The Essential Characteristics of User Experience (a language of critique)

Theres been some discussion in the past few months about establishing a “language of critique” for user experience design. JJG may have started it with his closing plenary at the Summit and several people have blogged about it.

Here is my contribution, yes its a diagram. Its the first half of a two part diagram called “The Characteristics of User Experience”, this first part being the essential characteristics – the second part, coming soon, will be the secondary (or auxiliary, or periphery, I haven’t decided yet) characteristics.

Useful, Usable and Desirable have been touted for a long time as the hallmarks of a “good” user experience but they’re too generic and abstract. I think the five characteristics in this diagram are essential to any user experience being “good”. I’d love comments to stress test this!

http://mauvyrusset.com/2009 /07 /02 /the -essential -characteristics -of -user -experience /

Richard

Thanks Richard. Just one trivial suggestion: could you put the graphic up as a link to a larger graphic instead of a pdf - I cannot access your pdf at work and a graphic would be a quicker way to examine it.

Thanks again.

Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=43338

Richard,

Are the layers supposed to indicate a hierarchy within the Essential characteristics? They do to me, which makes it seem like there are essentialer characteristics, or a flow you imply but don't describe.

Furthermore, though Controllability, Understandability, and Relevance all dance around this, I think Predictability bears mention as a necessary element. Very few experiences are enjoyable that are not predictable, and those tend to be highly specialized, and, in some way, their lack of predictability is predictable, so...

Phillip

Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=43338

Hi Philip,

Yes - I did intend the 3 layers to imply a hierarchy, my reasoning was that you can't leverage connections if you can't control something, you can't control something that you can't understand and you wouldn't want to engage with something that isn't relevant to you or that doesn't emotionally appeal to you.

Predictability is an interesting one, i'd say that predictable as it pertains to behavior of an experience would be covered under "controllable", but perhaps you were thinking of other reasons why we try to make experiences predictable?

Great discussion, thanks!

- Richard

Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=43338