FIGURE 1.7 Dreyfuss created Joe (and a companion diagram, Josephine) to remind us that everything we design is for people.
At the same time, some interesting parallel movements were taking shape. A small handful of academics were doing research into what we now describe as cognitive science. As a discipline, cognitive science combined an interest in human cognition (especially human capacity for short-term memory) with concepts such as artificial and machine intelligence. These cognitive scientists were interested in the potential of computers to serve as a tool to augment human mental capacities.
Many early wins in the design of computers for human use came from PARC, a Xerox research center founded in the early 1970s to explore innovations in workplace technology. PARC’s work in the mid-70s produced many user interface conventions that are still used today—the graphical user interface, the mouse, and computer-generated bitmap graphics. For example, PARC’s work greatly influenced the first commercially available graphical user interface: the Apple Macintosh.
The term user experience probably originated in the early 1990s at Apple when cognitive psychologist Donald Norman joined the staff. Various accounts from people who were there at the time say that Norman introduced user experience to encompass what had theretofore been described as human interface research. He held the title User Experience Architect, possibly the first person to ever have UX on his business card. Norman actually started out in cognitive psychology, but his writing on the cognitive experience of products, including technological products, made him a strong voice to lead and inspire a growing field (see Figure 1.8). According to Don Norman, “I invented the term because I thought Human Interface and usability were too narrow: I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with a system, including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and the manual.”
FIGURE 1.8 Norman’s book The Design of Everyday Things is a popular text that deconstructs many of the elements that contribute to a positive or negative user experience. It’s still pretty much required reading for anyone who is interested in UX.
UX and UI: What’s the Difference?
You may find that the average person is more familiar with the term UI than UX. UI refers to the user interface, or the screen through which a person interacts with a computer or device. Because most people have used computers at one time or another and have had encounters with UIs that were both good and bad, they often have some idea of what a UI is, and why it matters. UX, on the other hand, is a more intangible concept that encompasses not just UI, but also the hardware, the user’s context of use, and the user’s goals and motivations. That’s a lot harder to cram into one mental picture. To explain the difference to others, it can be helpful to provide a tangible example. For example, PayByPhone is a service that integrates with parking meters to solve a basic problem: paying for parking even if you don’t have change. The picture on the left in Figure 1.9 is the app’s user interface, or UI. The picture on the right conveys some sense of the broader user experience of needing to pay for your parking, discovering that there’s an alternative way to pay, and then trying to figure out how to do it.
FIGURE 1.9 With the PayByPhone service, the user interface is just one part of the overall user experience.
With the rise of personal computing in the 1980s and then the Web in the 1990s, many of these trends converged on each other. Graphical user interfaces, cognitive science, and designing for and with people became the foundation for the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). Suddenly, more people had access to computers and, along with it, a greater need to understand and optimize their use of them. HCI popularized concepts like usability and interaction design, both of which are important forebears to user experience. In the Internet bubble of the mid and late-1990s, new jobs with titles like “Web designer,” “interaction designer,” and “information architect” began cropping up. As people became more experienced in these roles, a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the field of user experience began to develop. Today, user experience is a rapidly growing field, with undergraduate and graduate level programs being developed to train future generations of professionals to design products for the people who use them.
Where UX Professionals Come From
The field of user experience grew primarily out of human factors and usability—both fields with very strong ties to the world of software development. As a result, people often connect UX with user interface design. This isn’t completely inaccurate, but it’s just one part of the story. Increasingly, UX doesn’t even have to involve a technical product. Service designers, industrial designers, physical space designers, and those people who are designing for an increasingly networked world are all working on the same basic problem. How can they design flowing experiences that respect, empower, and delight real people?
So does that mean that anyone can be a user experience team of one? Not necessarily. Certain backgrounds are better grooming for user experience than others. You’re a good candidate for user experience work if you have past experience in one or more of these areas:
• Web or software design and development. This is a natural one. Many of the elder statesmen of the UX world started out as Web masters or Web designers. And indeed, a big focus of their work may still be Web-oriented, depending on what type of product they work on. People with this background make good UX practitioners because they’ve probably seen firsthand how users make sense of and interact with unfamiliar designs. The fact that they know a bit about Web technologies helps, too.
• Editing, journalism, or copywriting. This field is also a common pathway into user experience because it is fundamentally about how people consume and make sense of content. That’s true whether it’s in print or digital. People with this background are naturals at thinking about the reader’s needs and perspectives, which translates directly into the user’s point of view. These folks also think a lot about how voice, tone, and structure influence a reader’s perceptions and experiences with a medium. That’s a good thing.
• Graphic or print design. The user experience is impacted by decisions that are made at every level of the product. But when end users think of the product, they usually think of the parts that they can see and interact with—the visible, surface level. Graphic and print designers are trained to think about how people see and respond to layers of visual information. They have the ability to create designs that convey practical information, while also evoking a desired emotional reaction. People with this skill know how to design for understanding, as well as meaning, which is a very user-centered ethos.
• Research, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Understanding and empathizing with the user’s perspective is a vital foundation for user experience design. People with this background know how to conduct studies or experiments to uncover what people really do and why. That can be harder than it seems. It’s very easy for the observer to unconsciously change the behavior of the observed. But sociologists and anthropologists have rigorous methods and techniques for getting at what people really do. They also have the ability to turn a dizzying array of observations and data points into broader themes and ultimately meaning. These themes and their significance become the foundation upon which user experience design decisions are made.
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