Welcome back,
Or welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,
Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.
I'm your host,
Benjamin Boster.
Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled User Experience.
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 subjective.
However,
The attributes that make up the user experience are objective.
According to Nielsen Norman Group,
User experience includes all the aspects of the interaction between the end user with the company,
Its services,
And its products.
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 user's 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 three 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 pragmatic aspects,
Getting a task done,
And user experience focusing on user's feelings,
Stemming both from pragmatic and hedonic aspects of the system.
Many practitioners use the terms interchangeably.
The term usability predates 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're looking for,
Then a 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.
Early developments in user experience can be traced back to the machine age that includes the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Inspired by the machine age intellectual framework,
A quest for improving assembly processes to increase production efficiency and output led to the development of major technological advancements,
Such as mass production of high-volume goods,
Unmoving assembly lines,
High-speed printing press,
Large hydroelectric power production plants,
And radio technology to name a few.
Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford were in the forefront of exploring new ways to make human labor more efficient and productive.
Taylor's pioneering 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.
He never intended the term user experience to be applied only to the effective aspects of usage.
A review of his earlier work suggests that the term user experience was used to signal a shift to include effective factors along with the prerequisite behavioral concerns which had been traditionally considered in the field.
Many usability practitioners continued to research and attend to effective 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 wide 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.
One,
Recent advances in mobile,
Ubiquitous,
Social,
And tangible computing technologies have moved human-computer interaction into practically all areas of human activity.
This has led to a shift away from usability engineering to a much richer scope of user experience where users' feelings,
Motivations,
And values are given as much,
If not more,
Attention than efficiency,
Effectiveness,
And basic subjective satisfaction,
I.
E.
The three traditional usability metrics.
Two,
In website design,
It was important to combine the interests of different stakeholders,
Marketing,
Branding,
Visual design,
And usability.
Marketing and branding people needed to enter the interactive world where usability was important.
Usability people needed to take marketing,
Branding,
And aesthetic needs into account when designing websites.
User experience provided a platform to cover the interests of all stakeholders,
Making websites easy to use,
Valuable,
And effective for visitors.
This is why several early user experience publications focus on website 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 user experiences,
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.
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 Viewers 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 user's experience into the design of new machines.
Use of the term in relation to computer software also predates Norman.
Many factors can influence a user's experience with a system.
To address the variety,
Factors influencing user experience have been classified into three main categories,
User's state and previous experience,
System properties,
And the usage context situation.
Understanding representative users,
Working environments,
Interactions,
And emotional reactions help in designing the system during user experience design.
Single experiences influence the overall user experience.
The experience of a key click affects the experience of typing a text message.
The experience of typing a message affects the experience of text messaging.
And the experience of text messaging affects the overall user experience with the phone.
The overall user experience is not simply a sum of smaller interaction experiences because some experiences are more salient than others.
Overall user experience is also influenced by factors outside the actual interaction episode,
Brand,
Pricing,
Friends' opinions,
Reports and media,
Et cetera.
One branch in user experience 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 relation between user experience and product appreciation.
The industry sees 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.
Developer experience,
DX,
Is a user experience from a developer's point of view.
It is defined by the tools,
Processes,
And software that a developer uses when interacting with a product or system while in the process of production of another one,
Such as in software development.
DX is a user experience that is defined by the tools,
Processes,
And software DX has had increased attention paid to it,
Especially in businesses who primarily offer software as a service to other businesses,
Where ease of use is a key differentiator in the market.
User research focuses on understanding user behaviors,
Needs,
And motivations through interviews,
Surveys,
Usability evaluations,
And other forms of feedback methodologies.
It is used to understand how people interact with products and evaluate whether design solutions meet their needs.
This field of research aims at improving the user experience,
UX,
Of products,
Services,
Or processes by incorporating experimental and observational research methods to guide the design,
Development,
And refinement of a product.
User research is used to improve a multitude of products like websites,
Mobile phones,
Medical devices,
Banking,
Government services,
And many more.
It is an iterative process that can be used at any time during product development and is a core part of user-centered design.
Data from users can be used to identify a problem for which solutions may be proposed.
From these proposals,
Design solutions are prototyped and then tested with the target user group even before launching the product in the market.
This process is repeated as many times as necessary.
After the product is launched in the market,
User research can also be used to understand how to improve it or create a new solution.
User research also helps to uncover problems faced by users when they interact with a product and turn them into actionable insights.
User research is beneficial in all stages of product development,
From ideation to market release.
Mike Kinyavsky further notes that it is the process of understanding the impact of design on an audience.
The types of user research you can or should perform will depend on the type of site,
System,
Or app you are developing,
Your timeline,
And your environment.
Professionals who participate in user research are often the ones who are most likely to be successful.
Professionals who practice user research often use the job title user researcher.
User researchers are becoming very common,
Especially in the digital and service industries,
Even in the government.
User researchers often work alongside designers,
Engineers,
And programmers in all stages of product development.
With respect to user research in the field of design,
Research is typically approached with an empathetic perspective in order to humanize data collected about people.
This method can also be referred to a human-centered approach to problem solving.
User researchers aim to uncover the barriers or frustrations users face.
User researchers aim to uncover the barriers or frustrations users face as they interact with products,
Services,
Or systems.
The unique facet of user research is the brand of UX research which focuses on the feelings,
Thoughts,
And situations users go through as they interact with products,
Services,
And systems.
Many businesses focus on creating enjoyable experiences for their users.
However,
Not including users in their development process can result in failed products.
Involving users in the development process helps design better products,
Adapt products to change in behaviors and needs,
And design the right products and desirable experiences for the users.
User research helps businesses and organizations improve their products and services by helping them better understand who their users are,
What their users are trying to achieve,
What their needs are,
How do their users currently try to do things,
And what are their current pain points.
What is the best way to help users achieve their tasks?
There are various benefits to conducting user research more than just designing better products and services.
Understanding what people want before releasing products in the market will help save money.
Additionally,
User research helps to gather data that can help influence stakeholders' decisions based on evidence and not opinions.
User research is interrelated with the field of design.
In many cases,
Someone working in the field can take on both roles of researcher and designer.
Alternatively,
These roles may also be separated and teams of designers and researchers must collaborate through their projects.
User research is commonly used in software development and user development.
It is commonly used in software development and user experience design.
There is pure and applied research.
User research utilizes applied research to make better products.
There are many ways of classifying research.
Erika Hall in her book Just Enough Research mentions four ways of classifying user research.
Generative research or exploratory research is done to understand and define the problems to solve for users in the first place.
It can be used during the initial stages of product development to create new solutions or it can be applied to an existing product to identify improvements and enhancements.
Interviews,
Observational studies,
Secondary research,
Etc.
Are some of the common methods used during this phase.
These methods are used to answer broad and open questions where the aim is to identify problems users might be experiencing.
Usually,
The data collected through generative research must be synthesized in order to formulate the problems to be solved and why it is important.
Descriptive research or explanatory research helps to define the characteristics of the problem and populations previously identified.
It is used to understand the context of the problem and the context in which users have the problem.
The methods in this phase can be very similar to the methods used in the generative research phase.
However,
This phase helps to identify what is the best way to solve a problem as opposed to what problem to solve.
During this phase,
Experts in the problem area are consulted to fill knowledge gaps that will be required to create a solution.
This phase is required to avoid making assumptions about the problem or people that might otherwise result in a biased solution.
The aim of this phase is to get a good understanding of the problem to get the right solution ideas.
Evaluative research is used to test the solution ideas to ensure they work and solve the problems identified.
Ideas are usually tested to find alternatives from the target population.
This is an iterative process and can be done on prototype versions of the solution.
A commonly used method in this phase is called usability testing and it focuses on measuring if the solution addressed the intended problem.
Users can also be asked to provide an opinion about the solution or they can be given a set of tasks to observe if the solution is intuitive and easy to use.
In simple words,
Evaluative research assesses whether the solution fits the problem and whether the right problems were addressed.
Casual research typically answers why something is happening.
Once a solution is up and running one can observe how people are using it in real time and understand why it is or isn't used the way the solution was envisioned.
One of the common methods used in this phase is A-B testing.
The user research process follows a traditional iterative design approach that is common to user-centered design User research can be applied anywhere in the design cycle.
Typically software projects start conducting user research at the requirement gathering stage to involve users right from the start of the projects.
There are various design models that can be used in an organization.
They include a wide range of research methods used in the field of user research.
The Nielsen-Norman group has provided a framework to better understand when to use which method.
It is helpful to view them along a three-dimensional framework with the following axes.
Attitudinal vs.
Behavioral This distinction is the contrast between what people say and what people do.
Perceptions,
Beliefs,
Opinions and what they think about a certain product or problem.
Whereas behavioral research measures how people really use a product.
Interview studies,
Focus groups,
Surveys and diary studies often measure attitudes.
Some usability studies that look at how people use products can fall under behavioral research.
Web analytics and click rates provide a good behavioral measure.
Qualitative vs.
Quantitative Qualitative research helps generate data by asking users about their attitudes through open-ended questions via surveys,
Interviews and observing behaviors directly.
Quantitative research aims to measure attitudes and behaviors via surveys and analytics.
Contrast lies in the ability to analyze data.
Quantitative research typically uses mathematical analysis where the instrument of data collection gathers data that can be coded numerically whereas in qualitative research analysis is not mathematical.
Affinity diagramming,
Semantic analysis grounded theory are some commonly used qualitative analysis methods.
Context of use This describes how participants are using the product in question and whether they are using it in the first place.
Products can be used in a natural or near-natural setting where there is minimum interference from the researchers and this method provides data with great validity but lacks the ability to ask clarifying questions to users.
Scripted use of the product are typically used in lab-based or usability studies where the goal is to test or know about very specific aspects of the product.
Some exploratory studies like interviews are done when a product does not exist yet or users' perception about a product is gathered when the product in question is not in use.
User research deliverables helps summarize research and make insights digestible to the audience.
There are multiple formats of presenting research deliverables regardless of the format the deliverable has to be engaging,
Actionable and cater to the audience.
The following are some most common user research deliverables.
Research reports Personas Customer user journey maps Mental model diagrams Wireframes Storyboards A group of like-minded professionals in the user research industry called the ResearchOps community defined a new practice called ResearchOps to operationalize user research practice in companies.
ResearchOps is similar to DevOps DesignOps and SalesOps where the goal is to support practitioners by removing some operational tasks from their daily work.
The goal of ResearchOps is to enable researchers to be efficient in their roles by saving time taken for data collection and processing data for analysis.
ResearchOps aims to support researchers in all facets of user research starting from planning,
Conducting analyzing and maintaining user research data.
The ResearchOps community defines it as the people,
Mechanisms and strategies that set user research in motion providing the roles,
Tools and processes needed to support researchers in delivering and scaling the impact of the craft across an organization.
ResearchOps focuses on standardizing research methods across the organization providing support documentation like scripts templates,
Consent forms,
Etc.
To ensure quick application of research managing participants and recruitment and studies providing governance having oversight of research ethics ensuring research insights are accessible to the organization.
Thank you.
