The measurability and predictability of user experience
Effie Lai‐Chong Law · 2011
User experience is an emerging research area with a range of issues to be resolved. Among them, the measurability of UX remains contentious. The key argument hinges on the meaningfulness, validity and usefulness of reducing fuzzy experiential qualities such as fun, challenge and trust to numbers. UX people seem ambivalent towards UX measures. In UX empirical studies, qualitative approaches are predominant, though the popular use of questionnaires in these studies suggests that some form of numeric measures is deemed useful or even necessary. The tension between the two camps (i.e. qualitative design-based and quantitative model-based) stimulates scientific discussions to bring the field forward. As measures may enable us to predict, the concomitant issue of UX predictability is explored. Besides, we look into theoretical frameworks that potentially contribute to a deeper understanding of UX. Of particular interest is theory of memory.