User experience design is a subset of the field of experience design which pertains to the creation of the architecture and interaction models which impact a user's perception of a device or system. The scope of the field is directed at affecting "all aspects of the user?s interaction with the product: how it is perceived, learned, and used." ^[1]

The user experience

User experience, most often abbreviated UX and sometimes UE, is a term used to describe all aspects of the user?s experience when interacting with the product, service, environment or facility. It most commonly refers to a combination of software and business topics, such as selling over the web, but it applies to any result of interaction design. Voice User Interface (VUI) systems, for instance, are a frequently mentioned design that can lead to a poor user experience.

The designers

This field has its roots in human factors and ergonomics, a field that since the late 1940s has been focusing on the interaction between human users, machines and the contextual environments to design systems that address the user's experience. ^[2] The term also has a more recent connection to user-centered design principles and also incorporates elements from similar user-centered design fields:

• Human computer interaction
• Information architecture
• Interaction design
• Interface design
• User interface design
• Usability
• Usability engineering
• Visual design

As with the fields mentioned above, user experience design is a highly multi-disciplinary field, incorporating aspects of psychology, anthropology, 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.

The design

At its core, user experience design incorporates most or all of the above disciplines to positively impact the overall user experience with a particular system or device. User experience design defines a sequence of screen presentations, user interactions, and system responses that meet user goals and tasks while satisfying business and functional requirements.

Typical outputs include:

• Flows and Navigation Maps
• User stories or Scenarios
• Persona (Fictitious users to act out the scenarios)
• Wireframes (screen blueprints or storyboards)
• Prototypes (For interactive or in-the-mind simulation)
• Written specifications (describing the behavior or design)
• Graphic mockups (Precise visual or the expected end result)

Benefits

User experience design is integrated into software development and other forms of application development in order to inform feature requirements and interaction plans based upon the user's goals. New introduction of software must keep in mind of the dynamic pace of technology advancement and the need for the change. The benefits associated to integrating these design principles include:

• Reducing excessive features which miss the needs of the user
• Improving the overall usability of the system
• Expediting design and development through detailed and properly conceived guidelines
• Incorporating business and marketing goals while catering to the user

See also

• Human factors
• Software development process
• User-centered design
• Software engineering
• User expectations
• Customer experience

References

Further reading

• Donald Norman: The Design of Everyday Things, ISBN 978-0-465-06710-7
• User Experience Design for Working Web Sites and Applications Sisler, Paul and Catherine Titta, STC Proceedings, 2001
• What Is User Experience Design? - IBM Ease of Use
• What Is User Experience Design? - Montparnas, LLC
• Elements of User Experience - Jesse James Garrett
• User Experience Design - Semantic Studios

External links

• UXnet.org The User Experience Network, dedicated to exploring opportunities for cooperation and collaboration among UX-related organizations and individuals.
• User Experience Design by Peter Morville.
• User Experience Magazine a magazine on UX, published by the Usability Professionals' Association
• UX Magazine An online publication covering the various aspects of user experience.
• UX Passion Focused on all things user experience, tutorials and Microsoft
• Don Norman's Essays
• ACM SIGCHI - Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.

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