Unit 1

Question 1

Define Human-Machine Interaction

Answer 1

In human–machine interaction, new technologies, input and output media, and forms of interaction are tested and evaluated for their effects

Question 2

Define Human Factors in the context of UX Experience

Answer 2

The term is used in particular in connection with safety-critical systems (e.g. nuclear power plant, flight monitoring, aircraft
cockpits, switch control of trains).

Question 3

What are Ergonomics?

Answer 3

The science of human work, ergonomics is concerned with how working conditions can be adapted to physical and cognitive human characteristics.

Question 4

What is experience?

Answer 4

Experience can be regarded as knowledge gathered from personal experiences or reported experiences of others.

Question 5

According to Hassenzahl, what are the five basic aspects of experience?

Answer 5

1. Subjective: Two people can have completely different experiences in the same situation. It is therefore difficult to establish a precise connection between a designed object and the experience it evokes. Nevertheless, certain commonalities or recurring patterns exist that can serve as clues for design.
2. Holistic: Experiences are influenced and controlled by higher-level intentions and motivations. While classical ergonomics and usability in interface design often deal with problems of concrete execution, UX design must also consider user motivations as a starting point.
3. Situational: An experience is tied to the physical environment and the time at which it occurs. It cannot be repeated, but it can be categorized and compared. Hassenzahl argues for the boiling down of experiences to their essence and thus establishes commonalities between recurring situations.
4. Dynamic: Experiences change in memory and differ from the continuous stream of experience during an event. Accordingly, experiences are constructed: They can be shaped and can continue to change, which is why in the field of UX design, attention should be paid to longer periods of experience and use.
5. Positive: Good experiences are not merely the absence of bad experiences. Hassenzahl refers here to the difference between basic factors (dissatisfiers), whose absence leads to dissatisfaction, and enthusiasm factors (satisfiers), whose presence leads to satisfaction.

Question 6

What is user experience?

Answer 6

Definition 1: User experience refers to the subarea of experience that arises from dealing with technology of any kind.

Definition 2: UX is explained as perceptions and reactions of a person resulting from the actual and/or expected use of a product, system, or service.

Definition 3: The result of a direct or indirect interaction as well
as the totality of effects that this produces subjectively felt by the respective user.

Definition 4: The experience as the feeling that a person goes through before, during, and after using a product.

Question 7

What is a user?

Answer 7

A user is someone who interacts with a system, a product, or a service.

Question 8

What is a mental model?

Answer 8

The way users explain the functioning of an object or interface to themselves

Question 9

What is a touchpoint?

Answer 9

The opportunities for users to gain experience with a company via its products and services

Question 10

What is the difference between user experience and usability?

Answer 10

Usability engineering is the methodical process of analyzing the requirements for the usability of interactive systems, their implementation, and verification.

User experience design refers to more complex emotions that can serve as motivators for action, and thus ultimately to the holistic appeal of a product

Question 11

What is user experience design?

Answer 11

User experience design is concerned with the design of the user experience in its entirety. The goal is to create the most positive and stimulating user experience possible.

Question 12

According to Morville, what are the seven aspects that can be used as criteria to assess the quality of user experience in the design process?

Answer 12

• Useful: The product being designed must fulfill a purpose or need for the user. It is useful to accomplish that task.
• Useable: The user can use the product without much effort; it suits their ability and understanding as well as their possibilities. Compared to usefulness, usability is necessary for a product but not sufficient.
• Desirability: Desirability focuses on aesthetic experience and emotion. It addresses the desire within us, that is, the feeling of “I must have this.”
• Findable: Products, applications, and services must be designed so that the user can find them easily and simply.
• Accessible: Functions and the entire product should be designed so that applications remain accessible to users with limitations (e.g., visual limitations such as blindness or color blindness).
• Credible: The product must be credible, reliably designed, and inspire confidence in users that this product is exactly the right to fulfill their needs.
• Valuable: The product or application must offer added value to both the user and the manufacturer.

VACUUDF- Valuable, Accessible, Credible, Useful, Usable, Desirable, Findable

Question 13

What are the four components of user experience?

Answer 13

1. Usability: This includes ease of use, productivity, efficiency, avoidance of errors, learnability, and recognizability.
2. Usefulness: This refers to the actual benefit that an application has for the user in everyday practice.
3. Emotional Impact: This refers to how a user feels about an interaction and includes user satisfaction.
4. Meaningfulness: This refers to the result of a userʼs personal relationship with a product over a longer period. Hartson & Pyla also refer to usability as a core criterion of user experience but also address the less clearly defined and more subjective criteria of experience quality.

Question 14

What is the difference between user experience design and customer experience management?

Answer 14

Customer experience management deals with user experience from a companyʼs point of view and with the management aspects associated with it. However, UX can thus be regarded as a part of the overarching customer experience. User Experience (UX) focuses on the interaction between users and products, like websites or applications

Question 15

What is the UX design process?

Answer 15

Basically, three types of activities – analysis, projection, and synthesis – can be distinguished in any design process, which in turn can be divided into four phases: research, analysis, synthesis, and realization

Question 16

Explain user experience and ROI (Return on Investment)

Answer 16

Return on investment (ROI) serves as a numerical benchmark for how economically worthwhile certain measures are, i.e., how much profit a certain investment promises.

Question 17

Unit 1 Summary:

Answer 17

User experience design emerged as an interdisciplinary field in human–machine interaction after computers had spread into the private application area. UX focuses on the positive user experience, a key success criterion for companies. By definition, experience is subjective, holistic, situation-dependent, and dynamic. This also applies to user experience, which focuses on the interaction with technology. For UX, the context of a technology, including the user, plays an important role in the design. The action goals of the users are considered both on an instrumental or operational level as well as the level of motivations, the “goals of being.”

The holistic user experience is shaped by the sum of all contacts between a company and a user, the touchpoints. User experience design is closely related to user interface design but takes a higher-level perspective that goes beyond the individual user interface. This also means that good usability is often a prerequisite for a positive user experience. UX is also closely related to customer experience management, which views UX measures from a management perspective. The UX design process is user-oriented and iterative, presented by practitioners in different forms but always similar in structure and requires consistent user involvement. UX thus also takes place on several planning levels, ranging from strategic alignment with corporate goals to the concrete implementation of the user interface. A step-by-step integration of the necessary methods into existing processes is necessary to successfully establish UX processes in a company, which often takes a long time. To gain support at the management level, demonstrating the concrete business-added value of UX is often necessary.