Product Code Database
User experience ( UX) is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system, or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency. Improving user experience is important to most companies, designers, and creators when creating and refining products because negative user experience can diminish the use of the product and, therefore, any desired positive impacts. Conversely, designing toward profitability as a main objective often conflicts with ethical user experience objectives and even causes harm. User experience is Subjectivity. However, the attributes that make up the user experience are objective.
The international standard on ergonomics of human-system interaction, ISO 9241, defines user experience as a "user's perceptions and responses that result from the use and/or anticipated use of a system, product or service". According to the ISO definition, user experience includes all the users' emotions, beliefs, preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviors, and accomplishments that occur before, during, and after use. The ISO also lists three factors that influence user experience: the system, the user, and the context of use.
Note 3 of the standard hints that usability addresses aspects of user experience, e.g., "usability criteria can be used to assess aspects of user experience". The standard does not go further in clarifying the relation between user experience and usability. Clearly, the two are overlapping concepts, with usability including Pragmaticism aspects (getting a task done) and user experience focusing on users' feelings stemming from both pragmatic and hedonic aspects of the system. Many practitioners use the terms interchangeably. The term "usability" pre-dates the term "user experience". Part of the reason the terms are often used interchangeably is that, as a practical matter, a user will, at a minimum, require sufficient usability to accomplish a task, while the feelings of the user may be less important, even to the user themselves. Since usability is about getting a task done, aspects of user experience like information architecture and user interface can help or hinder a user's experience. If a website has "bad" information architecture and a user has a difficult time finding what they are looking for, then the user will not have an effective, efficient, and satisfying search.
In addition to the ISO standard, there exist several other definitions for user experience. Some of them have been studied by various researchers.
Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford explored ways to make human labor more efficient and productive. Taylor's research into the efficiency of interactions between workers and their tools is the earliest example that resembles today's user experience fundamentals.
The term user experience was brought to wider knowledge by Donald Norman in the mid-1990s.Donald Norman, Jim Miller, Austin Henderson: What You See, Some of What's in the Future, And How We Go About Doing It: HI at Apple Computer . Proceedings of CHI 1995, Denver, Colorado, USA He never intended the term "user experience" to be applied only to the affective aspects of usage. A review of his earlier workBuley, Leah. 2013, The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide. Rosenfield Media, LLC, USA. suggests that the term "user experience" was used to signal a shift to include affective factors, along with the pre-requisite behavioral concerns, which had been traditionally considered in the field. Many usability practitioners continue to research and attend to affective factors associated with end-users, and have been doing so for years, long before the term "user experience" was introduced in the mid-1990s. In an interview in 2007, Norman discusses the widespread use of the term "user experience" and its imprecise meaning as a consequence thereof.
Several developments affected the rise of interest in the user experience:
The field of user experience represents an expansion and extension of the field of usability to include the holistic perspective of how a person feels about using a system. The focus is on pleasure and value as well as on performance. The exact definition, framework, and elements of user experience are still evolving.
User experience of an interactive product or a website is usually measured by a number of methods, including questionnaires, focus groups, observed usability tests, user journey mapping and other methods. A freely available questionnaire (available in several languages) is the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ). The development and validation of this questionnaire is described in a computer science essay published in 2008.Laugwitz, B., Held, T. & Schrepp, M. (2008).
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Construction and evaluation of a user experience questionnaire . In: Holzinger, A. (Ed.): USAB 2008, LNCS 5298, S. 63–76.
Higher levels of user experience have been linked to increased effectiveness of digital health interventions targeting improvements in physical activity, nutrition, mental health and smoking.
Google Ngram Viewer shows wide use of the term starting in the 1930s. "He suggested that more follow-up in the field would be welcomed by the user, and would be a means of incorporating the results of the user's experience into the design of new machines." Use of the term in relation to computer software also pre-dates Don Norman.
One branch of User research focuses on emotions. This includes momentary experiences during interaction: designing effective interaction and evaluating emotions. Another branch is interested in understanding the long-term relationship between user experience and product appreciation. The industry sees a good overall user experience with a company's products as critical for securing brand loyalty and enhancing the growth of the customer base. All temporal levels of user experience (momentary, episodic, and long-term) are important, but the methods to design and evaluate these levels can be very different.
Companies can be held accountable for their design choices by prioritizing user interests. For instance, ensuring price transparency helps users make informed decisions. Organizations can also align design decisions with user well-being by evaluating qualitative outcomes, like how a product contributes to users’ happiness or mental health, instead of relying solely on engagement metrics. By making business success dependent on user trust and satisfaction, rather than engagement metrics alone, organizations can create sustainable products that support both profitability and user well-being.
One proposed solution to the problem of dark patterns is to focus on how to distinguish manipulative patterns from legitimate Persuasion. For example, researchers at Princeton suggest using guidelines to evaluate when a design crosses the line into manipulation. Researchers from Purdue University instead argue that ethical awareness cannot rely solely on codes of conduct but should instead focus on the designer’s intent, judgment, and ongoing responsibility.
To address these gaps, experts recommend adopting Inclusive design principles throughout the development process. This includes conducting accessibility audits, following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and involving users with disabilities in usability testing to ensure products meet real-world needs. Expanding user research to include diverse groups can also uncover assumptions and Bias early. Additionally, ongoing education about unconscious bias for design teams can help create products that reflect a broader range of user experiences.
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