[IxDA Discuss] Is interaction design more than skin deep?
Of course it is. I hate these kind of annoying teaser headlines that the print and broadcast media use to get people to read a news story/watch a program. But here's what I'm getting at: In the beginning was Interface Design. Then it was argued that it's more than 'just' the 'interface', which regular folk take to mean pretty looking screens -- that it's actually 'Interaction Design'; that we are interested in matters beyond 'merely' the 'interface', and in fact we would like to design the entire interaction process. Further along the way, we became interested in the entire User Experience, and not just the process of interaction. And who knows how much more will be included in the scope of what we claim to be our domain in a few years. The question then is: where do we stop, if we intend to stop at all? In another ongoing thread, I brought up the matter of Action Technologies' Coordinator, which Chauncey Wilson on this forum has tested while at Digital Equipment, back in the 1980's. The Coordinator (sounds a lot like 'The Terminator' doesn't it?) was quickly dubbed 'fascistware' and nearly universally rejected by its users. Weigh in here if you please, Chauncey, since you actually did thorough usability testing on the product -- but even if The Coordinator would have passed the usual gauntlet of usability tests; even if it got two thumbs up on every ease of use measure, it still probably would have failed. Not because it didn't serve any useful purpose, but because, among other things, it attempted to force certain changes in individual and social behavior. So, from the perspective of today's User Experience professional -- where does a UXP's responsibility end? Does a UXP's responsibility today encompass everything that traditionally was the domain of the folks who gathered requirements and wrote the specs. So, for instance, if somebody were to think of embarking on a project like The Coordinator today, would the UXP, even while such a project was being mooted, raise red flags and suitably modify the goals of the project? Since one or more threads right now are devoted to trying to define the field, it might be useful to work from the outside in -- where do we draw the line (if at all we draw a line) and say that anything beyond the line is (mostly) outside the scope of UX? -- murli *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is interaction design more than skin deep?
On 2/4/08, Murli Nagasundaram [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: So, from the perspective of today's User Experience professional -- where does a UXP's responsibility end? Does a UXP's responsibility today encompass everything that traditionally was the domain of the folks who gathered requirements and wrote the specs. So, for instance, if somebody were to think of embarking on a project like The Coordinator today, would the UXP, even while such a project was being mooted, raise red flags and suitably modify the goals of the project? Good question, Murli. That's something I've been thinking about since I had a very interesting experience with my Netflix queue. geek My wife and I were happily watching our way through all 10 seasons of Stargate: SG-1 when, somewhere around season 7, the next disc was listed as having a Very Long Wait. So instead of sending us the disc *after* the delayed disc, Netflix sent us the first disc of the next *series* in our queue, Stargate: Atlantis. /geek I've been wondering for weeks now whose decision or insight that was. Was user research conducted, leading to an insight that led to this modification of business process? Or is there someone at Netflix who is separately responsible for designing business process in a customer-centric way? This is the sort of thing that toes what I perceive to be a nebulous line between something called user experience and something else called customer experience. In my mind, which obsessively classifies things, I have defined UX to refer to experiences a user directly has with a product, while CX refers to experiences a user has surrounding their acquisition and ownership of a product *or service*. Taking it a step further, I see UX as an *element* of CX. If you've created a crappy product, that's going to have a negative impact on the customer's perception of your company, no matter how helpful and smiley your sales tech support staff are. So in my Netflix example, something like rearranging my queue or finding a (good) sci-fi movie I actually *haven't* seen would be an example of user experience. My joy at not having to be lost or suffer plot spoilers after missing 4 episodes of SG-1 would fall under customer experience. As to whose responsibility this is? Well, I'm going to take a cop-out by saying that while UX is definitely the UXD's responsibility, CX is the responsibility of the entire product development team, possibly the entire organization. In large organizations, I've seen them split off the research, UXD, and usability testing functions to different individuals. Research communicates their findings to UXD, who then implements a design based on those findings. Usability then evaluates the design and suggests revisions. In the way that responsibility for UX is shared in this situation, I see CX as simply encompassing more roles/individuals... BA, product managers, executives, marketing, etc. So to finally answer your question, Murli, I'd say that the UXD's *primary* responsibility ends at the user's interaction with the actual product. However, due to their unique and detailed knowledge of customer needs/desires/contexts/etc., business process or CX design should be a secondary responsibility. At the very least, UXDs in a given organization should have some defined avenue toward influencing decisions that will affect CX. Thoughts? - Fred *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is interaction design more than skin deep?
Fred wrote: This is the sort of thing that toes what I perceive to be a nebulous line between something called user experience and something else called customer experience. I see Netflix is an example of service design. It's often referenced along with exemplars from car rental, banking, airlines, coffee houses and package delivery as a classic example of the discipline. It brings together touchpoints from many different disciplines: interface design (the site), graphic design (the mailers), system design (how your queue works) along with the more human side of the interactions like customer service and support and integrates everything with business strategy. Service designers don't create all this in isolation. It's conceived as an incredibly collaborative discipline that works directly with stakeholders to co-create the service experience. Here are a couple firms to look at in this area: Engine http://www.enginegroup.co.uk/ Live|Work http://www.livework.co.uk/ // jeff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=25522 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
