Screenshot: dissertation, frontpage
At University of Art and Design Helsinki you can download Katja Battarbee dissertation about user experiences in social interaction:
“User experience is a term that has become popular in user centred design in recent years. It off ers a holistic approach to understanding the relationship between the user and product, and the experiences that result from their interaction.
However, a review of the current user experience literature reveals that the term user experience lacks a common defi nition. Instead, it is often used to embrace a broader context for design that relates to the needs, emotions and experiences of users and to the products that contribute to them. It then depends on the field of design how broad and inclusive the defi nition becomes. In concept design the focus is on the experiences that the future users find meaningful, useful and delightful, which are used instead of the more common problem-solving approach as the starting point for design. In the design of interactive content, the focus tends to be on the interface solution itself. However, there is also research that attempts to defi ne user experience in a way that is theoretically informed. These recent approaches defi ne user experience as both the “moment” of interaction and its diff erent qualities between person and environment, as well as the meaning making activities that relate the past to the present and anticipate the future. It is the aspect of meaning and its relationship to time that is often lacking from the practice-oriented approaches.
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However, despite understanding the current state of the users’ life, it is difficult, if not impossible to predict changes in people’s behaviours when a new technology or product is introduced into their lives. This thesis proposes that to study co-experience, experience prototyping should happen early and in the field, in the real social and physical contexts of the future users’ lives. By observing how users lift up experiences for each other and how others interpret and respond to them, researchers can begin to develop an empathic understanding of the experiences that are relevant for users. At the same time, it is possible to study the interaction with the products and the emergence of meanings and purposes for technology. By focusing on co-experience, user experiences and the adoption and appropriation of products and technology are not artificially separated, but all three happen in context as they are studied over time.”
Internetverweis
PDF: dissertation CO-EXPERIENCE
