OUGD504 Studio Brief 03 A Brief History of... User Experience Design Seminar

User experience design is used predominantly in web design but is also used in ergonomics of product design and is a growing area in all new media such as app and other digital advances. The field is often seen as lacking because the connection is so rarely made between simple visual design and a definite focus on user experience.

User experience is more a focus on the role that the product or design plays in a users over all existence. For example, blackberry was superseded by the iPhone because apple thought a lot more about how the phone would interconnect with a persons life and day to day experiences. It is the totality of the end users perceptions: effectiveness, emotional satisfaction and the quality of the relationship with the entity that created the product or service  (what expectations does it create for subsequent interactions). The phone fits so much into peoples life that they often defend their phone decision quite vehemently. This extends to brands and the trust that a good product reflects back on to the users mental image of a brand. 

Hassenzahl and Roto (2007) - divide the 'do goals' make phone calls and buy things from 'be goals' which are the use of technology to create and reinforce a sense of identity and the more socially important aspects. These are two separations of the areas of user experience (not always applicable?)

What is user experience? a comparison was presented between digital maps and the 3D touch maps of inuit tribes in Greenland. The tactile interaction between the user and the 3D map makes it perfect for the requirements of the audience. This is a completely different user experience.

We then when on to compare two different types of hand dryers. One the standard blow dryer and the other the Dyson air blade. The feel and design of the Dyson air blade makes it seem like a better product when in actual fact the newer hand dryer is no more hygienic. The way they make the hand dryer look and the suggestion of something completely new makes it a slightly better user experience.

The comparison of yahoo and google as two different search engines. Yahoo tries to be more of a information board and do numerous things at the same time. When we discussed this further we talked about the fact that google did in fact have all of the utilities of yahoo but it is just neatly tucked away which makes it more user friendly and allows the primary use (search engine) to come to the forefront. The busyness of yahoo is establishing more of an identity straight off the bat where as google is very minimal in this respect until you log in and the experience becomes personalised and your page communicates directly to you about the Google identity.

Which products or services have more focused user experiences tailored to an audience and which are less so?

Amazon-etsy
Both are good ish but we think that the aesthetic of amazon is incredibly dated and doesn't create any emotional connection at all, also there is a sense that it is all coming from a big corporation. In contrast to this etsy has a crafted aesthetic that seems like it is coming from people rather than a business. However, there is also the point that we go to these websites for different things and so the user experiences will differ.

Windows media player- iTunes
They do the same thing but the combination of the aesthetic and the way that we integrate and work with the program makes us all like itunes a hell of a lot more. 

Wordpress- blogger
There is a differentiation in the fact that wordpress is made to look like it is for the writers of the blogging world and blogger is the less academic re-blog blogging experience.

Design for the Wild- design in context. 'Cognitive activity is embodied within the location of the activity and the tools used'.  Really consider the context of the tool and who uses it. User research is a fundamental aspect of designing for the user experience because the design is shaped around how they want to use something. User centered design.

Garrett's model of UXD- Formalised all the different aspects of user experinec design. Going from the theoretical and metaphysical aspects to the more solid ones. At the bottom - product objectives (what is the purpose of the tool and what does it need to do for the audience) Content requirements and functional specification , informtion architecture, informative design and sensory design.

We were then asked to relate this model to our own website design and the content we had. 

We constructed a user perosona to shape the information hierarch around.

We were then asked to create a user flow model for our own website, I found this really useful in organising th order in which the information needs to b communicated