Three points about User Experience.
User experience should not be only about use
We seem to undermine what is happening to computing. Interactions with computing systems become subtle, part of natural human activities, such as walking in a city, participating in conversations. Usability and joy derived from interaction will eventually blur out. Instead, we should strive to understand in what ways computing can support human experiences.
We should be inquiring into prolonged use
HCI and UX consequently has focused on initial use. But there are a number of trends that ask our attention for prolonged use. First, products are increasing becoming service-center, with revenues rooted more in the services than in the actual product. Second, length and coverage of product warranties increase. Soft reliability project: “48% of all returned products, are technically fully functional, i.e. according to specifications”
Memories are (sometimes) more relevant than experiences
Literature in Psychology suggests that experiences can only be measured at the time of their occurrence. Once they have ended, experiential information does not exist; it can only be reconstructed from recalled contextual cues. But memories are not necessarily a source of bias. They are just a different source of information. Often, memories are more relevant than experiences, for example when evaluating our past or predicting our future.
Text by Evangelos Karapanos, PhD
