We live in age of experiences, not separate features.
Last week I tried to open one of those old concepts of milk packaging. I had problem from the opening to the pouring. I then realized that this problem has been long solved since someone got a better idea, how to open and pour some milk without making mess around.
I am mostly interested in the taste the milk has, but my whole conclusion about the product depends on other supporting experiences alongside. Those accompanying activities should ease the interaction and satisfy the need, my need to pour and have some milk.
The experience includes all aspects of the human mind, the senses, the motives, the behaviors, the cognitive processes, the emotions.
Our experiences are mostly connected to emotions. Being happy about a design means it provides the optimal solution to the problem or need the user has.
The experience we tend to achieve with some product should be focused on how the users think, how the product improve their being, how it influences their actions and how it should make them feel. Thus a good UX is always a cohesive output of the user’s preferences, needs, actions, goals.
We are always seeking to solve a problem in common ways, understandable for the user. Thus every perception of a solution is built upon the past (the experience), the present (context), the future (goals). If we respect the ways users get around and use the patterns in which they would most commonly behave, we increase the possibility to associate that particular experience with positive emotions.
If you are reading this text, it is probably really important for you to end in 2 minutes, probably also one of the important reasons you started reading it in the first place. The fulfillment of that expectation as part of the final experience distinguishes bad from good UX.
Yours 1:99 sec.
