user experience user experience ux refers to a persons emotions and attitudes about using a particular product system or service it includes the practical experiential affective meaningful and valuable aspects of humancomputer interaction and product ownership additionally it includes a persons perceptions of system aspects such as utility ease of use and efficiency user experience may be considered subjective in nature to the degree that it is about individual perception and thought with respect to the system user experience is dynamic as it is constantly modified over time due to changing usage circumstances and changes to individual systems as well as the wider usage context in which they can be found in the end user experience is about how the user interacts with and experiences the product definitions the international standard on ergonomics of human system interaction iso 9241210 defines user experience as a persons perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product system or service according to the iso definition user experience includes all the users emotions beliefs preferences perceptions physical and psychological responses behaviors and accomplishments that occur before during and after use the iso also list three factors that influence user experience system user and the context of use note 3 of the standard hints that usability addresses aspects of user experience eg usability criteria can be used to assess aspects of user experience the standard does not go further in clarifying the relation between user experience and usability clearly the two are overlapping concepts with usability including pragmatic aspects getting a task done and user experience focusing on users feelings stemming both from pragmatic and hedonic aspects of the system many practitioners use the terms interchangeably the term usability predates the term user experience part of the reason the terms are often used interchangeably is that as a practical matter a user will at minimum require sufficient usability to accomplish a task while the feelings of the user may be less important even to the user herself since usability is about getting a task done aspects of user experience like information architecture and user interface can help or hinder a users experience if a website has bad information architecture and a user has a difficult time finding what they are looking for then a user will not have an effective efficient and satisfying search in addition to the iso standard there exist several other definitions for user experience history early developments in user experience can be traced back to the machine age that includes the 19th and early 20th centuries inspired by the machine age intellectual framework a quest for improving assembly processes to increase production efficiency and output led to the development of major technological advancements such as mass production of highvolume goods on moving assembly lines highspeed printing press large hydroelectric power production plants and radio technology to name a few frederick winslow taylor and henry ford were in the forefront of exploring new ways to make human labor more efficient and productive taylors pioneering research into the efficiency of interactions between workers and their tools is the earliest example that resembles todays user experience fundamentals the term user experience was brought to wider knowledge by donald norman in the mid1990s several developments affected the rise of interest in the user experience recent advances in mobile ubiquitous social and tangible computing technologies have moved humancomputer interaction into practically all areas of human activity this has led to a shift away from usability engineering to a much richer scope of user experience where users feelings motivations and values are given as much if not more attention than efficiency effectiveness and basic subjective satisfaction ie the three traditional usability metrics in website design it was important to combine the interests of different stakeholders marketing branding visual design and usability marketing and branding people needed to enter the interactive world where usability was important usability people needed to take marketing branding and aesthetic needs into account when designing websites user experience provided a platform to cover the interests of all stakeholders making web sites easy to use valuable and effective for visitors this is why several early user experience publications focus on website user experience the field of user experience represents an expansion and extension of the field of usability to include the holistic perspective of how a person feels about using a system the focus is on pleasure and value as well as on performance the exact definition framework and elements of user experience are still evolving user experience of an interactive product or a web site is usually measured by a number of methods including questionnaires focus groups and other methods a freely available questionnaire available in several languages is the user experience questionnaire ueq google ngram viewer shows wide use of the term starting in the 1930s influences on user experience many factors can influence a users experience with a system to address the variety factors influencing user experience have been classified into three main categories users state and previous experience system properties and the usage context situation understanding representative users working environments interactions and emotional reactions help in designing the system momentary emotion or overall user experience single experiences influence the overall user experience the experience of a key click affects the experience of typing a text message the experience of typing a message affects the experience of text messaging and the experience of text messaging affects the overall user experience with the phone the overall user experience is not simply a sum of smaller interaction experiences because some experiences are more salient than others overall user experience is also influenced by factors outside the actual interaction episode brand pricing friends opinions reports in media etc one branch in user experience research focuses on emotions this includes momentary experiences during interaction designing affective interaction and evaluating emotions another branch is interested in understanding the longterm relation between user experience and product appreciation the industry sees good overall user experience with a companys products as critical for securing brand loyalty and enhancing the growth of customer base all temporal levels of user experience momentary episodic and longterm are important but the methods to design and evaluate these levels can be very different chief experience officer content strategy customer experience expectation human factors and ergonomics interaction design usability usercentered design user experience design user experience evaluation user interface design user research user experience rating maslows hierarchy of needs hicks law interaction design pattern responsive web design peerreviewed definition of user experience with commentary by don norman ux and vr 5 keys to applying virtual reality to the user experience wikimedia commons has media related to user experience 