Why is the Need for UX Analysis Tools Increasing?

From a business perspective in the 21st century, global society could be defined as the experience economy (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). Customers have evolved from seeking functional benefits in the early 1900s, to seeking emotional and identity benefits in the mid-1990s, to seeking meaning benefits in the present day. Functional benefits served the practical needs of the workforce, such as assuring that factory line was built in a way that accommodated the

biomechanics of the human body, enabling workers to perform the job as fast and effectively as possible. The functional focus was primarily about the speed at which a task could be

accomplished. Emotional and identity benefits were best described by Norman’s (2004)

The focus of emotionally stimulating products moved away from a quest solely for efficiency and effectiveness and encouraged the designer to capture the emotional aspects of the work as well (Norman, 2003).

A good example is the improved working experience for wine grape pickers who were given a product that allowed them to both capture and hold the grapes they picked, as well as the use of a comfortable chair when they were on a break from a tough day of grape harvesting (Norman, 2003). The makeshift chair allowed the tired wine pickers to re-energize by relaxing and engaging in conversation with fellow pickers (Norman, 2003). This example also illustrates the reach of design into all aspects of product development. Not only are the needs of the final customer, the wine buyer, considered; the needs of the people making the product are considered in design terms. Expanding on the emotional design concepts with the goal to create products that produce meaningful moments that translate into the desired meaning benefits. A good example of this is the Hug Shirt by CuteCircuit (https://cutecircuit.com/the-hug-shirt/). The Hug Shirt, named “one of the Best Inventions of the Year in 2006 [by] Time” (“Best Inventions of 2006,” n.d.; CuteCircuit, n.d., para. 11), is a shirt that allows people to send and receive hugs based on the strength of the sender’s touch, body temperature, and heartbeat. The shirt produces a meaningful moment because it responds to the basic human need for connectedness (Chien, Diefenbach, & Hassenzahl, 2013; Diefenbach, Hassenzahl, Eckoldt, & Laschke, 2010; Hassenzahl, 2013).

In response to the transition from function to emotion to experience, companies have had to evolve from a focus on products to a focus that encompasses brands and now experience (Diller, Shedroff, & Rhea, 2005). This transition poses a significant challenge to organizations because the concept of experience can be elusive and difficult to define (Jay, 2005). Hassenzahl

(2014) and Norman (2003) defined experiences as “memorized stories of use and consumption.” Activity theory research describes experience as a “complex combination of actions, emotions, and thoughts” (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006, p. 182). Hassenzahl (2014) further described an experience as subjective, holistic, situated, dynamic, and worthwhile. Sheldon, Elliot, Kim, and Kasser (2001) provided a light in the dark tunnel of trying to capture experience with their study linking universal psychological needs to experience. The Hug Shirt, for example, evokes the experience of getting and sending a hug, which is linked to the universal psychological need of relatedness. Other universal psychological needs that could be used as the patterns for experience design are autonomy, competence, self-actualization, physical thriving, pleasure–stimulation, money–luxury, security, self-esteem, and popularity–influence (Sheldon et al., 2001).

Responding to the incredible challenge of clearly defining what makes an experience, companies have embraced the growing UX field. The role of user experience personnel

(otherwise labeled as user-centered designer, interaction designer, human-centered designer, or usability engineer, among other titles) is to blend engineering, design, and science (Carroll,

2010)and shape products that meet customer expectations in form and function as well as evoke

emotional and meaningful experiences (Hassenzahl, 2010; Hassenzahl & Wessler, 2011; Norman, 2002).

Several indications in industry reflect rapidly growing demand for this field. On the job search site, Onward Search, the number of UX job requests has increased 171% from 2011 to 2012. Another technical recruiting firm in California, QConnects, reported a 70% increase in UX job requests between 2011 and 2012 (Baldwin, 2013). The salary of UX people in industry has also increased. According to The Creative Group, a division of Robert Half Technology, salaries went up 6.2% in 2012 and were expected to increase an additional 4.8% in 2013 (Baldwin,

2013). Top IT companies are putting UX people in positions of power, as indicated by Yahoo’s hiring in 2012 of Marissa Mayer, a top executive. IT companies are also restructuring to

accommodate UCD practice, as suggested by the popular Cagan model of dual track

development and lean UX (Cagan, 2008).1 Regardless of the trend, what happens if UX is not taken into consideration when designing products? According to Curt Raffi, marketing director for Metanga (the software-as-a-service division of MetraTech), if companies are not “embracing user experience, then they don’t understand what it means to create an application or an online service” (Baz, 2013, “In-House or Outsourced?” para. 5).

When companies are able to deliver quality user experience, there are incredible returns. Most notable is the iPhone, which set a standard of what a user experience should be with a product. Despite the many usability issues with the iPhone, users love it and are loyal to the product. The iPhone has shown its impact with market share, size, and growth since its launch in 2007 (Laugesen, 2010). The iPhone had 30% of the market share in 2009 (only 2 years after launch); 42 million iPhones had been sold as of December 2009, and 36% of people planning to buy a smartphone planned to buy an iPhone as of September 2009 (Laugesen, 2010). Seven years later, in 2015, Apple iPhone still controlled 43.5% of the smartphone market (Campbell, 2015).

1 _{The Cagan model is a product development method articulated by Marty Cagan. In this}

method, there is a concept of a Sprint 0 in which UX, technical, and business leads define the product direction using various UX methods. Lean UX is a practice of UX that emphasizes high levels of collaboration between the development teams and the UX practitioners over

Of the nine factors contributing to the iPhone’s success, its ability to “understand and meet [user] preferences” was the second most important factor (Laugesen & Yuan, 2010, p. 96). Even if users opt for another smartphone, the sleek design and integrated experience of the iPhone has put pressure on competitors to deliver a similar experience in order to have similar market impact and profits. The success of the iPhone also derives from its ability to deliver meaning; it meets many of the universal psychological needs mentioned above (Sheldon et al., 2001). It promotes security, for example, for parents who feel they can better locate their

children. It even inspires self-esteem in those who were scared of technology because they might break it but can now zoom through the iPhone’s features.

Studies have linked UX not only to increased sales but also to increased productivity, customer satisfaction, and loyalty; decreased training and support costs; decreased development time and costs; and decreased maintenance costs (Bevan, 2005; Venturi & Troost, 2004). Although UX offers significant monetary incentives, interestingly, companies are usually not aware of these benefits. The attraction of UX remains the promise of enabling companies to deliver the experience that users are demanding. However, that experience remains elusive because of the problems inherent in UX. The next sections examine the problems that new diagnostic tools must take into consideration: (a) the difficulties inherent in UX; (b) the difficulties inherent in product development; and (c) the variations in how organizations incorporate UX into product development.