User Experience Insight: Steering Experience Design Through Meaningful Incorporation

Doctoral thesis, 2016

Interest in User Experience (UX) is on the rise; however, designing for User Experience presents unique challenges because of the subjective nature of experience. Whereas UX theory is plentiful, there is a distinct lack of precedent when it comes to practical UX design knowledge. The aim of this work is to contribute to the field of interaction design with knowledge on how to conduct a UX centered design process. Specifically, the thesis’ goals are to define and exemplify a UX design process through use of design methods and strategies that promote UX design. The User Experience design process is demonstrated through case studies on the design of in-vehicle systems, therefore a secondary goal of the thesis is to generate knowledge for the User Experience design of in-vehicle systems. A series of studies have been conducted within the frame of the thesis with the ultimate result being the concept of Meaningful Incorporation. This thesis proposes Meaningful Incorporation (MI) as a design approach for adapting the design process to focus on designing for User Experience. MI is achieved by collecting User Experience Insight as the first step in one’s design process. User Experience Insight consists of UX data with special attention to the UX aspects of time, emotions, and context. UX Insight is then systematically incorporated into subsequent phases of the design process by using design methods that mandate its use. With Meaningful Incorporation and the utilization of the methods and insights found in the thesis, design professionals can take on UX design without compromising designerly intuition. Instead, Meaningful Incorporation can enhance their process to create solutions that can support desirable User Experiences.