Chapter 1 - Introduction

Abstract

Chapter 1 begins with a discussion of how the book is written as a practical, how-to guide about measuring the user experience (UX) of any product, followed by the organization of the book. Next, user experience is defined by three essential ingredients: A user is involved, that user is interacting with a product, system, or really anything with an interface, and the users’ experience is of interest, and observable or measurable. Examples of the importance of user experience research, specifically UX measurement, include evaluation of an automatic external defibrillator and redesigning a website. A UX metric reveals something about the interaction between the user and the product: some aspect of effectiveness (being able to complete a task), efficiency (the amount of effort required to complete the task), or satisfaction (the degree to which the user was happy with his or her experience while performing the task). Metrics add structure to the design and evaluation process, give insight into the findings, and provide information to the decision makers. The chapter concludes by refuting some of the myths about UX metrics, such as metrics take too much time to collect, cost too much money, are not useful when focusing on small improvements, don’t help us understand causes, and don’t apply to new products.