What Is User Experience?

What Is User Experience?

User experience (abbreviated as UX) is how a person feels when interfacing with a system. The system could be a website, a web application or desktop software and, in modern contexts, is generally denoted by some form of human-computer interaction (HCI).

Those who work on UX (called UX designers) study and evaluate how users feel about a system, looking at such things as ease of use, perception of the value of the system, utility, efficiency in performing tasks and so forth.

UX designers also look at sub-systems and processes within a system. For example, they might study the checkout process of an e-commerce website to see whether users find the process of buying products from the website easy and pleasant. They could delve deeper by studying components of the sub-system, such as seeing how efficient and pleasant is the experience of users filling out input fields in a Web form.

Compared to many other disciplines, particularly Web-based systems, UX is relatively new. The term “user experience” was coined by Dr. Donald Norman, a cognitive science researcher who was also the first to describe the importance of user-centered design (the notion that design decisions should be based on the needs and wants of users).

Why Is UX Important?

Nowadays, with so much emphasis on user-centered design, describing and justifying the importance of designing and enhancing the user experience seems almost unnecessary. We could simply say, “It’s important because it deals with our users’ needs — enough said,” and everyone would probably be satisfied with that.

However, those of us who worked in the Web design industry prior to the codification of user-centered design, usability and Web accessibility would know that we used to make websites differently. Before our clients (and we) understood the value of user-centered design, we made design decisions based on just two things: what we thought was awesome and what the client wanted to see.

We built interaction based on what we thought worked — we designed for ourselves. The focus was on aesthetics and the brand, with little to no thought of how the people who would use the website would feel about it.

There was no science behind what we did. We did it because the results looked good, because they were creative (so we thought) and because that was what our clients wanted.

But this decade has witnessed a transformation of the Web. Not only has it become more ubiquitous — the Web had at least 1.5 billion users globally in 2008 — but websites have become so complex and feature-rich that, to be effective, they must have great user experience designs.

Additionally, users have been accessing websites in an increasing number of ways: mobile devices, a vast landscape of browsers, different types of Internet connections.

We’ve also become aware of the importance of accessibility — i.e. universal access to our Web-based products — not only for those who with special requirements, such as for screen readers and non-traditional input devices, but for those who don’t have broadband connections or who have older mobile devices and so forth.

With all of these sweeping changes, the websites that have consistently stood out were the ones that were pleasant to use. The driving factor of how we build websites today has become the experience we want to give the people who will use the websites.

What Situations Would Benefit From UX Design?

Saying that all Web systems would benefit from a solid evaluation and design of the user experience is easy; arguing against it is hard if you care about user-centered design at all. But we don’t live in a perfect world, and we don’t have unlimited resources. Thus, we must prioritize and identify the areas that stand to gain the most from UX design and UX designers.

Complex Systems

The more complex the system, the more involved will the planning and architecture have to be for it. While investing in a full-blown multi-member UX study for a simple static website seems excessive, multi-faceted websites, interaction-rich Web applications and e-commerce websites stand to benefit a lot from UX design.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/05/what-is-user-experience-design-overview-tools-and-resources/

Self Initiated Project: Rock Icon singing game

Proposal

To create a new lifestyle singing game called 'Rock Icon' that appeals to a broad range of people from 13 year old teenagers up to middle age adults (45 year old).

Brief

To create a 'pitch' for Sony Entertainment’s new lifestyle singing game called 'Rock Icon', celebrating such iconic acts as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, Queen, U2 and some of the new acts on the block like Arcade Fire and Kasabian.

Research suggests that teenagers whilst listening to the modern day rock acts like Kasabian, are also very in tune with the classic rock bands of the late 60’s, 70’s and the 80’s such as The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Queen through the influence of their parents.

Awareness

1.     Have a look at different illustration/graphic styles and trends

2.     Look at other Singing games, i.e. menu screens

Requirements

To create the '1st Concept Phase' of the project

What’s needed

1.    Core value / Mood board

2.    Research: examples of menu layout and in-game graphics

3.    Main menu screen

4.    Sub-Menu

5.    Song Select screen: Punk

6.    In-game screen

7.    Animatic of game flow

8.    Packaging: Case cover, CD label and poster

This is an exercise in pitch work, interface design, graphics, screen and text layout.

D&AD Summing Up

The chance to create an Interactive Illustration for the Diesel Illustration brief through the D&AD student awards has been a very enjoyable experience and has certainly open my eyes to what's possible with interactivity and especially with Processing.

Whilst my knowledge of coding (Processing) is very limited it's still very encouraging that you can take existing code, break it, play with it and finally adapt it for your own purpose and create something that's both playful and and engaging.

Do I take it further and try and get my head around Processing? I don't know at this stage. What would be great is to work with a Processing expert creating Interactive Illustrations for bands or promotional events.

Having seen and researched other interactive experiences it has inspired me to carry on exploring illustration as an interactive medium.

Curiosity for finding what's new and better

I came across this blog whilst looking for other interactive installations.


Some very inspiring work:


http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/15-amazing-interactive-installations.htm

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Other Playful Interactive experiences

I thought this would be a great accompaniment with the interactive illustration with the drummer of the band also being able to create matching visuals through the drum hits:

See Drum is a visualisation tool created to enhance rhythm based performances by linking temporal auditory patterns to visual counterparts in real-time. Using sensors, See Drum interprets drum hits from a kit and, in real-time, creates matching visuals to be projected or displayed on screen.

The See Drum software matches each drum in the kit with a corresponding visual representation. Mappings between drums and their visuals can be altered easily within the software.

Because of its tight mappings, See Drum allows users to synthetically experience a drum performance, artfully highlighting relationships of audio and visual patterns over time.

http://www.feedtank.com/index.php?strProject=see-drum

HOW I DECIDED TO INTERPRET THE MUSIC

The music I chose to illustrate was by the band, the Smashing Pumpkins.

The style of the illustrations came from listening to hours of the bands music, getting a real feel for what they were about. Many of their lyrics are cathartic expressions of emotion and I wanted to reflect this in the illustrations.

The black and white textured feel gives a sense of mood and atmosphere befitting the songs, using drawings, sketches, photographs and photoshop.

When it came to interpreting the music I looked at Arcade Fire’s interactive video, set to the bands track ‘We Used to Wait’, I thought this was an inspired way of connecting with their fans on a more personal level.

Along with other interactive projects I’d researched and been involved in, these acted as a catalyst to interpreting the Smashing Pumpkins tracks through ‘Interactive Illustration’. It’s a fresh and exciting fan participation experience, allowing them to engage with the illustration and music. This would be a real step in the right direction to building closer relationships between bands and fans.

As music is changing and reinventing itself then illustration should follow suit as they compliment each other so well. Interactivity could be the way forward in bringing music and illustration closer together and creating the perfect harmonious experience.

Interactive Illustration Video: The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins Interactive Video using 'Processing'

The video will appear after the D&AD results have been announced.