user experience
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CG: n

CT: User experience (UX) is made of all the interactions a user has with a product or service. It is the personal, internal experience customers go through when using a product’s interface.

Let’s take as an example an e-commerce website. If a customer finds the buying experience to be long, complex and complicated, then her UX will be a bad one. Say instead her purchasing experience is easy and hustle free, then the UX will be considered a good one. This will probably push the customer to choose and purchase the products on those websites where she experienced a good user experience.

While it is still important for a product to function, experience has also become extremely relevant: the better the experience you’re offering, the more likely customers will choose you over your competitors: UX can be adifferentiator in a crowded marketplace.

S: UR — https://userreport.com/blog/user-experience/ (last access: 25 January 2025)

N: 1. – user (n): “one who makes use of something,” c. 1400, agent noun from “use” (v.). In reference to users of narcotics by 1935, of computers by 1967.

– experience (n): late 14c., “observation as the source of knowledge; actual observation; an event which has affected one,” from Old French esperience “experiment, proof, experience” (13c.), from Latin experientia “a trial, proof, experiment; knowledge gained by repeated trials,” from experientem (nominative experiens) “experienced, enterprising, active, industrious,” present participle of experiri “to try, test,” from ex “out of” (see ex-) + peritus “experienced, tested,” from Proto-Indo-European *per–yo–, suffixed form of root *per– (3) “to try, risk.” Meaning “state of having done something and gotten handy at it” is from late 15c.

2. Originally used in reference to human-computer interactions – and still largely associated with those disciplines – the term is now used to refer to any specific human-design interaction, ranging from a digital device, to a sales process, to an entire conference. Perhaps due to its organic development and lack of formalization, “User Experience” may be defined by, and the responsibility of, very different departments from organization to organization: in some organizations, it is owned by marketing; in others, it falls under information technology (IT). Then, from a solutions perspective, some organizations base their “User Experiences” around the research and academic-based approaches of human-computer interaction (HCI); others treat interface and/or product design as the source for “User Experience,” while still others let marketing or IT drive it.

3. The terms user interface (UI) and UX are often used interchangeably. This is a common mistake because the UI is the primary mechanism for user interaction with a product and is central to the overall user experience.

In practice, UI design is a subset of UX design. User experience design involves all aspects of a product and its behavior, while user interface design focuses on the look, shape and other user interactions with that overall product.

Consider the analogy of a hammer where the handle is the UI — the point at which a user interacts with the product. However, the UX might also involve the use of an ergonomic handle shape and an appealing dark nonslip handle coating, which make the hammer more comfortable and safer to use. The UI and UX are inexorably intertwined.

Consider a software product with a menu-based UI. Even though the software product may fill a practical need and operate flawlessly as part of the overall UX, a software UI with cumbersome, inconsistent, poorly defined, multilayered menus or visually confusing button placement can have a negative effect on the user experience.

4. Informatics: user experience, UX, UE.

  • The quality of experience a person has when interacting with a specific design.

5. Cultural Interrelation.

  • Don Norman, the “Father of User Experience,” pioneered user and human-centered design and coined the term “user experience.” An accomplished author, teacher, and practitioner, he is one of the most influential figures in user experience design. His bestselling book The Design of Everyday Things introduced many foundational UX design principles.
  • A Selection of Don Norman’s Books: The Design of Everyday Things (1988); Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things (2003); The Design of Future Things (2007); Design for a Better World: Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Centered (2023).

S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?page=2&q=user&type=, https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=experience (last access: 25 January 2025). 2. IxDF – https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-glossary-of-human-computer-interaction/user-experience-ux (last access: 25 January 2025). 3. TechTarget – https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/UX-user-experience (last access: 25 January 2025). 4. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=user+experience&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 28 January 2025). 5. IxDF – https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/don-norman; GR – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/552.Donald_A_Norman (last access: 28 January 2025).

SYN: UX, UE.

S: TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=user+experience&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 28 January 2025)

CR: interface, Internet, Internet user, knowledge engineering, localization, smartphone, user interface, web browser.