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The beauty in (user) experience

Fred Oliveira on September 18, 2006

There’s an underlying beauty in the objects we use throughout the day. They were conceived, meticulously prepared by someone (who we’ll call the designer) - especially for us. We become attached to these objects because of this underlying purpose of making us feel special. We know, even subconsciously, when someone paid attention to our experience as a user.

This is true in many of the things and gadgets we use today. Think of the iPod as an example: the navigation, how it works and particularly how it feels - it has clearly become an object of desire, and its not all because it can play mp3. It is easy to say the work of the industrial designer, interaction designer and graphic designer are usually recognized by the general public.

ipod

Online user experience?

I wonder if that’s true for those of us who take part in designing online experiences. How attached do people become to their online experiences, and how much do they realize that there was probably someone thinking about them all the way through its creation? Are user experience designers background players? Do we stand behind and observe, react and enhance experiences without being noticed?

There are no conclusions to this short story, only one question:
When was the last time you felt attached to anything coming to you from a computer?


Comments on this post

Jake Ingman

I feel like that with Quicksilver all the time. It’s just so damn good at quietly observing my launching/emailing/folder-digging habits that I hardly have to think anymore when using it. It’s to the point that I get frustrated when QS isn’t reading my mind.

Jason Walker

I think the mark of a good design is that the user doesn’t think about who created it. True appreciation is rarely vocal.

The last time I felt attached to anything was Launchy… Great copycat of a program. Not sure I could live without it anymore.

Mind Booster Noori

Yeah, KDE4 with compiz made my jaw fall over.

knowologist

Definitely last week when I first saw iTunes7’s Cover Flow view. Finally I have some palpable, visual and eye-candy experience with my digital music library.

Peter Frings

Apple’s Aperture — when I saw the first demo videos on their website, I nearly wet my pants and decided that I needed to have it. Now 1.5 is coming, and I’m again as excited as I was a year ago.

Peter - pressing the “Software Update” button once again…

Paul

It definitely has to be the GREAT CONTENT of a BEAUTIFUL designed website…. E.g Guy Kawa…, 9Rules, etc.

Something to say?