Modelling User Experience (UX)

Originally published on https://vinaikumar.wordpress.com/.   11 July 2020

On 23rd June 2020, I conducted a webinar on UX Design Education for a design school in Bengaluru. As a part of this webinar, I prepared a comprehensive structural model of User Experience (UX) which enables one to analyse UX issues and/or problems holistically and systematically.

The graphic representation of the UX Model is given below.

The block on the left in the above diagram consists of three categories of the characteristics of a product, service or system – Usefulness, Usability and Emotional Connection. Each of these three categories can be further detailed to the extent required for professional UX solutions in a given context.

UX: Design, Engineering and Management

UX issues and problems are not the concerns only for the design professionals (this is generally assumed). On closely examining the above three categories of the UX issues, we can clearly see that they can be addressed collaboratively through the other professional domains – engineering, manufacturing, marketing, business practices, governance, and consumer education. I think the profession of design is the only profession that considers the end users and other related humans in their interaction with a manmade product and system (in varying degrees). Why other professions – particularly engineering and business management – have, in general, not recognised the importance of human-centricity and user experience in developing and implementing manmade products and systems is something that demands our attention and discourse. Since these two professions are the key professions that lead industry and business, there is an urgent need to introduce human-centric problem solving in their education and practices.

Left: The jump clip is a good engineering solution. However, its interaction with fingers and hand is not comfortable and safe. Right: The dresser drawer units of the kind shown here are dangerous products that can injure or kill people. A multnational company sold a similar product, which resulted in serious injuries to their users, for a long time

Even though the design profession considers the users in their design process, it has traditionally been intuitive and subjective in practice. Most of the times designers tend to test their design ideas and prototypes with people who are readily available to them in their vicinity. The information acquired through this superficial research may not be sufficiently insightful for designing for the target users and their contexts. In some cases it may even make the resulting designs less user-centric leading to poor user experience. Designers mostly tend to focus on aesthetics, form and style for creating artefacts that stand out from the crowd and noise, and relate well with their environments at a sensorial level. Such artefacts will appear attractive at a visceral level. However, their usability may decline as the look and feel takes precedence. For example, quite often we see that nice-looking textual design may in fact be difficult to read. Below is a case of font selection for examining legibility and readability. If the decisions are backed by usability parameters and systematic research, the resulting textual designs will be more user-friendly.

Different fonts and the selection of their variants can impact the legibility and readability of a piece of text. The one on the top-left is a font known as Giddyup Std, which looks interesting visually, but not easily readable. The one on the bottom-left is Calibri (san-serif) whose readabiliy is better. However, some readers may find the one on right with serif more readable. The top-right text is in all caps making it difficult to read. We need more systematic and holistic approach to design for improving user experience (UX)

Case Study: AC Remote UX

Below is an example of the lack of user-centricity in engineering design and business management. The product is an AC remote control where I highlight a few user experience issues out of many. If I need to change the temperature setting at night when the ambient lighting is extremely low, I cannot see the display on the remote until I switch the LCD light on by sliding the cover on the remote, find the button for the display light, and put it on, and see the temperature setting on LCD panel. In this case I first need an external lighting to find the LCD light button. That does not make sense.

This picture highlights the user experience issues when the user wishes to see the display at night when the ambient light is extremely low for reading text. The user will have to first use an external light to light up the remote to perform the operations shown above.

In another scenario, when I need to change the AC remote’s 2 AAA cells – which I may do once in two years – I need to figure out how to open the battery cover. There are written instructions in English that are engraved in the cover molding itself. This text is difficult ro read. There are no graphic instructions anywhere to indicate how to remove the battery cover. The sliding cover, at one point has to be yanked away from the body, creating an anxiety in the mind of the user.

In order to open the battery compartment, the user needs to read the text which is very difficult to see and read. There are no graphic instructions to aid intuitive sense making. Yanking the panel forcefully away is an anxiety-causing interaction which is not preferable.

Conclusion

As we dig deeper into the issue of holistic and integrated user experience (UX), we find that all relevant professions – design, engineering and management – involved in the supply chain are responsible for delivering the ‘promised’ and ‘expected’ user value to the target customers. So customer experience (CX), for which the core foundation is UX management, can only be brought about by a collaborative and human-centric professional approach. Though this sounds obvious and common sense, in reality, businesses and governments have to go a long way in meeting the UX-driven needs in products, services and systems. In the forthcoming articles I will discuss more issues and case studies to highlight the need for a new human-centric paradigm in professional problem solving.

Vinai Kumar