A high level review of the state of UX design and a personal perspective of its issues, and how it is evolving to expand the medium of mobile.

3. Adam R.T. Smith

4. session overview

5. my journey into, away from and
back to user experience

6. how I got into UX

7. my struggles with UX

8. the current state
of user experience

9. what does UX mean to you?

10. "user experience is an emotional response to
interacting with whatever the communicative tool is”
interface designer

11. “a user experience is how enjoyable it is to
use something to complete a task”
developer

12. “This is an umbrella term used to describe all the factors that contribute to a
user’s overall perception of a system. Is it easy to use, attractive and
appropriate? Does it meet user needs?”
customer support

13. “the feeling I get as I am doing something”
developer

14. “how I engage with the content being presented to me.
It's akin to going to a movie and covers a whole range of things.”
film producer

15. “level of satisfaction I undergo when interacting with anything
designed to serve a specific purpose or purposes”
entrepreneur

16. “user experience - the result of interfacing”
UX designer

17. “user experience refers to whether or not a user is
positively or negatively affected by the use of the item.”
interaction designer

18. “a good user experience is kind of like good sex:
hard to define but you know it when you feel it.”
lawyer

19. “user experience is often [the] reason behind software application
creation and always the validation of the creators' abilities”
technical analyst

20. “simple, intuitive site navigation.”
marketing executive

21. we have a perception problem...

22. why there’s a perception issue with
user experience

23. “user experience” as a term
user (ˈyoōzər)
noun
1. A person who uses or operates something, esp. a computer or other machine.
• A person who takes illegal drugs; a drug user : the drug causes long-term brain damage in users; a heroin user.
• A person who manipulates others for their own gain : he was a gifted user of other people.
experience (ikˈspi(ə)rēəns)
noun
1. Practical contact with and observation of facts or events : he had already learned his lesson by painful experience; he spoke from experience.
• The knowledge or skill acquired by such means over a period of time, esp. that gained in a particular profession by someone at work : older
men whose experience could be called upon; candidates with the necessary experience.
• An event or occurrence that leaves an impression on someone : for the younger players it has been a learning experience.
verb [ trans. ]
encounter or undergo (an event or occurrence) : the company is experiencing difficulties.
• feel (an emotion) : an opportunity to experience the excitement of New York.

24. “user experience” as a term
• a user can experience an experience that they have yet to previously
experience in their personal experience.

25. “user experience” as a term
• a user can partake in an event or occurrence that they have yet to
previously participate in in their life.

26. “user experience” as a term
• specific problems with experience
• to experience
• an experience
• co-experience
• experience as a story

27. too ambiguous
• as a term in general
• as a professional field (user experience)
• as a discipline/ practice of that field (user experience design)
• as a description of the resulting product of that practice (a user’s experience)
• perhaps we need a new label for UX?

28. where does that leave
UX designers, and UX as a field?

29. tasks confused as roles
• practitioners coming from singular disciplines (IA, ID) perceive their
components of user experience design to be the most important... and
push the process in that direction
• I believe: the culmination of a number of individual, and previously
independent, disciplines (IA, ID, GD, UID, MarCom, Brand, etc.) into a
cohesive and collaborative unit (whether individual or team) with shared
knowledge, experience and mutual respect for the value provided by
each to build the best experience possible.

30. tech & techniques more valued than UX
• AJAX, Web 2.0, Social Networking, etc. are easier to grasp conceptually
by the masses than UX and get more focus as a result
• technology, methods and techniques are means to an end, not a value
offering
• easier to sell what can be explained, and easier to buy what can be
understood
• difficult to convince clients of the value of research & testing when faced
with tight timelines and budgets

31. over reliance on “best-practices”
• as a community, we seem to have a need to quantify our value though
documenting best-practices
• best-practices may have worked on a previous product, but may not
be the optimal solution for the current
• UXD is evolving so quickly that best-practices are generally outdated
once disseminated
• Best-practices can be the lazy way out - stagnating innovation

32. little to no accountability
• because user experience is so misunderstood:
• clients can be embarrassed by lack of knowledge... so they don’t
push for explanations or justifications
• UX deliverables are rarely held to task & measured for effectiveness
• products languish and degrade as a result of poor updates &
management - lack of respect for good UX
• partial deliverables passed off as full UXD

33. what now?
• if we don’t know where we came from, how do we expect to
understand where we are?
• and more importantly, where we’re going?

35. a short history of
user experience

36. history
• 1940s - human factors grows out of WW2 cognitive psychology research on the strains on military personnel
• 1970s - human computer interaction (HCI) develops thanks to Scandinavian labour unions demand for
usable computer systems from occupational health perspective, starting with hardware, then software
• 1980s - usability emerges
• 1980s - term User Experience coined by Don Norman as self title at Apple
• 1990s - Norman builds on concept of User Experience with series of “...Everyday Things” books
• late 1990s - the explosion in popularity acts as a scatter-bomb for existing practices and thinking in UX
• 1999 - usability takes forefront “Designing Web Usability”
• 2004 - Norman quantifies the “fuzzy” / intangible side of interaction with book Emotional Design

37. history
• usability more easily understood and value more easily sold in organizations so it takes off
faster than the more integrated concept of UX
• numerous new roles, titles and disciplines emerge as a result of popularity of web,
fractured, disconnected
• as an industry we see the need to have an integrated approach, but each try to do it from
the perspective of their fractured discipline - no cohesion
• confusion - what are we, where did we come from? where are we going?
• reintegration power struggle - what we're seeing between the IAs and IDs
• and here we are today...

38. the elements and principals
of user experience

39. elements of user experience

40. elements of user experience
• useful: allows the user to accomplish a particular goal or task
• usable: allows the user to interact intuitively, with ease & fails gracefully
• desirable: satisfies an emotional need, personal or social, for the user
• findable: content or functionality must be easily discovered, exploited and remembered
• accessible: can be used without barrier by majority of target audience
• credible: creates an environment of trust and safety
• valuable: provides a return on investment for the user (acquisition cost, time spent interacting)

41. “fuzzier” aspects
• physical: how the product feels, is it easy to manipulate, carry and physically interact
with
• sensual: arouses and gratifies the senses outside of the intellectual brain
• cognitive: allows for concentration when needed, but doesn’t overwhelm the users
mind
• emotional: creates a bond between user and brand, product, or service provided
• aesthetic: is pleasing to look at, aligns with users self-concept, aligns with expectations

42. context of use
• psychological: who the user “thinks” they are and what they bring to the experience, their needs,
desires, values, personality, preferences and current mindset, mentality and disposition
• relational: how the user relates or perceives the product, brand or company behind the product,
also any third-party user or company they interact with through the product
• situational: psycho-social “where” the user is communicating: in a meeting vs. alone at their desk
• environmental: physical “where” the user is communicating: noise level, distractions, lighting, time
of day, etc.
• cultural: what is perceived as acceptable and unacceptable from a societal perspective

43. an experience framework
• sub-conscious: the most automatic or fluent
experiences
• experience: consistent stream of input in context
of situational, environmental and perception
factors
• cognition: experience that demands user to
concentrate on how to use the product
• narrative: experiences that have been formalized
in the users head explaining what to do or what
has been done
• storytelling: remembering and communicating
subjective aspects of experience. Gives meaning

44. a hierarchy of UX?
• user and product working together seamlessly to accomplish goals
• pride of use, pride of competence with product
• emotional bond, personal connection, loyalty
• fails gracefully, promotes exploration
• functional, does what it’s supposed to

45. brand & user experience
• user experiences are enhanced customer-to-brand touch-points
• the more interactions a user has with a brand, the more the message is reinforced
• good branding personifies a company; good ux personifies a product or service as well as the company
• ux, like branding, allows users to attribute emotions and create bonds otherwise impossible with inanimate
objects
• the experience a user has with a companies’ product is more valid, persuasive, and powerful than advertising
• user experience is the new brand ambassador in a world where individuals don’t pay attention to advertising
• negative ux can hurt a brand, but poor brand perception can prevent a product from ever being used

46. roles & titles
• ethnography/ anthropology/ • functional design
cognitive psych/ research
• graphic design
• human factors design
• user Interface design
• content design
• usability design
• information architecture
• interaction design

47. roles & titles
• separate the work from the worker
• should not be separate titles, but tasks performed by members of a
UXD team
• each task should be performed on rotation, cross-pollination
• JJG: “we are all user experience designers” - IA Summit ‘09

48. practitioner “types”
I’s T’s O’s

49. where UXD fits in product development
• user experience needs to start at the beginning of the project
• research should not only inform the experience, but the direction of the
product
• needs to be considered and consulted throughout
• evaluates and measures success to gain insight
• iterate, iterate, iterate...

50. why thoughtful UX design matters...
• UX goes beyond the screen, into the thoughts and emotions of the user creating stronger connections
• a products user experience is the new brand ambassador in a world where individuals don’t pay attention to
advertising
• prevent the commoditization of a product
• reduce price sensitivity of the product
• increase customer acquisition and retention
• protect against competitive threat by building stronger bonds with users
• users will feel the company behind the product cares more about them
• can mitigate excessive feature bloat - the reason software is versioned
• micro interactions culminate into a unified macro experience

52. mobile is a different
medium

53. devices as lenses

54. web iPhone mobile web

56. mobilize, don’t... cripple
• mobile UX is no longer simply about short task completion.
• users beginning to perform exploratory and organic browsing tasks on
mobile web (mobile safari, 3G, Wi-Fi)
• don’t omit features to make products more mobile centric, provide full
featured products with mobile-optimized task flows
• mobile specific features that take advantage of mobile-only capabilities

57. different contexts of use
• environmental differences
• situational differences
• relational differences
• cultural & social differences

58. different interruptions
• plan for interruption
• casual interruptions
• disruptive interruptions
• dangerous interruptions
• mobile as an interruption to life

59. different intentions
• different motivations
• different desires
• different goals

60. different physical and technical constraints
• size of screen • user settings, pre-set
parameters
• size of physical buttons
• available networking protocols
• portability of device itself
• available bandwidth
• inherent capabilities of product
type (app, web, WAP) • network latency
• hardware limitations • battery life

61. different capabilities
• ubiquitous
• sensors
• gps location awareness
• network versatility & persistent connectivity
• input methods: camera, voice, orientation, motion, gesture & touch

62. more mobile UX considerations...
• mobile products allow users to fail gracefully, encouraging more curious and exploratory mentalities
when using devices
• mobile UX should never need a help system
• mobile UX is no longer simply about short task completion. Now performing exploratory and organic
browsing tasks more and more
• the problem now is not to omit features to make products more mobile centric, but rather to provide full
featured products with mobile-optimized task flows
• different scenarios will bring about different purposes or goals in the user - the desk chair in front of the
computer will afford the user more time, patience, and less distractions than walking down the street
using a mobile app
• features & functionality need to be more carefully balanced with simplicity & effectiveness

63. iPhone as a catalyst
• the iPhone UX has raised the expectations of the general public from
accepting poor, difficult device software to why doesn’t it just work the
way I want it to?
• gestural touch is the biggest leap in input method since the mouse
• a wake up call to the rest of the industry - from OEMS, to software
developers, to the telcos
• made mobile a platform, not an afterthought

64. the future of mobile user experience
• awareness of not just location, but context of location, situation, environment and other
individuals around you - automatically adapting the priority of user interface elements,
features and functionality to the current situation
• persistent and instant cloud sharing of data between all devices, your friends and family
creating an always on, pervasive “you” ecosystem
• smart agents that not only find what you know you’re looking for, but anticipate and find
things you didn’t know you wanted or needed
• mobile vs. desktop experiences as separate concepts will dissolve and information/ data
experiences will evolve
• concept of an “App” will change

65. mobile will inform stationary UXD

66. thank you!
• the evolution of mobile user experience will not be made by the big
software companies, the handset manufacturers, or the carriers, it will
become what we, the designers and developers of mobile applications
and products make it to be