‘user experience’ as well as introduce you to what it means to work in a user-centered process.

Within this blog, you will get introduced to:

Areas of design categorized under the umbrella of 'user experience'
Why you should care about user experience
Usability as part of user experience
User-Centered Design

What is user experience design?

User experience can be defined as, "a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service". Whilst the term 'user experience' is generally applied to the positive, neutral, and negative emotions felt whilst interacting with computer systems and user interfaces, it is equally applicable to any other instance where a human uses a product, object, or service. As stated by Jesse James Garrett (2010), "every product that is used by someone has a user experience: newspapers, ketchup bottles, reclining armchairs, cardigan sweaters".

Breadth and overall purpose of User Experience Design

The field of user experience focuses on maximizing the pleasurable, satisfying, motivating, efficient, and productive aspects of using a tangible or system-based product. For example, when using a tangible device, such as a computer mouse, does the user enjoy looking, feeling, and holding it? Does it fit snugly in their hand or is it too big and cumbersome? Does the weight affect their ability to move it as they would wish? Can they use it unconsciously or are they forever aware of its presence when using it to fulfill their goals? Likewise, when someone is using a non-tangible product, such as a computer application, is it enjoyable to look at? Can they navigate through the user interface intuitively? Are there sufficient cues to help guide them to their goal? Are the important aspects of a task visible as and when they are needed? Hopefully, from these example questions you are now beginning to see the breadth of user experience and how many aspects of a design can impact on our pleasure, satisfaction, motivation, and productivity when interacting with a product, system, or service.

The Component Discipline of User Experience

As you can see from the illustration above, user experience encompasses many different disciplines, such as visual and sound design, human-computer interaction, information architecture and interaction design. Each of these design perspectives informs the process of producing systems and devices for human users, with the intention of ensuring the interactive experience is as simple, efficient, accurate and enjoyable as possible. Interaction design is at the heart of the user experience Venn diagram as so much is dependent on the interactive qualities of a design. Very little of the user experience involves passive consumption alone.

For example, most web users are constantly clicking, typing, switching between windows, and opening documents and applications. Even when listening to music or watching videos, users are plotting their next move, scanning the user interface in an effort to make the whole experience as cohesive as possible, even when their individual aims seem unconnected. Therefore, it is the role of the designer to accommodate these constant, intentional shifts and provide the necessary features for smooth and simple interactions and transitions. As Jeff Johnson points out, "One cannot design a user experience, only design for a user experience. In particular, one cannot design a sensual experience, but only create the design features that can evoke it".

The Rise and Rise of User Experience

As previously stated, the term 'user experience' can be used for any product, system, or service; however, interest in the subject has exploded in the last three decades for a number of reasons:

Recent advances in mobile, ubiquitous, social, and tangible computing technologies have moved human-computer interaction into practically all areas of human activity. This has led to a shift away from usability engineering to a much richer scope of user experience, where users' feelings, motivations, and values are given as much attention as (if not more attention than) efficiency, effectiveness, and basic subjective satisfaction (i.e., which are considered to be the three traditional usability metrics).

In website design, it has become important to combine the interests of different stakeholders: marketing, branding, visual design, and usability. Marketing and branding people needed to enter the interactive world where usability was important. Usability people needed to take marketing, branding, and aesthetic needs into account when designing websites. The user experience provided a platform to cover the interests of all stakeholders: making websites easy to use, valuable, and effective for visitors. This is why several early user-experience publications focus on website user experience.

The Take-Away

The field of user experience encompasses many different disciplines, all aiming to improve the ease of use and increase the enjoyable aspects of a design. User experience includes the look, feel, functionality, individuality, and predictability associated with using a product.