Modelling user experience – An agenda for research and practice
Effie Lai‐Chong Law, Paul van Schaik · Interacting with Computers · 2010
A major area of research is how a positive ‘user experience’ – or interaction experience – of the use of digital artefacts (e.g. web sites, virtual worlds and personal digital assistants) can be promoted (Hassenzahl and Tractinsky, 2006). This experience does not only include usability, but also other cognitive, socio-cognitive and affective aspects of users’ experience in their interaction with artefacts, such as users’ enjoyment, aesthetic experience, desire to repeat use, positive decision to use a digital artefact and enhanced mental models. Research in this area is timely because we are approaching the ‘loyalty decade’, where interaction experience will become the main success factor (Nielsen, 2008). Hence, the success of digital artefacts is to a large extent positively influenced by the extent to which they promote a high-quality experience in their users. Furthermore, user experience (UX) manifests as quality in design, in interaction and in value, with diverse measures from many methods and instruments. One of the challenges related to UX is how to select appropriate measures to address the particularities of an evaluation context. The necessity and utility of UX measures is apparent, because such measures enable professionals to benchmark competitive design artefacts and to select appropriate design options. However, both the construct validity and predictive power of some UX measures are of particular concern. Consequently, modelling users’ experience – as a basis for producing design guidance – is especially important.