Positive user experience (UX) has become a key factor in designing interactive products. It
acts as a differentiator which can determine a product’s success on the mature market.
However, current UX frameworks and methods do not fully support the early stages of
product design and development. During these phases, assessment of UX is challenging as
no actual user-product interaction can be tested. This qualitative study investigated
anticipated user experience (AUX) to address this problem.
Using the co-discovery method, participants were asked to imagine a desired product,
anticipate experiences with it, and discuss their views with another participant. Fourteen
sub-categories emerged from the data, and relationships among them were defined through
co-occurrence analysis. These data formed the basis of the AUX framework which consists
of two networks which elucidate 1) how users imagine a desired product and 2) how they
anticipate positive experiences with that product. Through this AUX framework, important
factors in the process of imagining future products and experiences were learnt, including
the way in which these factors interrelate.
Focusing on and exploring each component of the two networks in the framework will
allow designers to obtain a deeper understanding of the required pragmatic and hedonic
qualities of product, intended uses of product, user characteristics, potential contexts of
experience, and anticipated emotions embedded within the experience. This understanding,
in turn, will help designers to better foresee users’ underlying needs and to focus on the
most important aspects of their positive experience. Therefore, the use of the AUX
framework in the early stages of product development will contribute to the design for
pleasurable UX.
DRS 2012 Bangkok
acts as a differentiator which can determine a product’s success on the mature market.
However, current UX frameworks and methods do not fully support the early stages of
product design and development. During these phases, assessment of UX is challenging as
no actual user-product interaction can be tested. This qualitative study investigated
anticipated user experience (AUX) to address this problem.
Using the co-discovery method, participants were asked to imagine a desired product,
anticipate experiences with it, and discuss their views with another participant. Fourteen
sub-categories emerged from the data, and relationships among them were defined through
co-occurrence analysis. These data formed the basis of the AUX framework which consists
of two networks which elucidate 1) how users imagine a desired product and 2) how they
anticipate positive experiences with that product. Through this AUX framework, important
factors in the process of imagining future products and experiences were learnt, including
the way in which these factors interrelate.
Focusing on and exploring each component of the two networks in the framework will
allow designers to obtain a deeper understanding of the required pragmatic and hedonic
qualities of product, intended uses of product, user characteristics, potential contexts of
experience, and anticipated emotions embedded within the experience. This understanding,
in turn, will help designers to better foresee users’ underlying needs and to focus on the
most important aspects of their positive experience. Therefore, the use of the AUX
framework in the early stages of product development will contribute to the design for
pleasurable UX.
DRS 2012 Bangkok
