Anticipating user eXperience with a desired product: The AUX framework

Positive user experience (UX) has become a key factor in designing interactive products. It acts as a differentiator which can determine a product’s success on the mature market. However, current UX frameworks and methods do not fully support the early stages of product design and development. During these phases, assessment of UX is challenging as no actual user-product interaction can be tested. This qualitative study investigated anticipated user experience (AUX) to address this problem. Using the co-discovery method, participants were asked to imagine a desired product, anticipate experiences with it, and discuss their views with another participant. Fourteen sub-categories emerged from the data, and relationships among them were defined through co-occurrence analysis. These data formed the basis of the AUX framework which consists of two networks which elucidate 1) how users imagine a desired product and 2) how they anticipate positive experiences with that product. Through this AUX framework, important factors in the process of imagining future products and experiences were learnt, including the way in which these factors interrelate. Focusing on and exploring each component of the two networks in the framework will allow designers to obtain a deeper understanding of the required pragmatic and hedonic qualities of product, intended uses of product, user characteristics, potential contexts of experience, and anticipated emotions embedded within the experience. This understanding, in turn, will help designers to better foresee users’ underlying needs and to focus on the most important aspects of their positive experience. Therefore, the use of the AUX framework in the early stages of product development will contribute to the design for pleasurable UX

Low-Cost Assessment of User eXperience Through EEG Signals

EEG signals are an important tool for monitoring the brain activity of a person, but equipment, expertise and infrastructure are required. EEG technologies are generally expensive, thus few people are normally able to use them. However, some low-cost technologies are now available. One of these is OPENBCI, but it seems that it is yet to be widely employed in Human-Computer Interaction. In this study, we used OPENBCI technology to capture EEG signals linked to brain activity in ten subjects as they interacted with two video games: Candy Crush and Geometry Dash. The experiment aimed to capture the signals while the players interacted with the video games in several situations. The results show differences due to the absence/presence of sound; players appear to be more relaxed without sound. In addition, consistent analysis of the EEG data, meCue 2.0 and SAM data showed high consistency. The evidence demonstrates that interesting results are able to be gathered based on low-cost EEG (standard) signal-based technologies

Measuring the added value of haptic feedback

While there is an increased appreciation for integrating haptic feedback with audio-visual content, there is still a lack of understanding of how to quantify the added value of touch for a user’s experience (UX) of multimedia content. Here we focus on three main concepts to measure this added value: UX, emotions, and expectations. We present a case study measuring the added value of haptic feedback for a standardized set of audio-visual content (i.e., short video clips), comparing two haptic stimulation modalities (i.e., mid-air vs. vibro-tactile stimuli). Our findings demonstrate that UX of haptically-enhanced audio-visual content is perceived as a more pleasant, unpredictable, and creative experience. The users’ overall liking increases together with a positive change of the users’ expectations, independently from the haptic stimulation modality. We discuss how our approach provides the foundation for future work on developing a measurement model to predict the added value of haptic feedback for users’ experiences within and beyond the multimedia context

Measuring the Mobile User Experience: Conceptualization and Empirical Assessment

User experience is commonly considered important for IT adoption and use. However, a formal measure that captures a user’s holistic experience obtained through the use of an IT artifact has not been developed. In this study, we propose a new measure of user experience and examine its validity using the data collected from over 240 smartphone mobile users in South Korea. Based on prior research on brand experience in marketing, we conceptualize user experience as a second order construct with four sub-dimensions. The convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement items of mobile user experience is examined along with the established measurement items of the cognitive absorption, which is similar to the proposed construct in that both capture what a user has experienced while interacting with an IT artifact. Further, we examine the effects of the proposed construct on perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and continuous intention

Characterization of End-users’ Engagement and Interaction Experience with Social Media Technologies

People, particularly digital citizens, gain more technological experiences from their frequent usage of social media technologies. Their experience as end-users occurs before, during, and after their engagement and interaction with the technologies and is popularly described using behaviour-related definitions. However, an end-user\u27s experience with technologies goes beyond the \u27click-and-type definition. This prompts the question, what are the user experience elements that define and characterise end-users\u27 engagement and interaction with social media technologies? . Using a case study-based approach, end-users\u27 engagement and interaction with social media technologies were identified. The study\u27s findings indicated that several user experience elements were characterised by emotions, cognitive, and behavioural dimensions. Combining the characteristics of the dimensions resulted in a more holistic view of the engagement and interaction that end-users have with social media technologies

Conveying User Experience in Business-to-Business Environment

Tässä työssä käsittelen käyttäjäkokemuslähtöisen tuotesuunnittelun mahdollisuuksia vaikuttaa erottautumistekijöihin teollisissa yrityksissä, jotka toimivat B2B ympäristössä. Työn tavoitteena on tarkastella kokemuspohjaisen suunnittelun teoreettisia lähtökohtia, ottaen huomioon muotoilun, kognitiotieteiden ja kauppatieteiden alojen tutkimuspohja. B2B ympäristön tarkastelu on tämän työn yksi painopisteistä, koska siinä tuotteen omistus ja käyttö jakautuvat asiakkaiden ja käyttäjien kesken. Tämä toisaalta vaikuttaa tuotteen suunnittelun lähtökohtiin, sen markkinointiin, myyntiin ja vastaavasti asiakas- ja käyttäjäkokemukseen. Työ on tehty FIMECC:in aloittaman UXUS projektin yhteydessä. Projektin tarkoitus on tutkia ja soveltaa käyttäjäkokemuksen lähtökohtia teollisessa ympäristössä. Työssäni pyrin kehittämään teoreettisen ajatusmallin, jolla asiakkaiden ja käyttäjien kokemuksia voidaan tarkastella eri tasoilla ja ottaa huomioon suunnitteluprosessin varhaisissa vaiheissa. Tämä malli pohjautuu osittain psykologisiin teorioihin, jotka tulevat esille aikaisemmissa tutkimuksissa mm. Carver ja Scheier (1998); Sheldon, K.M., Elliot, A.J., Kim, Y. ja Kasser, T. (2001). Ajatusmallin ensisijainen tarkoitus on toimia tukityökaluna tuottajayrityksen tuotekehityksen ja markkinoinnin yksiköille kun halutaan soveltaa kokemuslähtöisen suunnittelun periaatteita yrityksen toiminnassa. Mallin toinen tarkoitus on toimia perustana teolliseen ympäristöön soveltuvien kokemusmittareiden kehitykselle. Työn toinen osio keskittyy yheden UXUS projektin yrityskumppanin toiminnan tutkimiseen (Rocla). Tässä osiossa pyrin kehittämään kokemusmittariston, jonka tarkoituksena on huomioida tuottajayrityksen, tuotevälittäjien, asiakkaiden ja käyttäjien näkemyksiä tuotteiden ominaisuuksista ja kokemuksista sekä mahdollistaa vertailu näiden osapuolten välillä. Kerätyn aineiston ja vertailun tarkoitus on auttaa tuotekehitys- ja markkinointitiimien työtä kun määritetään uusien tuotteiden kehityskriteerit ja myyntiargumentit. Kokemusmittariston sunnittelussa käytän sekä teoreettisia lähtökohtia, jotka käydään läpi työn alussa, että kymmentä johtajatason henkilön haastattelutulosta Roclan tuotekehityksen, markkinoinnin ja myynnin yksiköistä. Tämän lisäksi sovellan ajatuksia keskusteluista, joita käytiin läpi lukuisissa tutkijatapaamisissa, kenttä- ja yritysvierailuilla. Ehdotetun kokemusmittariston avulla kerään aineistoa 57:ltä kokeneelta varastotuotevälittäjältä. Välittäjät vertasivat kahta erityyppistä varastokonetta heidän kokemuksiensa perusteella ja myös osoittivat näkemyksensä psykologisten tarpeiden tärkeydestä asiakkaiden ja käyttäjien näkökulmasta. Aineiston analyysi osoittaa, että vaikka välittäjät kokivat selkeitä eroja tuotteiden visuaalisen ulkonön viehättävyydessä, tämä tekijän tärkeys oli yleisesti vähäinen (mm. osittain linjassa Diefenbach, S. ja Hassenzahl, M. (2011) tulosten kanssa). Tämä tulos tukee ajatusta siitä, jos kokemuspohjaisia lähtökohtia halutaan soveltaa erottautumistekijöinä B2B ympäristössä, niiden pitää olla vahvasti ja selkeästi yhdistettynä taloudellisiin mittareihin.The main goal of this study is to investigate theoretical background behind user experience (UX) paradigm and its possible implementation in industrial product development within business-to-business (B-to-B) environment. This work is conducted in the realm of UXUS project (User Experience and Usability in complex Systems), which was initiated by FIMECC (Finnish Metals and Engineering Competence Cluster) in 2010. In contrast to business-to-consumer environment, B-to-B setting separates ownership and actual use of the product. My aim lies in elaborating on various impacts of this separation on user and customer experiences and possible ways to communicate benefits of better UX to customers and equipment distributors. In the content of this paper, I introduce a theoretical thinking model for approaching experiences in industrial product development and an experimental questionnaire set, which is meant to capture different aspects of product and operating environment experiences. I test the proposed questionnaire set with 57 experienced warehouse equipment distributors who evaluate two separate industrial products. Results indicate that distributors are able to appreciate differences in hedonic qualities of industrial equipment and that visual appearance is a major factor in indicated product perceptions. However, overall hedonic qualities were perceived as less important compared to utilitarian qualities, which is partially in line with consumer product findings by DIEFENBACH, et al. (2011). I also find that distributors were unable to appreciate the importance of three major psychological needs (relatedness, autonomy and competence as indicated by SHELDON, et al., 2001) in industrial product development. I also analyze interviews of ten managers from warehouse equipment manufacturing company Rocla to investigate whether individuals working in separate departments perceive implications of UX paradigm differently. Findings indicate that individuals dealing with R&D activities stress the importance of end-users in deriving criteria for product development whereas individuals dealing with marketing and sales activities emphasize the role of personal relationships with customers. The longrun aim of this research direction is to assess strategic potential of UX paradigm for industrial product manufacturers