User experience design
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User experience design (UXD or UED) is the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and the product.[1] User experience design encompasses traditional human–computer interaction (HCI) design, and extends it by addressing all aspects of a product or service as perceived by users.[2]
History
The field of user experience design has roots in human factors and ergonomics, a field that, since the late 1940s, has focused on the interaction between human users, machines, and the contextual environments to design systems that address the user's experience.[3] With the proliferation of workplace computers in the early 1990s, user experience became an important concern for designers. It was Donald Norman, a user experience architect, who coined and brought the term user experience to wider knowledge.[4]
I invented the term because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of the person's experience with the system including industrial design graphics, the interface, the physical interaction and the manual. Since then the term has spread widely, so much so that it is starting to lose its meaning.—Donald Norman[5]
The term also has a more recent connection to user-centered design, human–computer interaction, and also incorporates elements from similar user-centered design fields.
Elements of user experience design
User experience design includes elements of interaction design, information architecture, user research, and other disciplines, and is concerned with all facets of the overall experience delivered to users. Following is a short analysis of its constituent parts.
Visual design
Visual design, also commonly known as graphic design, communication design, or visual communication, represents the aesthetics or look-and-feel of the front end of any user interface. Graphic treatment of interface elements is often perceived as the visual design. The purpose of visual design is to use visual elements like colors, images, and symbols to convey a message to its audience. Fundamentals of Gestalt psychology and visual perception give a cognitive perspective on how to create effective visual communication.[6]
Information architecture
Information architecture is the art and science of structuring and organizing the information in products and services, supporting usability and findability. More basic concepts that are attached with information architecture are described below.
Information
In the context of information architecture, information is separate from both knowledge and data, and lies nebulously between them. It is information about objects. The objects can range from websites, to software applications, to images et al. It is also concerned with metadata: terms used to describe and represent content objects such as documents, people, process, and organizations.
Structuring, organization, and labeling
Structuring is reducing information to its basic building units and then relating them to each other. Organization involves grouping these units in a distinctive and meaningful manner. Labeling means using appropriate wording to support easy navigation and findability.
Finding and managing
Findability is the most critical success factor for information architecture. If users are not able to find required information without browsing, searching or asking, then the findability of the information architecture fails. Navigation needs to be clearly conveyed to ease finding of the contents.
Interaction design
There are many key factors to understanding interaction design and how it can enable a pleasurable end user experience. It is well recognized that building great user experience requires interaction design to play a pivotal role in helping define what works best for the users. High demand for improved user experiences and strong focus on the end-users have made Interaction Designers critical in conceptualizing design that matches user expectations and standards of latest UI patterns and components. While working, Interaction Designers take several things in consideration. A few of them are:[7]
- Create the layout of the interface
- Define Interaction patterns best suited in the context
- Incorporate user needs collected during User Research, into the designs
- Features and Information that are important to the user
- Interface behavior like drag-drop, selections, mouse over actions, and so on
- Effectively communicate strengths of the system
- Make the interface intuitive by building affordances
- Maintain consistency throughout the system
In the last few years, the role of interaction designer has shifted from being just focused on specifying UI components and communicating them to the engineers to a situation now where designers have more freedom to design contextual interfaces which are based on helping meet the user needs.[8] Therefore, User Experience Design evolved into a multidisciplinary design branch that involves multiple technical aspects from motion graphics design and animation to programming.
Usability
Usability is the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.[9]
Usability is attached with all tools used by humans and is extended to both digital and non-digital devices. Thus it is a subset of user experience but not wholly contained. The section of usability that intersects with user experience design is related to humans' ability to use a system or application. Good usability is essential to a positive user experience but does not alone guarantee it.
Accessibility
Accessibility of a system describes its ease of reach, use and understanding. In terms of user experience design it can also be related to the overall comprehensibility of the information and features. It contributes to shorten the learning curve attached with the system. Accessibility in many contexts can be related to the ease of use for people with disabilities and comes under Usability.
Human–computer interaction
Human–computer interaction is concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.[10]
Human–computer interaction is the main contributor to user experience design because of its emphasis on human performance rather than mere usability. It provides key research findings which inform the improvement of systems for the people. HCI extends its study towards more integrated interactions, such as tangible interactions, which is generally not covered in the practice of user experience. User experience cannot be manufactured or designed; it has to be incorporated in the design. Understanding the user's emotional quotient plays a key role while designing User Experience. The first step while designing the user experience is determining the reason a visitor will be visiting the website or use the application in question. Then the user experience can be designed accordingly.
Design
User experience design incorporates most or all of the above disciplines to positively impact the overall experience a person has with a particular interactive system, and its provider. User experience design most frequently defines a sequence of interactions between a user (individual person) and a system, virtual or physical, designed to meet or support user needs and goals, primarily, while also satisfying systems requirements and organizational objectives.
Typical outputs include:
- Site Audit (usability study of existing assets)
- Flows and Navigation Maps
- User stories or Scenarios
- User segmentations and Persona (Fictitious users to act out the scenarios)
- Site Maps and Content Inventory
- Wireframes (screen blueprints or storyboards)
- Prototypes (For interactive or in-the-mind simulation)
- Written specifications (describing the behavior or design)
- Graphic mockups (Precise visual of the expected end result)
Designers
As with the fields mentioned above, user experience design is a highly multi-disciplinary field, incorporating aspects of psychology, anthropology, architecture, sociology, computer science, graphic design, industrial design and cognitive science. Depending on the purpose of the product, UX may also involve content design disciplines such as communication design, instructional design, or game design. The subject matter of the content may also warrant collaboration with a subject-matter expert (SME) on planning the UX from various backgrounds in business, government, or private groups. More recently, content strategy has come to represent a sub-field of UX.
Benefits
User experience design is integrated into software development and other forms of application development to inform feature requirements and interaction plans based upon the user's goals. Every new software introduced must keep pace with the rapid technological advancements. The benefits associated with integration of these design principles include:
- Avoiding unnecessary product features
- Simplifying design documentation and customer-centric technical publications
- Improving the usability of the system and therefore its acceptance by customers
- Expediting design and development through detailed and properly conceived guidelines
- Incorporating business and marketing goals while protecting the user's freedom of choice
Criticism
The discipline of user experience design, though still in its infancy and without a universally recognized definition, remains subject to criticism. Critics of user experience design argue that:
- User Experience Design is a buzzword for an existing best practice, therefore bringing no additional value
- A user experience cannot be fully "designed", therefore questioning the validity of the entire practice
- A user experience cannot be fully measured, therefore questioning the ROI of the practice
See also
- Action research
- Activity-centered design
- Chief experience officer (CXO)
- Component-Based Usability Testing
- Contextual inquiry
- Customer experience
- Design thinking
- Empathic design
- Human-centered computing
- Information architecture
- Interaction design
- Needs analysis
- Paper prototyping
- Participatory design
- Process-centered design
- Thanatosensitivity
- Transgenerational design
- Ubiquitous computing
- Usability
- Usability engineering
- Usability testing
- User-design
- User experience evaluation
- User interface design
- World Usability Day
References
- ↑ Kujala, Sari; Roto, Virpi; Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, Kaisa; Karapanos, Evangelos; Sinneläa, Arto (2011). "UX Curve: A method for evaluating long-term user experience". Interacting With Computers 23 (5): 473–483. doi:10.1016/j.intcom.2011.06.005.
- ↑ "What is user experience design?". IBM.
- ↑ Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. HFES History.
- ↑ uxdesign, "UX Design Defined", 16/08/2010
- ↑ Merholz, Peter (2007). "Peter in Conversation with Don Norman About UX & Innovation". Adaptive Path.
- ↑ Visual Design, , The gestalt of visual design.
- ↑ Psomas, Steve (2007). "The Five Competencies of User Experience Design". UX Matters.
- ↑ Lowgren, Jonas. "Interaction Design". Interaction-Design.org.
- ↑ International standards for HCI and usability, , ISO 9241-11: Guidance on Usability (1998)
- ↑ Definition of HCI, , CHAPTER 2: Human-Computer Interaction, ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction
Further reading
- Norman, Donald. The Design of Everyday Things. ISBN 9780465067107.
- Cooper, Alan. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity. ISBN 9780672316494.
- Buxton, Bill. Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. ISBN 9780123740373.
- Cooper, Alan. About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. ISBN 9780470084113.
- Tidwell, Jenifer. Designing Interfaces. ISBN 9781449379704.
- Moser, Christian. User Experience Design: Mit erlebniszentrierter Softwareentwicklung zu Produkten, die begeistern. ISBN 9783642133626.
- Moggridge, Bill. Designing Interactions. ISBN 9780262134743.