User Experience Foundations

2 THE CONTEXT FOR UX (1)

Rationale and Concepts

What sort of thing is happening here?

Cutting Edge, Graham Taylor (1994)

INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses:

• What sort of thing is user experience?
• How does UX relate to customer experience, usability, accessibility, user-centred design, human-centred design and service design?
• What is the business case for UX?
• Why is UX important?
• Why is UX different?

WHAT SORT OF THING IS UX?

At the most fundamental level, the term ‘user experience’ means exactly what it says. That is, as ISO 9241-210 (2019) puts it:

[A person’s] perceptions and responses that result from the use and/or anticipated use of a system, product or service.

As this suggests, user experience at the most basic level is a set of ...