What is “user experience”?

User experience, or “UX”, is just what its name implies – the experience of the user. It is very important to treat this concept from a holistic standpoint. The user experience involves every feeling, notion, belief, action, and response that the user undergoes when in contact with your interface set, brand, or product. User experience extends well beyond the world of interface design (although it is extremely important within the confines of interface design). As a case example, we will discuss the user experience for Moe’s Southwestern Grill. For those of you who are not acquainted, Moe’s is known primarily for their tongue-in-cheek marketing, welcoming atmosphere, and ridiculously large burritos.

A customer follows a line of actions that the user experience team studies very carefully.

1. Initial information

For one to choose to go to Moe’s, they have to have some kind of initial information of Moe’s. There are many possible informants for companies, including:

• Advertisement (broadcast or print)
• “Window-shopping”
• Word-of-mouth

A good company makes sure that each of these initial informants provide the potential customer with the correct image and initial emotion and perception of the company. Advertisements will be created to match or further the branding and feel of the company, and to entice the target audience without being pushy. “Window-shopping” is when a potential customer who has never heard of Moe’s from any advertisement or word-of-mouth sees the actual company venue, and decides to give it a try. When speaking of internet user experience, window-shopping would be the use of a search engine to find a desired website, and is a far more common initial informant than advertising or word-of-mouth. (This statement only applies for online user experience.)
While both advertising and “window-shopping” are largely controlled by the company, the customers have complete control of word-of-mouth information. The company’s branding and product or service usually are the heaviest influencing factors on the word-of-mouth information, but in the end, what the customer has to say is not decided by the company itself. (This constitutes the importance of product reviews.)

So in the case of Moe’s, one like myself may have had a myriad of experiences with the initial informants before actually going and purchasing food at Moe’s. A mixture of advertisements and word-of-mouth were the final drawing factors.

2. Product and Service Experience

Product or service experience deal with every single aspect of the use and interaction with a company and their product or service (I know, that was a tough one to guess). This is where most companies place the highest emphasis. Studies show that it is much cheaper to retain a loyal customer than to try to gain new customers; for most companies, then, the initial informants are not nearly as important as the product and service experience.

It is important to note that the word-of-mouth informant is regenerated by excellent product and service experience.

Take the following (false) story for example.

One day, my friend Joe walks into Moe’s with a coupon ad in his hand. He is welcomed thunderously (”Welcome to Moe’s” screamed by the employees). The restaurant has a vibrant color scheme, and the menu is full of tongue-in-cheek humor. Joe pays a modest amount for a burrito and some chips. He sits down after visiting Moe’s infamous salsa bar and takes a bite out of his burrito. He is blown away! He finishes every last bite of his meal, all the while looking around the room at the odd phrases on posters on the walls, intrigued by the music, and most importantly captivated by the food he is eating. Immediately after Joe leaves the restaurant, he twitters about his amazing lunch at Moe’s. Later that day, while Joe and I are hanging out, Joe mentions one of the posters in Moe’s. This is my initial informant. I ask Joe if he liked Moe’s. Joe, obviously, goes on a 20 minute rant about his Homewrecker (for those of you who are unfamiliar, that’s a burrito). So I decide to go to lunch that next week with Joe to Moe’s.

In the example, Joe’s experience was good enough to entice him to tell someone else about the product or service. This is an extremely powerful, free way of advertising.

Often, product and service experience is reoccurring. This is particularly true outside of the food industry. Most of what we use on a daily basis will be used again the next day, week, month, or even year. Very seldom will we visit and use a website or store one time. This is a very important consideration for user experience teams, again because of the loyal customer to new customer price tag ratio.

3. Employee/Customer Interaction

Employee/customer interaction may not necessarily take place with every user experience, but it is definitely important to note aside from product and service experience. Employees are the face of a company more than anything else. It is therefore important to make sure that any interaction between an employee and a customer supports the company’s existing image, standards, and brand. Emplyee/customer interaction can take place in multiple ways.

• Product demonstration/”sales pitch”
• Technical support
• Customer support line (phone)
• Alternative support

An example of great alternative support can be seen by Charter Communications. While frustrated with a recent error on his bill, my same Moe’s friend (Joe) tweeted about it, mentioning Charter in his tweet. Within a few minutes, a Charter representative replied to his tweet, offering to help and to fix his bill. Not only was his bill fixed by the representative, but he received a credit on his bill as well. This greatly improved Joe’s user experience as a whole.

Conclusion

As we have seen, good user experience regenerates a company’s customer base. There is a line of actions that a person follows to become a customer with a particular company. It is of great importance to study that line of action and increase the quality of the user experience at all points, most importantly in the field of product and service experience. The user experience revolves around the customer’s experience with the actual product or service, and therefore should be central to the user experience team’s strategy.

These are the main points of user experience; there are thousands of different ways a person interacts with a company’s brand, product, and employees. Hopefully these basic interactions will help you better understand what user experience is, and will help you on the path to creating the best user experience for your customers.

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In part two, we will be discussing advanced interfaces. If you haven’t read part one, you may want to go back a step before continuing.

What is an advanced interface?

Remember the seventh grade science class about simple and compound machines? Let’s keep the ideas from that lesson in mind. If you didn’t, for some really great reason, take seventh grade, a simple machine is one of six varieties of objects, like an inclined plane or a pulley, that make work (the scientific definition, at least) easier to do. Compound machines take two or more of these simple machines and combine them to create a new machine.

Basic and advanced interfaces are similar to simple and compound machines. While a basic interface is limited to singular input and analysis process, advanced interfaces take advantage of two or more different kinds of input and analysis processes.

Actual Environment Interfaces

Actual environment interfaces are based on actions in which you are interacting directly with your environment. All interfaces utilize actual environments to some degree; from simple kitchen appliances to remote controls, steering wheels in your car to elevator buttons in your office complex, actual environment action-based interfaces exist all around us on a daily basis.

Simulated Environment Interfaces

Simulated environment interfaces are based on a digital platform, such as a computer or ATM kiosk. A simulated environment would be the “world” that the screen is showing you. In an actual environment, you would use your hands to push buttons, open folders, write words, etcetera. In a simulated environment, you use an actual environment interface (usually a mouse, keyboard, trackpad, and/or a touchscreen) to “push” the buttons, open folders, and write (type) words that exist in a simulated environment. The popularity of simulated environments has reached an all-time high because of the exponential advancements in computing.

Computers

So naturally, as we’ve already mentioned one category of simulated environment interfaces is computers. Here we are speaking directly of the personal computer. You are more than likely using one right now. Virtually everyone at least has access to one. Personal computers are the building block of most other simulated environments, and have been the cause and subject of many advancements in technology that allow for more powerful, faster, smaller microchip processing. Microchip processing is the basis for almost every simulation we experience daily. This is not to mention the thousands of other venues in which microchip processing enhances a product. (That’s another post entirely.)

Simulators

Some other common simulated environments include flight/vehicle simulators, in which the operator utilizes instrumental interfaces that look, feel, and react the same way as instruments in a vehicle would, and often show the response through one or more screens, as well as auditory simulation and “feeling” simulation (the shaking of a car or tilting during an airplane turn). Some of these simulators have been developed enough to use as training mechanisms for military personnel. Others are available as consumer software that often utilizes input devices, such as joysticks or steering wheels that plug in via USB.

Gaming Platforms

Perhaps the most popular simulated environment platform is video games. The industry of video games has grown tremendously since it’s initial instatement. The realism of the newest gaming consoles, such as the XBOX 360 and Playstation3, has garnered the attention of younger and older gamers alike. (We won’t ever forget our roots, Atari owners!)

Portable Devices

Let us not forget, perhaps the most widespread new simulated environment interfaces can be found on personal portable devices, such as cell phones and mp3 players. (Who else owns an iPhone?) Portable devices such as the iPhone and the new Palm Pre aren’t brand-new players in the game (PDA’s have technically been around since the 80’s), but have recently become more affordable and widespread, which has called for the industry to more competition to push the boundaries of the platform. With support from mobile networks that provide higher-speed wireless connection as well as Wi-Fi compatibility and Bluetooth advancements, portable devices have taken the limelight.

The Internet

Lastly, we must observe the internet as a simulated interface. The internet contains a vast amount of information, and perhaps most importantly, can be accessed from almost anywhere thanks to advancing technology (do you see a pattern here?).

Etcetera…

Okay, so there is no possible way we can list every kind of simulated environment here. We think you’re smart enough to get the idea though. :)

Overview

That’s a lot to take in (again). But let’s look at it simply put.

Basic interfaces include text and illustration, as well as our sensory analysis processes. Advanced interfaces take advantage of any combination of these basic interfaces. Advanced interfaces may include both actual and simulated environment interfaces, and deal with physical interfaces that the user interacts with, while simulated environment interfaces deal with an interface that the user seems to interact with by using an actual environment interface to control the simulation, such as a mouse and keyboard.

Make sure you check back to see the next installment of Interface 101! Also, leave a comment below to join the discussion!

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Before we dive deep into which icons are most effective or best practices of interface development, let’s cover some basics, shall we? Interface 101 is a basic training on the terminology and theory of interface design. In the first two installment, we will discuss just what an interface actually is, and the differences between basic and advanced interfaces.

The word interface has many meanings and many different uses for unlimited contexts. For web designers, interface means something almost entirely different than for audio engineers. What, then, is an interface?

Definition of an Interface

Interface is defined as a “surface regarded as the common boundary of two bodies, spaces, or phases.” In other words, it is the communicator between a sender, a medium, and a receptor. The sender may be any object or person, or digital representation of an object or an action. The medium is some type of information, and the communicator allows this information from the sender to make sense to the receptor. The receptor may be any of the same things that the sender may be, and may become a sender to either the previous sender or a new receptor. (That’s a mouthful, isn’t it?) Here is a graphical representation of what an interface does, and what senders/receptors are.

So what are some different kinds of communicators? We will look at basic interfaces in this post, and advanced interfaces in the next Interface 101 post.

Basic Interfaces

Some of the most basic interfaces are also the most ancient. Perhaps the most important basic interfaces are writing and symbols. People have been communicating information to one another through glyphs and illustration for over 6,000 years. Writing can communicate information that would otherwise be spoken or shown through gestures between two people; however, when combined with other tools, such as the internet or mass production printing, written words of one person can be communicated to the whole world, becoming a very effective, yet still basic, interface.

Writing and Illustration

Writing and illustration have greatly advanced over their 6,000 year life-span. Now, there are thousands of languages and dialects, each with their own rules of writing. Beyond the different languages, there are hundreds of thousands of different typefaces and their varieties. Each of these communicates in a different way, and therefore changes the message, however slightly or heavily, of the interface.
Writing and symbols are two kinds of interfaces that act between information and the human mind. Another example of an interface that acts as the communicator between information from one person’s mind to another is speech.

Human Senses

Each of our senses also provide us with ways of gathering information; our brain interprets what we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel through the interface of our eyes, ears, nose, taste buds, and nerve ends.

Conclusion

These basic interfaces can give us very important insight into the design of more complicated interfaces, and therefore they are extremely important to remember in the process of developing an interface. What language are the users speaking? Not necessarily literal language (although that is quite important as well… obviously) – rather, what is the most effective way to communicate to the user of a certain interface? How can you as the designer make sure that the look, feel, or sound of your interface is compatible with your user? Is the design of your interface aesthetically productive to the message you are trying to get across? Is it standing in the way, somehow, because of the aesthetic aspects? These are questions that can be birthed and used to give users a better experience by examining the importance of these most basic interfaces.

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