Published:
I personally am not pro for the current trends around the UX. Regarding this issue, Boon Chew wrote "something like renaming things from UPA to UXPA would be like professional suicide (extreme example)." (http://gluethink.com/2012/08/25/ux-amateurism-and-why-im-not-a-ux-designer-anymore/comment-page-1/#comment-30494), and Paul van Schaik wrote "There is a growing feeling of unease that user-experience - UX - may have thrown out the baby (cognitive task performance) with the bathwater (usability). " (personal communication to his 24 colleagues).
Many people use the term "UXD" or the UX design although there is a discussion on whether it is reasonable to use "designing the UX" or "designing for the UX" based on the notion that the UX is a subjective experience. I know many people who regard it as just a simple buzzword. I also know some (traditional) designers to describe the UXD as nothing but a traditional design.
It's true that the new keywords will stimulate people, especially those who are involved in the marketing and the design whose mission is to "create" something new and interesting or attractive.
But we should take care that the notion of UX is not just the buzzword but includes more serious issues we should tackle with. The UX is a part of the total human experience and is affected by many factors of which I recently proposed threemajor categories - the meaning, the quality traits, and the Kansei aspect (Human Interface Symposium 2012 in Japanese). Besides, it is the common understanding of serious researchers that the UX covers the whole lifecycle of the artifact and is a subjective phenomenon on the side of the user.
By comparing the usability issue, it is strange that there is a term "usability engineering" proposed by Jakob Nielsen while no UX engineering has been proposed. What is the engineering and what could be the engineering is a big issue to be discussed. But in the similar sense that there is the term "usability engineering" where the issues of concept definition, design methodology, process management and measurement (evaluation) techniques have been discussed, we should expect the UX engineering to emerge from a more academic and logical standpoint than the current UXD superficial trends.
My idea about the process of UX includes 1) Survey on the UX, 2) Planning the UX, 3) Designing for the UX and 4) Measurement of the UX each of which will and should have unique set of methods and techniques. In this scheme, UXD is included as the part 3 though there are some to include all from 1 thru 4 into the term "UX" - that's too much!
I'll write a book chapter on this issue in English till the end of October. Comments should be sent to masaakikurosu@spa.nifty.com. Thanks in advance.
I personally am not pro for the current trends around the UX. Regarding this issue, Boon Chew wrote "something like renaming things from UPA to UXPA would be like professional suicide (extreme example)." (http://gluethink.com/2012/08/25/ux-amateurism-and-why-im-not-a-ux-designer-anymore/comment-page-1/#comment-30494), and Paul van Schaik wrote "There is a growing feeling of unease that user-experience - UX - may have thrown out the baby (cognitive task performance) with the bathwater (usability). " (personal communication to his 24 colleagues).
Many people use the term "UXD" or the UX design although there is a discussion on whether it is reasonable to use "designing the UX" or "designing for the UX" based on the notion that the UX is a subjective experience. I know many people who regard it as just a simple buzzword. I also know some (traditional) designers to describe the UXD as nothing but a traditional design.
It's true that the new keywords will stimulate people, especially those who are involved in the marketing and the design whose mission is to "create" something new and interesting or attractive.
But we should take care that the notion of UX is not just the buzzword but includes more serious issues we should tackle with. The UX is a part of the total human experience and is affected by many factors of which I recently proposed threemajor categories - the meaning, the quality traits, and the Kansei aspect (Human Interface Symposium 2012 in Japanese). Besides, it is the common understanding of serious researchers that the UX covers the whole lifecycle of the artifact and is a subjective phenomenon on the side of the user.
By comparing the usability issue, it is strange that there is a term "usability engineering" proposed by Jakob Nielsen while no UX engineering has been proposed. What is the engineering and what could be the engineering is a big issue to be discussed. But in the similar sense that there is the term "usability engineering" where the issues of concept definition, design methodology, process management and measurement (evaluation) techniques have been discussed, we should expect the UX engineering to emerge from a more academic and logical standpoint than the current UXD superficial trends.
My idea about the process of UX includes 1) Survey on the UX, 2) Planning the UX, 3) Designing for the UX and 4) Measurement of the UX each of which will and should have unique set of methods and techniques. In this scheme, UXD is included as the part 3 though there are some to include all from 1 thru 4 into the term "UX" - that's too much!
I'll write a book chapter on this issue in English till the end of October. Comments to this article are kindly requested to be sent to me at masaakikurosu@spa.nifty.com. Thanks in advance.