The Prism of User Experience
|
User Experience Design / Article 7. Sept. 2007, HCI Vistas Vol-III Author: Dr. Dinesh Katre |
|
A comprehensive model of The first triangle of the prism is formed by the User, Design and Technology. The second triangle of the prism is formed by the human Mind, Body and the Environment. An idea is like the ray of light. Each idea must refract upon the six constants What results out of this refraction is the spectrum of user experience! |
Long Term User Experience:
Practitioners of User Centred Design method tend to focus only on immediate user goals and short focused usability. What is meant by long term usability and long term user experience? It needs due attention because only then the impact of products on our environment and health gains prominence! If we take a long term perspective then what we consider usable based on our immediate experience might turn out to be a disastrous product.
User Centred Design (UCD) approach, due to its inherent focus on the ‘use’ of product, tends to pay greater attention on the short-term tasks and short-term user goals. The representative usage scenarios, walkthroughs, usability tests are performed within a short span of time. This approach is helpful in defining the short-term user experience. It may not cater to the long-term user experience or long-term impact of a product on the users.
Is User Experience Research and Design yet another moniker for User Centred Design? If it isn’t so, then shouldn€™t it be responsible for things of greater significance and consequence? User experience research should not only focus on product’s perception of users but also its actual impact (immediate and long term impact), which is the real experience. The product’s attractive perception can be an enticing illusion, designed to hide its disastrous impact.
We as user centred designers; simply ensure the ease and efficiency of use, even if we were to design the control panel for a nuclear bomb! Quite ironical, but the compelling business priorities don’t permit us to think about the overall impact. Sometimes, we even sacrifice ‘human values’ though we preach to focus on ‘human factors’. ‘User experience’ can not be treated in isolation by limiting it to product’s appearance or user’s immediate interaction, but it has to be holistic and inclusive of all the experiential factors.
You have aesthetically designed screens, nice icons and very engaging software applications but what about the eyesight problems, headaches, crumbling spines and painful elbows and repetitive stress Injuries faced by the users? If you are an ‘experienced’ user, ask your back how it feels. There are reports of many innovative software applications causing psychological disorders and socially irresponsible behaviours. Isn’t this user experience too and should you not be accountable for these problems as UX designers?
The advent of mobile telephony has revolutionized the world of communication! It has changed our lives through plethora of innovative applications. But there are serious health concerns raised due to electromagnetic radiation through mobile devices. Mobile phones are getting enhanced with rich visual display, interactivity and engaging applications. Is it advisable to move around with eyes, ears, hands and attention locked on to the mobile device? Won’t it cause more accidents?
Life is so cool and comfortable inside the car! Beautiful buildings, roads, bridges, urban landscapes and the might of industrialization. But aren’t we (as users of this modernization) ‘experiencing’ the pollution, heat and climatic changes already? Isn’t that ‘user experience’ too?
It is felt that user experience research, design and development, should also cater to the long-term and overall impact of technology on users and not just the initial perception. All the ramifications of technology and its impact on users’ mind, body and environment (psychological, physical, social, environmental and ecological health) need due consideration.
As it usually turns out, the ‘influencing factors’ (mind, body and environment) are unfortunately the €œaffected€ ones.
Technologies are born barbaric! Mere functionality. It is necessary to inculcate human values in technology applications and humanize them. This perspective is further elaborated in an article ‘need to strengthen social usability of mobile technology’.
There is a need to expand our vision beyond perceptual design. In the absence of such holistic approach, the spectrum of user experience is bound to be incomplete, imbalanced and cause disorder! Therefore, we must account for “perceptual” and “actual” experiences, including both short term and long term experiences).
The Prism of User Experience is modeled to give equal emphasis on user, design, technology (User Centred Design) and mind, body, environment (guide the design process, choice of materials, technologies, etc to avoid adverse impact) and maintain focus on both perceptual and actual experiences of the product. Methods and techniques for designing and evaluation of the long term user experience need to be defined.
“Perceptual experience” of the product attracts users initially,
but its “actual experience” is mainly responsible for retaining them.
Dr. Dinesh Katre presently heads the National Multimedia Resource Centre of C-DAC, Pune, India. He is the principle designer of many software products that deal with digital library, cultural informatics, e-learning, multimedia authoring and computer game design. He has special interest in the cognitive study of technology users and behavioral design of products. Journal of HCI Vistas is his community building initiative. It is meant to promote research oriented, multi-disciplinary thinking in the field of Human-Computer Interaction in India. This e-publication is open for usability practitioners and UX designers to publish short articles.
|
© Copyright 2007-2008 |
