I recently kicked off a project with stakeholder interviews. The organization’s silos were competing for ownership of the “User Experience” so I decided to ask the VPs “What is User Experience” they were all wonderfully honest in their answers with a few looking at me as if they were shocked at their own answer – “I don’t know… What is it?!”
I was introduced to UX and UCD over 20 years ago, I am going to credit Don Norman (User-Centered Design) and Jared Spool as the sources of expertise after reading their writings and papers and hearing Jared Spool speak on several occasions. So I will give them credit as the people who have had the strongest influence on my foundational knowledge. However, with over 20 years of experience in the industry, I do have a few thoughts of my own.
Now we have "CX" or Customer Experience which I have worked in for about 10 years. This is a reference to the physical experience which may include digital touchpoints. Sometimes my work has included Service Design which is the design of the ecosystem - planning and designing a company's support of defined customer experiences including people choreography, infrastructure, communication, systems, and physical components.
the need
Everyone has walked up to a door and pushed when you should have pulled – Despite the fact, it was clearly labeled “Pull”. Why? The design of the door elicited a “push response”. The person who designed the door understood how people respond to the elements of the door and how to design a that will successfully work. The person who ordered the door did not understand the usability of the design options – He/she didn’t understand the infrastructure – The door frame that will support the door to be ordered only supports opening out. When the person who hung the door expressed concern about the conflict between the two, a “Pull” label was added with the thought that people will read the instructions and learn – But you haven’t, have you?
the customer experience
The experience of a company or service– all the components (environment, people, systems, and physical and digital assets) working together in a cohesive manner to offer a satisfying experience… at least in theory. When the components have not come together cohesively it results in frustration, confusion, and dissatisfaction.
the user experience
The experience of a product – all the components working together in a cohesive manner to offer a satisfying experience… at least in theory. When the components have not come together cohesively it results in frustration, confusion, and dissatisfaction. The User Experience
The approach
Working proactively to understand all the considerations upfront including the infrastructure, business goals including brand awareness and traffic goals, stakeholder expectations, and who the users are, their actual behavior, motivations, and expectations. User Experience requires collaboration, involvement, and input from all project team members to ensure comprehensive requirement definition and the ability to consider design ideas early enough in the process to be legitimately considered – The defined User or Customer Experience is complete and finalized with full input.
What it is not
This work is not a bunch of people in a room arguing what “I” do, or even customers or users declaring their behavior – This is subject to self-reporting bias and not considered legitimate behavior reporting.
UX
A reference to our activities, not an acronym for the methodology or the user experience. My peers correct me on my misuse of this frequently.
What it is
There is a tendency to use the term “User Experience” interchangeably with “Creative Team” or even “Information Architecture”. User Experience work, or UX, refers to the planning and design of holistic, cohesive experiences (J. Garrett). These experiences begin with planning for – and designing the user’s experience based on an understanding of the users’ task motivations to understand their expectations, anticipating what they need to help support the completion of a task or goal, and finally examining these outcomes on the business and how they can inform business goals and how business goals can be met. User Experience draws from a set of cross-disciplinary skills and expertise including Information Architecture, Interaction Design, UI Design, Usability, and/or Visual Design, and depends on the User-Centered Design methodology. Creating a UX Strategy requires expertise in business process analysis, organizational development, and communication strategy.
Origins
Originally I first heard the term in the 90’s and it was used to reference work done with the User-Centered Design methodology. An iterative approach grounded in Cognitive Psychology that borrows from Anthropology to ensure that the product will be useful and usable.
As Jesse Garrett explained in The Elements of User Experience, User Experience is the conscious focus on the actual behaviors of the real users and their relationship to the business. User Experience brings an understanding of cognition and human behaviors (independent of any product or design) to define a detailed and realistic set of user needs or requirements that must be met to satisfy user goals and create a foundation in which a business can entice and engage more users while satisfy existing users.
Human-Centered Design
The original practitioners at IBM were engaged by engineers and scientists who wanted those room-sized computers to be used by someone other than themselves. They realized that these "other" people did not think like them and they needed a "User-Interface". The original practitioners were from Ergonomics or Human Factors. Their focus was "making" the user understand the technology. This method focuses on effectiveness and efficiency.
This evolved in the 1980s to focus on understanding users to identify new products and services with technology supporting defined users. Don Norman's User-Centered Design was born. This was an important step for commercial products and services expanding the focus to include ease of learning, error tolerance, and ease of satisfaction to effectiveness and efficiency.