“To design an easy-to-use interface, pay attention to what users do, not only what they say. Self-reported claims are unreliable, as are user speculations about future behavior.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)
User experience, or UX, highlights the subjective experiential perceptions that come along with human-computer-interaction, or HCI, and product ownership. ISO 9241-210 defines user experience as “a person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service”. The term itself was brought to wider knowledge by Donald Norman in the mid-1990s just as recent advances in computing technologies moved HCI into practically all areas of human activity. UX planning goes beyond fixing usability issues of a user interface design. In order to properly conduct UX planning one has to begin with the user. We need to take into account what they say, do and the decisions they make. According to Jesse James Garrett “User Experience is not about how a product works on the inside. User experience is about how it works on the outside, where a person comes into contact with it and has to work with it”
UX is about maximizing design and research in such a way that positive experiences occur at the intersection where users come into contact with your product. Experiences are momentary and brief, sometimes isolated and sometimes part of a multi-layered process. The customer always acts in the present influenced by former experiences, knowledge, abilities, and preferences. Forthcoming experiences, expectations and hopes also influence the present as users ebb and flow on a river of experience. The goal of UX is to meet a user’s exact needs without fuss creating products that embody simplicity and elegance, making them a joy to use. Achieving this requires a seamless merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and interface design. This requires teamwork and collaboration across an entire team.
With UX design the whole team has to take the users’ views of a graphical user interface design and ask themselves if their product fulfills all of Peter Morville’s “Facets of the User Experience”:
1. Is the application useful for the individual user and his specific task?
2. Is the application usable for the individual user and his specific task?
3. Is the application desirable for the individual user and his specific task?
4. Is the application valuable for the individual user and his specific task?
5. Is the application accessible, i.e. available to every individual user, regardless of disability?
6. Is the target findable for the individual user and his specific task?
7. Is the application credible for the individual user and his specific task?
UX thrives on the iterative development process that begins with the basic strategy where proof of concept is established via Information Architecture, usability testing of prototypes (e.g. wireframes) and interface design until a detail concept is birthed. While working towards a detailed concept it is important to quickly come up with a rough concept as that allows for experimentation and rapid iterative evaluations of use cases and proposed interface design alternatives.
In order to facilitate a whole team’s involvement in UX design the target user has to be the centerpiece, like the Sun in our solar system. If a profile of the target user is not to be had then scenarios of use or workflows will suffice. Developing a persona(s) of a target user, as well as the environment that precludes them, allows all members of your team to visualize how to use their respective attributes and strengths synergistically in creating a winning interface design or other product. Good UX, just like a good team, is about the sum being greater than the parts with the real ‘architects’ of an interface design being the target user.