Research Goals and Strategies for Studying
User Experience and Emotion

Important dates

Introduction

The consideration of experiential and emotional aspects has recently become central to our understanding of interaction with technology. Today, user experience (UX) and user’s emotions are considered as essential factors in providing value for the users of technology, for instance, by evoking emotionally significant positive experiences. Currently, UX and affect are considered to be very important for a product’s market success. The aim of the current workshop is to review and discuss different methods of studying UX and user affect and to find out how these methods could and should contribute to product design.

The field of UX has arisen from a need to take a more holistic approach to design. In contrast, the traditional focus on performance and task oriented usability excludes many important aspects of users, products and their interactions. UX has been approached and defined in many ways. Most approaches consider UX to essentially consist of emotional, sensual, behavioural, cognitive, and social levels. Also, product features (such as form, function, and interaction), user’s characteristics (such as past experiences, current emotional state, interpretations), and the context of use (such as spatio-temporal) are considered to be central aspects of UX.

Based on the variety of definitions and theoretical approaches, many viewpoints and research methods exist for studying UX. Methods such as interviews, questionnaires, observation, experience prototyping, and bodystorming have been used to study UX. On the other hand, guidelines for designing pleasurable products and for evoking specific emotions have been identified quite rarely. A broad and critical review of different research approaches will help to clarify the theoretical essence as well as the practical importance of UX. This includes envisioning what kind of approaches future research on UX should employ and how the research findings should inform design.

Goals of the workshop

1) to explore how user experience should be studied in different contexts and for different goals
2) to elicit how the results of the studies can inform design
3) to bring together people of different disciplines all working in this field to discuss and exchange experiences.