User experience

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term user experience (abbreviation UX , German literally 'user experience', better 'user experience' or 'user experience' - it is also often spoken of as the user experience ) describes all aspects of the impressions a user makes when interacting with a product, service, environment or Facility. This also includes software and IT systems . The term user experience is mostly used in connection with the design of websites or apps , but includes any type of product interaction , including non-digital, physical use.

Goal and further definition

User experience plays a major role in product and service development. In many areas, the pre-Christian Roman engineer Vitruvius is the first architect and designer who defined the criteria for the user experience with the terms firmitas 'strength' , utilitas , German 'usefulness' , English usability and venustas 'beauty' , even if it was back then was still more oriented towards buildings.

When a user's expectations are met, a product is comfortable to use. Depending on the type of product, the three criteria manifest themselves somewhat differently. While strength in a house means it won't collapse, software means it won't crash or be hacked , and a car means it's not prone to repair.

In a house completely different functions are useful than z. B. a stove, or a complex computer game. It is not only important that the functions are easily accessible, but also that the functionality is available. For example, if a car has an extra accelerator pedal but no brake, then it's less useful.

According to the holistic understanding of the user experience, an experience is also shaped by the beauty and emotionality of the experience. When it comes to this criterion, such standards are not equally important for every product: While beauty alone is unlikely to be convincing in a spreadsheet program, aesthetics may be the focus when designing clothing.

User experience is also described in ISO 9241-210 . Here, user experience is defined by the perceptions and reactions of a person that result from the use or the expected use of a product. This includes the emotions of the user, the psychological and physiological reactions, the expectations and the behavior. User experience is understood as a consequence, influenced by the design, functionality and performance characteristics of a product. Prior knowledge and characteristics of the respective user can also play a role, as can brand perception or the context of use.

history

Early developments in user experience can be traced back to the machine age, which spanned the 19th and early 20th centuries. Striving to improve assembly processes has resulted in increased production efficiency and output through technological advances such as: B. the mass production of high-volume goods on assembly lines, high-speed printing presses, large hydropower plants and radio technology . Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford have been at the forefront of exploring new ways to make human work more efficient and productive. Taylor's groundbreaking research on workflow efficiency and the Taylorism it creates is an example of this.

The term user experience was introduced by Donald Norman in the mid-1990s . He never intended to limit the term “user experience” to the affective aspects of use. An overview of his previous work suggests that the term “user experience” was used to include emotional factors in addition to behavioral factors. In a 2007 interview, Norman discussed the widespread use of the term “user experience” and its imprecise meaning as a result.

Several developments influenced the rise in interest in the user experience.

  • Recent advances in mobile, ubiquitous, social, and tangible computing technology have brought human-computer interaction into virtually all areas of human activity. This has resulted in a shift away from usability engineering to a much richer area of ​​user experience, where as much, if not more attention is paid to users' feelings, motives, and values ​​than efficiency, effectiveness, and subjective satisfaction (i.e., the three traditional usability measures).
  • When designing the website, it was important to combine the interests of the various parties involved: marketing , branding, visual design and usability . Marketing and branding folks had to step into the interactive world where ease of use was important. The usability folks had to consider marketing, branding and aesthetic needs when designing their website. User experience offered a platform to cover the interests of everyone involved: websites should be easy to use, valuable and effective for visitors. For this reason, several early user experience publications focus on website user experience.

User experience is an extension and expansion of the topic of user-friendliness by including the holistic perspective of how a person feels when using a system. The focus is on pleasure and value as well as performance. The precise definition, framework and elements of the user experience are still evolving.

The user experience of an interactive product or website is usually measured by a number of methods including questionnaires , focus groups , observed usability tests, and other methods. A freely available questionnaire (available in several languages) is the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ).

The Google Ngram Viewer shows that the term has been in use since the 1930s: “It suggested that more follow-up in this area would be welcomed by the user and a means of incorporating the results of the user experience into the design of new machines ". The use of the term in connection with computer software also goes back to before Norman.

Components

User experience design is a multidisciplinary field that combines insights and a. combines visual design, human-computer interaction, psychology, reception research and software development. The following components are essential parts of the user experience design:

Visual design

Visual design - or also graphic design , UI design or communication design - describes the aesthetics of the end product. Visual design uses colors, images and symbols to reach the recipient. It is the final level of the user experience design process.

The user interfaces (UI) and the user experience (UX) have a causal cause-and-effect relationship. However, it should be noted that the user interface (UI) is not the only "cause" factor for the user experience. Other factors such as the users themselves and their environment also have a dramatic effect on the user experience (UX) in a causal context. In other words, the design of user interfaces is not the only way or factor that influences UX.

Information architecture

Information architecture includes structuring and organizing information so that the user can find it as intuitively as possible. Information architecture also deals with the categorization and naming of content, as well as the functioning of search engines and the necessary metadata . In order to make content accessible to users, information architects also create navigation concepts, for example for menus on websites.

Interaction design

Interaction design is an essential part of user experience design and focuses on all interactions between a product and its users. The aim is to develop products that can be used intuitively and efficiently and thus contribute to a positive overall experience. Interaction designers delve deeply into user research to capture the expectations and needs of their target groups.

Usability

Usability describes the extent to which a product supports the user in achieving his goals in a specific context of use. The more effective, efficient and simple the operation of a product, the higher its usability. Usability is an objective design quality characteristic that can be measured by external usability tests. However, usability neglects the subjective perception of the user and focuses more on the problems of the actual interaction. The user experience consists of the combination of three factors: the quality of use, which is a system attribute, the user properties and the conditions of use, which are not system attributes.

Design process

The design process should be designed in such a way that the best possible user experience can be achieved in accordance with ISO 9241-210. An iterative approach, as is known from design thinking , is suitable for this , in order to also take into account the needs and motivations of the users.

User experience design process
  1. Planning a user-centered design process
  2. Define and develop an understanding of the use (e.g. through the use of questionnaires and interviews )
  3. Define the user requirements (e.g. by persona )
  4. Approaching a solution by creating designs based on user requirements. (e.g. by developing storyboards , wireframes and mockups etc.)
  5. Evaluation of the design (e.g. usability test , field studies, etc.)
  6. Iteratively repeating steps 2 through 5 until a final design is available that meets the user's needs.

Example: Measuring the user experience of a website

The three criteria mentioned above (strength or stability, usefulness and beauty) can be measured. This is still relatively easy with the stability or a minimal response time. Measuring the other two criteria is more complex. There are several methods available, including: a. the eye tracking method , in which the spontaneous perception of the website is measured by the user's eye movement. User surveys using standardized questionnaires are also common. For example, the AttrakDiff or the UEQ ( User Experience Questionnaire ) are used for this . Recording the user experience with items or non-validated ad hoc scales is problematic . User experience is a multidimensional construct that is difficult to grasp using a single question. There are also problems of reliability due to the high risk of measurement errors with one-item scales. In the case of non-validated ad hoc scales, it is unclear what they actually measure as long as no validation has taken place.

When validating the user experience in practice, questions such as: "How quickly does the user get the sense, concept and purpose of a website?"

See also

literature

  • Mike Kuniavsky: Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2003, ISBN 1-55860-923-7 .
  • Deborah J. Mayhew: The Usability Engineering Lifecycle. A Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design. Morgan Kaufmann, 1999, ISBN 1-55860-561-4 .
  • Donald A. Norman: The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books, 2002, ISBN 0-465-06710-7 .
  • Donald A. Norman: Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. Basic Books, 2005, ISBN 0-465-05136-7 .
  • Meinald T. Thielsch: Aesthetics of websites: Perception of aesthetics and their relationship to content, usability and personality traits. MV Wissenschaft, 2008, ISBN 978-3-86582-660-2 .
  • Tom Tullis, Bill Albert: Measuring The User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics (Interactive Technologies). Morgan Kaufmann, 2008, ISBN 978-0-12-373558-4 .
  • Steven Broschart: Search Engine Optimization & Usability. Franzis-Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-645-60105-4 .
  • Rainer Dorau: Emotional interaction design. Gestures and facial expressions in interactive systems. Springer, 2011, ISBN 978-3-642-03100-7 .
  • Christian Moser: User Experience Design: With experience-centered software development for products that inspire. 2012, ISBN 978-3-642-13362-6 .
  • Martin Schrepp: Measuring user experience with questionnaires. ISBN 1-986843-76-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roel Wieringa: Debunking Vitruvius: An Anti-Hero for ICT Architects. University of Twente, the Netherlands, November 13, 2004.
  2. ^ De architectura, Liber I , Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a very long time ago.
  3. ↑ a b ISO 9241-210: Ergonomics of human system interaction - Part 210: Human-centered design for interactive systems . ISO, Geneva 2010 (English).
  4. ↑ Terrace - school books, teaching materials and learning materials. Ernst Klett, accessed on June 23, 2020 .
  5. ^ The term User Experience - 1995. In: Web Design Museum. Retrieved June 23, 2020 (English).
  6. ↑ Leah Buley: The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide . Rosenfed Media, Brooklyn, New York 2013, ISBN 1-933820-18-7 (English).
  7. ^ John Rheinfrank: A conversation with Don Norman . In: Interactions . April 1, 1995, doi : 10.1145 / 205350.205357 (English).
  8. ^ Towards the Integration of Transectorial IT Design and Evaluation (End date: November 2013). In: COST. March 14, 2015, accessed June 23, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Ergonomics of human-system interaction . BSI British Standards, doi : 10.3403 / 30319071 (English).
  10. ^ The user experience. October 1, 2000, accessed June 23, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Elizabeth Goodman, Mike Kuniavsky, Andrea Meod: Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research . Morgan Kaufmann, 2012, ISBN 0-12-384869-5 (English).
  12. ↑ Jennifer Fleming: Web Navigation: Designing the User Experience. Retrieved June 23, 2020 (English).
  13. ↑ User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ). Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  14. ^ Lubrication Engineering . American Society of Lubrication Engineers, 1945 ( google.de [accessed June 23, 2020]).
  15. ↑ Google Ngram Viewer. Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  16. ↑ attrakdiff.de
  17. ↑ ueq-online.org
  18. ^ Bettina Laugwitz, Theo Held, Martin Schrepp: Construction and evaluation of a user experience questionnaire. In: A. Holzinger (Ed.): HCI and Usability for Education and Work. (= Lecture notes in computer science. 5298). Springer, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-89349-3 , pp. 63-76. (online) ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ueq-online.org
  19. ↑ M. Moshagen, MT Thielsch: Facets of visual aesthetics. In: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 68 (10), 2010, pp. 689-709. PDF - see in particular section 1.3