What is UX?

2.1 What is UX?

(00:00)

Hello, today we are going to know more about UX or user experience design,

 I am an UX researcher and designer. So what is UX? I am sure you have heard this term so very often in today’s day and age… UX simply put is an understanding and perceiving human experiences in order to make them better.., what does it mean? It basically means that how human beings interact with the digital world. How human beings with their emotions, needs, aspiration, desires… interact with a particular platform in order to get certain things they are looking for and it is the job of UX designer to enrich that particular experience.

So “UX is process driven method aimed at an increasing and also enhanced human-machine experiences” we human beings come across lot of different types of machines on our regular basis.. So let’s take an example, so let’s say I do you love ice-cream, you go to this particular ice-cream shop and you love their ice-cream. An UX designer would  also take you through the journey of their ingredients with which the ice-cream is made out of, the history of that particular ice-cream shop, these extra information that would enrich and enhance your experience and make you go back to that particular  ice cream shop once again to have and enjoy their ice-cream.

What if, you go to this particular ice-cream shop and you know you don’t really have to pay in cash, you can actually pay through some online and digital methods of payment so these our experiences that makes you more comfortable while having ice-cream or while going to that particular ice-cream shop. this is the job of user experience design. It makes your journey easier, it addresses your needs and the needs of the business.

(02:50)

So you think human beings started understanding user experience design only with the advent of computers? Will not really, if you look at the history, then during the middle ages the way human beings made travel from one place to another easy were the first sign of human interaction with machines and hence first form of UX. Yes I am actually talking about horses, with advent of saddles riding on horses has become really easy so not just one person but entire families along with luggage could travel from one place to another, using horses. So not just sitting on horses, but later on in the 20^th century developing carriages, which would be drawn by horses, so horses became the main source of travelling and hence sustainment and human beings started coming up with various different attributes which could be associated with horses to make travel easier.

While in India, same things happened with elephants.  Travelling on elephants was something that was considered to be a kingsly situation. So an elephant which is otherwise a wild animal could be used really well to travel across jungles and forests and into cities from one place to another using the right seating arrangements.

 This to me was the first form of UX, Mr.Don Norman is considered to be father of UX, he is a designer, psychologist and a consultant who has worked in big names like Apple and HP.

The Nelson Norman group is also credited for coining this particular term Human centred design, he coined this term user experience design way back in 1993 when he was working with apple even before computer came into widespread existence.

So why do we need UX? Well UX helps the businesses connect with the right audience, an UX researcher and designer understands the businesses really well, understand the goals, needs, aspirations of the business and brings that goals and needs and aspirations to the right audience, it also understands the audience really well, it understands the frustration the need and the goal of that audience… tries and finds the problem and brings the solution closer to the problem, if you don’t know what the problem is you will never be able to find the solution for the problem.

Third, an UX designer really keeps the journey simple or helps in keeping the journey of a particular process simple. We are all busy in today’s day and age, we don’t have the time to hunt for things if we want something we need right then and there. In order to make that possible an UX designer would make sure that the right button and the right feature is readily available at the right time.

Finally we come to the discussion time, click on the discussion button below and connect to fellow learners, I am really curious to hear your take on UX design and research. It is also important for you to learn and understand what others have to say about UX design and research.

(Video duration- 7 minutes 4 seconds)