After having thoroughly dealt with the topic “What is Usability”, today we ask ourselves: What is User Experience?
What is User Experience?
The term User Experience can best be translated as user experience or user interaction experience. User Experience describes all aspects of a user’s experience when interacting with a system, a product, or a service.
User Experience is a more comprehensive approach. Usability is just one aspect of User Experience. While Usability mainly looks at the visual part of an application, the User Interface, User Experience considers all services, processes, and connections between companies, products, communication, and brand development. In developing an outstanding User Experience, significantly more aspects are considered.
User Experience encompasses the following areas:
- Utility: Is the product/system useful?
- Usability: Is the product/system easy and intuitive to use?
- Desirability: Does the product/system look good? Does it feel good?
- Brand Experience: Is the overall impression of the brand of the product/system good and coherent?
Like Usability, the term User Experience is also DIN standardized.
According to DIN EN ISO 9241-210, User Experience is defined by the perceptions and reactions of a person resulting from the use or anticipated use of a product. This includes the user’s emotions, psychological and physiological responses, as well as expectations and behavior. User Experience is seen as a consequence influenced by the design, functionality, and performance characteristics of a product. The characteristics of the user, as well as their prior knowledge, play a role. Brand perception or the context of use also play a role.
The three criteria mentioned above (usefulness, usability, and beauty) can be measured. There are various testing methods for this, which we will examine in more detail in separate articles.
Difference between Usability and User Experience using an example:
Lisa gave her boyfriend Manuel a voucher for a weekend at the Nürburgring. Manuel was very happy when unpacking it. That same evening, Manuel visited the website of the voucher provider and registered. It worked very quickly and without any problems. Just enter the voucher code and he could choose the date for the weekend. Sent off, confirmation email came, and done. Manuel went to bed satisfied. The next morning, he woke up and had an email in his inbox. Subject: Appointment cancellation – Weekend at the Nürburgring.
Manuel’s appointment was canceled due to overbooking. The email included a link where Manuel could choose a new date. He visited the website again. It remembered his data and immediately suggested new dates. Unfortunately, none of these dates suited Manuel, as he was on assembly on the free weekends. Now Manuel wants to exchange the voucher. A clearly visible button said: “Exchange voucher”. Clicking the button opened a contact form. Manuel entered his data and the message and clicked “Send”. After 2 weeks without a response from the provider, Manuel decided to call the hotline. After the first 20 minutes of waiting, he was disconnected. On the second call, after 40 minutes of waiting, he actually reached a support employee. The employee confirmed the receipt of the request and immediately resolved the problem. Instead of a weekend at the Nürburgring, Manuel is now going to spend a weekend at the Hockenheimring. But all the anticipation has now evaporated.
Although the website and support did excellent work, the entire user experience of the process was unsatisfactory. Usability top, User Experience flop.
Conclusion:
User Experience determines whether a product becomes successful or not. Even the best usability cannot compensate for a poor user experience. User Experience is the combination of usefulness, usability, and beauty. Only when these three points are achieved, is the User Experience good.