Recently, the new Interaction-Design.org Encyclopedia was launched. I used to read articles on Interaction-Design.org for some time and I’m delighted to see that the guys from The Interaction-Design.org Foundation decided to transform the list of articles as it used to be to a library of entries written by experts in the particular fields. The entries are coupled with insightful commentaries and videos.
“Experience or User Experience is not about technology, industrial design, or interfaces. It is about creating a meaningful experience through a device.”
- Marc Hassenzahl
One of the recent entries I went through was User Experience and Experience Design by Marc Hassenzahl – and I can say it was the best article explaining the philosophy of UX I have ever read.
By using suggestive storytelling, Marc introduces the Phillips Wake-up Light which helps him to go straight to the core of UX design.
Things to remember:
- experiential purchase will make the customer more happy than the material; the product needs to be designed as part of the experience, should it succeed
- experience that is non-repeatable and copyable (or transferable at all; though that somehow conflicts with the reflective level of design by expressing the experience to other people – Norman, Emotional Design) is more satisfying
- shift your attention from the development of technologies to the design of resulting experiences
First, Marc describes the transition from Materialistic to Experiential society and explains the conditions of the transition (base levels of Maslow’s pyramid), as well as bigger emotional impact of experience compared to acquisition of a purely material treat.
The Why, What and How levels
Marc distinguishes three levels of the product: What are the actions users can perform through the product (listening to song, writing, reading e-mails), How is the way through What is accomplished (manipulating interface) and finally Why – the underlying reason for the product, the actual needs of the users and emotions connected to the desired goals.
We need to listen more to people – to explore their needs and goals. When we will be familiar with Why, we can start designing What and How.
My name is Jiri Jerabek and I'm UX consultant and MSc student of Human-Computer Interaction with Ergonomics at UCL.