What is covered in this article:
What is User Experience (UX)?
User experience (UX) is an approach to product development that incorporates direct user feedback throughout the development cycle (human-centered design) in order to reduce costs and create products and tools that meet user needs and have a high level of usability (are easy to use). There are many definitions of user experience by UX professionals. The business benefits of adding UX to a product development process include:Increased productivity
- Increased sales and revenues
- Decreased training and support costs
- Reduced development time and costs
- Reduced maintenance costs
- Increased customer satisfaction
Too often, organizations don’t track total lifecycle costs for a software project. The original development budget and schedule is known, but they don’t typically track how expensive support costs are, what they’re attributable to, how much employee time is wasted on unusable tools, and other post-production factors. Thus, projects that have small up-front costs and short development cycles are often rewarded even if they result in failed, ineffective, or unusable products. There are many real world examples showing how UX can benefit a project and how a lack of UX can add risk.
UX In Practice
There is an international standard that is the basis for many UX/UCD methodologies. This standard (ISO 13407: Human-centred design process) defines a general process for including human-centered (user-centered) activities throughout a development life-cycle, but does not specify exact methods. In this model, once the need to use a human centered design process has been identified, four activities form the main cycle of work:
- Specify the context of use Identify the people who will use the product, what they will use it for, and under what conditions they will use it.
- Specify requirements Identify any business requirements or user goals that must be met for the product to be successful.
- Create design solutions This part of the process may be done in stages, building from a rough concept to a complete design.
- Evaluate designs The most important part of this process is that evaluation – ideally through usability testing with actual users – is as integral as quality testing is to good software development.
- Meet with key stakeholders to set vision
- Include usability tasks in the project plan
- Assemble a multidisciplinary team to ensure complete expertise
- Develop usability goals and objectives
- Conduct field studies
- Look at competitive products
- Create user profiles
- Develop a task analysis
- Document user scenarios
- Document user performance requirements
- Begin to brainstorm design concepts and metaphors
- Develop screen flow and navigation model
- Do walkthroughs of design concepts
- Begin design with paper and pencil
- Create low-fidelity prototypes
- Conduct usability testing on low-fidelity prototypes
- Create high-fidelity detailed design
- Do usability testing again
- Document standards and guidelines
- Create a design specification
- Do ongoing heuristic evaluations
- Work closely with delivery team as design is implemented
- Conduct usability testing as soon as possible
- Use surveys to get user feedback
- Conduct field studies to get info about actual use
- Check objectives using usability testing
What is a User Experience Professional?
The UXPA defines a User Experience (UX) professional broadly as people who research, design, and evaluate the user experience of products and services. Some specialize in conducting usability tests or other user research while others practice UX as part of other responsibilities in designing products, services, software applications or web sites. The training and professional background of UX professionals is equally broad. Many have qualifications in closely related fields like human-computer interaction (HCI), information design or psychology. Others have used their backgrounds in computer science, project management, journalism, fine arts, library science, or business as part of their journey towards being a UX professional.
“Doing UX”
The activities of a UX professional – or the time spent on UX activities for those with other primary responsibilities – are all part of an approach to design called user-centered design. They span the entire product life-cycle from user research during planning and early visioning to the final rollout or release of a product. There is an international standard, ISO 9241-210 (originally 13407) that is the basis for many user-centered design approaches. Broadly speaking, UX activities can be divided into:
- Research – learning about the people who will use a product and the context in which it will be used.
- Evaluation – observing (and learning from) users as they work with a product before, during and after the design and development process.
- Design – whether it is called interface, interaction, information or experience design.
Body of Knowledge
The UXPA Body of Knowledge project is working to define the work of a UX professional. The project includes:
- Activities and methodologies
- Common titles and roles
- Curriculum
How Do I Get Started with UX?
If you are just learning about UX, this site includes some good resources – and links to many others – on UX, whether you like learning by reading, listening or in discussion with others. Some places to start are:
- “Usability Basics” on Usability.gov, the web site from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services includes an excellent introduction to the field.
- UXPA conferences and events, which include some of the best training courses available.
- Rosenfeld Media is a great place to start building your bookshelf and UXPA International Members receive 20% off books from Rosenfeld Media.
- Meetings at a local UXPA chapter is a good way to meet UX professionals in your area.
What is the Code of Conduct for UX Professionals?
About the Code
The Code of Professional Conduct of the User Experience Professionals Association expresses the profession’s recognition of its responsibilities to the public, clients, employers, and colleagues. The Code guides members in the performance of their professional responsibilities and express the basic tenets of ethical and professional conduct. The Code of Conduct calls for UXPA members to evaluate the risks and benefits of their actions on all stakeholders and ensure these actions meet highest ethical standards. Read the UXPA International Code of Conduct (First approved September 2005).
UXPA Ethical Principles
- Act in the best interest of everyone
- Be honest with everyone
- Do no harm and if possible provide benefits
- Act with integrity
- Avoid conflicts of interest
- Respect privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity
- Provide all resultant data
Ethics Advisory Committee
If any member believes that a violation has occurred during the trial period, he or she should report the violation to the Vice President of the UXPA who will call a meeting of the Ethics Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee will evaluate the evidence and determine if the Code has been violated. The findings will be reported to the UXPA Board of Directors who have the power to expel the member from the User Experience Professionals Association.
Articles and Resources
- American Psychological Association (APA) Ethics Code
- Society for Technical Communication (STC) Ethical Principles
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Professional Standards
- Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Code of Ethics
- Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) Code of Ethics
- Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) Information for researchers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
"Usability is about human behavior. It recognizes that humans are lazy, get emotional, are not interested in putting a lot of effort into, say, getting a credit card and generally prefer things that are easy to do vs. those that are hard to do."
-- David McQuillen in "Taking Usability Offline" Darwin Magazine, June 2003
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Quotes on usability from business leaders
- Definitions of usability from leading professionals