The phrase by Joseph Campbell most precisely shows the whole meaning of purchasing products today: wares are bought not only to satisfy user needs, but also to give a new experience and impressions which, in the end, determine whether the customer will stay with a company or not.
The user experience is a relatively new word in IT, most people still do not understand the whole meaning of the UX and use this term in the sense of the user-centered design (UCD), or the usability, or even graphical user interface (GUI).
One of the first definitions of the UX was proposed by L. Alben, who claimed that UX covers: “all the aspects of how people use an interactive product: the way it feels in their hands, how well they understand how it works, how they feel about it while they are using it, how well it serves their purposes, how well it fits into the context in which they are using it, and how well it contributes to the quality of their lives”.
“The entire set of effects that is elicited by the interaction between the user and the product, including the degree to which all our senses are gratified (aesthetic experience), the meanings we attach to the product (experience of meaning), and the feelings and emotions that are elicited (emotional experience).” - Hekkert, P.
“The user experience is the totality of end-users’ perceptions as they interact with a product or service. These perceptions include effectiveness (how good is the result?), efficiency (how fast or cheap is it?), emotional satisfaction (how good does it feel?), and the quality of the relationship with the entity that created the product or service (what expectations does it create for subsequent interactions?).” - Kuniavsky, M.
These definitions show that UX is the process aimed at increasing the quality of interaction between the user and the product by improving usability, accessibility, ease of use, and pleasure of having the product.
A high level of UX can be achieved by using the user-focused approach to design and development. This user-centered method is a philosophy where user needs are in the focus at all stages of the product development lifecycle. As a result, products created with the use of the UCD methodology are optimized for user purposes, allow to quickly and efficiently attain established goals, and have a high level of usability.
What is the usability? In conformity with the International Organization of Standardization (ISO), usability is defined as effectiveness (accuracy and completeness with which user can reach the objective), efficiency (resources expended in relation to the effectiveness) and satisfaction (comfort and acceptability of a product) of achieving specific goals.
Effectiveness - the qualitative indicator which shows whether a product acts as it is expected and if it is easy for users to carry out basic tasks.
Accessibility - a subset of usability that provides a broad range of requirements, standards, and methods for improving the web for users with disabilities.
The mentioned above information shows that usability is described in the user gratification as a UX, but despite this fact, usability is merely a component of the user experience which covers a much larger area.
Minor usability improvements in the process of product development allow a supplier not only to get the significant returns on investments (ROI), but also to provide much more benefits to existing users or potential customers.
In this video, Dr. Susan Weinschenk, (the chief of the UX strategy, Human Factors International) demonstrates how the user-centered design leads to the significant return on investment (ROI).
Ethnographic research. This technique uses different methods of anthropology investigation, for example, observing users in environment where they use a product. This method allows to gather information about user goals, tasks and expectations. Collected data, different user behavior models and thought-out test-scenarios can help to correct product requirements.
Cooperative design. This method implies direct involving of stakeholder representatives in a product design process. The advantage of this method is that the direct involvement helps to create the clearest product picture that corresponds with user goals and tasks the best. The main drawback of this technique is that the involved user can spoil critical thinking of the team. A reasonable option here is to make short time meetings, where the design team will work with stakeholders only on a certain aspects of the product.
Focus groups. Focus groups are commonly employed in order to identify how acceptable the design, feature, or product are as a whole, what moments are misleading and unsatisfactory to users, how these problems may be fixed in order to satisfy user goals.
Surveys. They are used to get a comprehensive picture of the preferences of a great number of users (not a focus group) about an existing product or service. The polls do not give in-depth answers that explain how to create the product, but survey results may still help to improve the product in accordance with user needs and preferences.
Walk-through testing. This type of testing is used to explore how the end-user (which follows explicit guidelines) interacts with the product or service. The main purpose of walk-though testing is to reveal all the difficulties at each and every step of user interaction and to improve the effectiveness of user efforts on the basis of testing outcomes.
Paper prototyping and card sorting. Both of these techniques allow to express any concept, feature, or aspect of a product on a paper, thus making it possible to get early feedback from stakeholders. The analysis of results of paper prototyping as well as card sorting helps to effectively position navigation elements and simplify an interaction with the product.
Expert evaluation. This method presumes involving of an usability specialist or an user experience expert who have an independent viewpoint and does not participate in project design. The specialist should have at least basic knowledge of product area to give a more precise assessment.
does the product allow users to achieve their goals?
how easily and quickly can users navigate through the interface?
does the workflow correspond to user expectations?
which features are the most important for users?
what the user should know to use the product?
The exploratory testing implies the direct interaction between the user, the product and the moderator who gathers information about the design concept. The participant in such tests performs simple tasks, responds to general questions and expresses an independent opinion (drawbacks, advantages, preferences, expectations).
Unlike the Evaluation and Validation tests, where the main purpose is to get quantitative characteristics of how easy and fast user can perform tasks, exploratory test is focused on the examination of high-level concepts in order to create the final design which can satisfy user goals and needs.
Evaluation test. The assessment tests are the simplest usability tests that are performed at early stages of the product lifecycle when high-level design has already been defined. Their aim is to expand collected data of exploratory testing by evaluating the usability of low-level operations (how easily the user can perform particular tasks) and by identifying specific disadvantages of usability.
The second part of the article will explain how to properly conduct usability tests and what rules, principles, and recommendations to follow.