User Experience - it’s all emotional…
So, ‘user experience’ - what is it? You could ask numerous people in the industry what their interpretation of user experience is, and most will be able to give you a relatively accurate description. However, as with any industry, anyone working within it will be able to offer up descriptions and definitions of terms relative to their own specific field. If you ask a mechanic what ‘Mean Piston Speed’ is, they will tell you it’s a “rule-of-thumb” equation for engine evaluations.
If you’re anything like me, you would have glazed over at the mention of equations, mean speeds, etc., and to be brutally honest I wouldn’t blame you. There is nothing worse than being mentally bombarded by someone else’s attempt to ‘over’ explain an issue with terminology that is either vague or that you just don’t understand.
Our interaction (experience) with, and the use of, such things as smart phones, tablets, PCs and many other everyday items has come under close scrutiny of late. Many brands are investing large sums of money in the attempt to get the ‘user experience’ right for their products, whether it’s Apple with their iPhone or Samsung with the ‘Smart’ washing machines. Sometimes it works and takes the industry forward; sometimes it doesn’t and just breeds confusion and frustration. It’s these emotions that are at the crux of user experience for many of us and highlights our first real thoughts on the subject. Most of us don’t even consider the experience of using something until it becomes a pain in the arse; we lose interest or learn to just tolerate it until something better comes along.
The emotional response of a user is one of the central factors in creating something that either works or doesn’t. Struggling to navigate around a badly designed app or website is equally as infuriating as trying do your weekly shopping using the trolley with a wonky wheel. It’s a pain to use, you know it could have been repaired or replaced by the supermarket, but still you tolerate it so you can get your shopping done and get home.
Before going further, let’s take a look at a couple of results taken from Google on the definition of User Experience (UX).
- “User Experience (UX), the overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.”
- “User Experience (UX) involves a person’s behaviours, attitudes, and emotions about using a particular product, system or service. User Experience includes the practical, experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership.”
- “User Experience (UX) includes all the users’ emotions, beliefs, preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviours and accomplishments that occur before, during and after use.”
I’m now going to attempt to break down how the emotional response sits at the centre of ‘user experience’ and what we get out of it. I’ll be using a subject close to my heart which doesn’t involve any reference to computers, iPhones, design psychology or any other techie-jargon that tends to baffle and bemuse most of us…myself included.
OK, a little history. Don’t panic, its not a trip down memory lane, just a little foundation work. Way back in the Jurassic period - well early ‘80s - I was the ripe old age of 10 and witnessed my very first Formula 1 race. It was the golden era of great drivers like Gilles Villeneuve, Alain Prost, and Nigel Mansell, and very early on I was hooked. By the beginning of the ‘90s I became, what can only be classed as, obsessed; everything else was scheduled around Formula 1 race weekends, from Saturday qualifying to the Sunday race day.
Now, for as long as I can remember, Formula 1 has always been the pinnacle of automotive genius. No matter how many rules and regulations they have to work within, Formula 1 engineers always manage to get their cars in the pocket so to speak. Many of these technologies eventually filter down into everyday cars used by all of us. Unfortunately, it’s this progressive approach to cutting-edge technology that started this whole problem for me. Who would have thought it would be something as simple as the tone of the exhaust note that had me questioning why I wasn’t enjoying the F1 ‘experience’ anymore?
Before reading on, take a minute and watch the clip below:
This clip perfectly illustrates the essence of my own ‘emotional experience’ within the F1 environment, and for me, as an ageing petrol-head and die-hard Formula 1 fan, what is now missing.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wishing that Formula 1 cars were still big V10s and V12s kicking out all sorts of nasty stuff, just so I can still enjoy my complete Formula 1 experience. What I am saying, however, is, for their fans (users), did they miss a trick?
Let’s see…
Staying in similar territory, Harley Davidson has recently been shouting about the ‘Project LiveWire’, their very first, fully electric motorcycle; a massive eco-friendly step for yet another company/brand that is known for big fuel-guzzling monsters (or ‘hogs’, to those in the know).
Picture if you can, the average Harley Davidson rider. Can you see them jumping on this massive beast of a machine, just for it to sound like a Scalextrics car or their mum’s hair dryer? Definitely not. Half the ‘experience’ of straddling a massive hog is to have this thunderous beast at your command, opening it up and hearing it roar; that’s the Harley experience.
Harley Davidson gave the ‘user experience’ issue some considerable thought when developing their new fully electric concept motorcycle. It would make no sense whatsoever to develop something as advanced as Project LiveWire and have it sound like the thunderous internal combustion engines of the current Harleys; that was their heritage…this is the future.
Mark-Hans Richer, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Harley Davidson, said, “The sound is a distinct part of the thrill, think fighter jet on an aircraft carrier. Project LiveWire’s unique sound was designed to differentiate it from internal combustion and other electric motorcycles on the market.”
Project LiveWire itself isn’t actually a production-line motorcycle at this stage. It is in fact a fully functional concept project, with the sole aim of generating feedback from riders on their ‘experience’ of riding the first Harley Davidson fully electric motorcycle. The designers and engineers realised early on in their plans that the experience of the rider (user) was the key to getting this motorcycle right. Feedback from its already loyal community and a potential new market of riders would be a valuable step in getting the process right first-time.
Now the question is, could my viewing of a Formula 1 race constitute ‘user experience’ in the same context as riding a motorcycle? I think it does, and it’s for reasons that are not tangible and can’t be explained in diagrams and flowcharts. It’s the emotions generated by the user (in this case me), whether they are good or bad emotions. Unfortunately for most of us, the first time we ever think about user experience is when we have had a bad one.
It’s very easy these days to wax-lyrical about how a good user experience shouldn’t even be noticed…it should just be; and as a direct clinical statement this is fairly accurate. However, I personally feel this is sidestepping the subject slightly. The development and research Harley Davidson are putting into Project LiveWire is a good example of a brand taking the complete ‘user experience’ into consideration, everything from riding position to exhaust tone. This all adds up to a complete experience for the user, both physical and emotional. Whether it’s riding a cutting-edge motorcycle, watching TV or navigating a website, our ‘user experience’ encapsulates everything from our mechanical interaction to our emotional reactions…the good elate and unfortunately more often than not, the bad infuriate.
So in answer to my earlier question, did Formula 1 miss a trick when they made this fantastic leap with technology? Going on my experience, I would have to say yes. Since the beginning of the 2014 Formula 1 season I have tried several times to watch a race and it just doesn’t work for me the way it used to. It’s like listening to Guns ‘N’ Roses without Slash playing the lead guitar. You like the songs and tolerate Axl because he has a great voice, but something is just missing and you can’t put your finger on it…you just know its not there.
An interesting point in closing…
F1 owner and big boss, Bernie Ecclestone, went on record at the beginning of the season saying he was “horrified” at the noise - or lack of it - and was going to push for ways to remedy this. Could you image what it would do for the sport and brand of Formula 1 if cars started to sound like something out of Star Wars as they raced around the track, similar to that of the Harley Davidson Project LiveWire?