Sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll—what else could a professional magazine want in an issue? And, this issue’s theme: “UX as a Goal.” Wow!

You‘re not sure about the “wow” factor? Are you thinking, “What does that even mean?”

I’ll share some of my thoughts on “UX as a Goal,” and try not to blow my entire 500-word limit. Yes, the word count for this editor’s note was cut in half to make room to announce a new feature: online-only articles.

This is just the beginning of a truly online, interactive, global UX association magazine and new possibilities.. For one, I’d like to organize a robust, timely book review section. Please let me know if you’d like to help.

Anyway, back to UX as a goal. In her article, Andrea Coens says, “User experience is not a discipline but a value, a goal, and an end result.” She’s talking in the context of a shared company mindset, but I started to muse on the statement while editing the issue’s articles. User experience is defined as “a person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system, or service.” That includes “all the users’ emotions, beliefs, preferences, physical and psychological responses, behaviors, and accomplishments that occur before, during and after use.” (ISO 9241-210)

UX is in the mind of the user and only users know what they experience. That’s the end result of all our research, design, and development. And that result can change with context and time.

Perhaps we can’t design a user experience, but we can design for a desired experience. The UX goal might be to evoke experiential qualities like fun, pleasure, efficiency, trust, challenge, togetherness, or relaxation, to name just a few

So, in my mind we’ve made a loop: how do designers reach the goal of evoking the “intended” feelings? We have articles from UX researchers and designers who collaborate and include users in the development process in unique ways. One article thinks outside the box by analyzing the user experience upstream and downstream in relation to the competition for each of these experiences.

UX as a goal also includes the value of designing for user diversity, like building kiosks that are accessible. We can avoid the “I-methodology” (designing for “me”) and thoughtlessness of all biases and stereotypes. Look for those articles.

What about the sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll? Well, it’s all here with articles that tackle doing gender (sex), robots handling a complete pharmaceutical process (drugs), and how sounds accumulate, overlap, and compete with one another in movies, TV, and videos (rock ’n roll). Please enjoy!

Topics: UXPA, Editor's Note
Published in: March, 2014 in UX as a Goal

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