Old wine in new bottles or novel challenges? A critical analysis of empirical studies of user experience

TY - GEN

T1 - Old wine in new bottles or novel challenges? A critical analysis of empirical studies of user experience

AU - Bargas-Avila, Javier A.

AU - Hornbæk, Kasper

N1 - Conference code: 29

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - This paper reviews how empirical research on User Experience (UX) is conducted. It integrates products, dimensions of experience, and methodologies across a systematically selected sample of 51 publications from 2005-2009, reporting a total of 66 empirical studies. Results show a shift in the products and use contexts that are studied, from work towards leisure, from controlled tasks towards open use situations, and from desktop computing towards consumer products and art. Context of use and anticipated use, often named key factors of UX, are rarely researched. Emotions, enjoyment and aesthetics are the most frequently assessed dimensions. The methodologies used are mostly qualitative, and known from traditional usability studies, though constructive methods with unclear validity are being developed and used. Many studies use self-developed questionnaires without providing items or statistical validations. We discuss underexplored research questions and potential improvements of UX research.

AB - This paper reviews how empirical research on User Experience (UX) is conducted. It integrates products, dimensions of experience, and methodologies across a systematically selected sample of 51 publications from 2005-2009, reporting a total of 66 empirical studies. Results show a shift in the products and use contexts that are studied, from work towards leisure, from controlled tasks towards open use situations, and from desktop computing towards consumer products and art. Context of use and anticipated use, often named key factors of UX, are rarely researched. Emotions, enjoyment and aesthetics are the most frequently assessed dimensions. The methodologies used are mostly qualitative, and known from traditional usability studies, though constructive methods with unclear validity are being developed and used. Many studies use self-developed questionnaires without providing items or statistical validations. We discuss underexplored research questions and potential improvements of UX research.

KW - meta-analysis

KW - review

KW - usability

KW - user experience

KW - ux

U2 - 10.1145/1978942.1979336

DO - 10.1145/1978942.1979336

M3 - Article in proceedings

SN - 978-1-4503-0228-9

SP - 2689

EP - 2698

BT - The 29th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - 29th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Y2 - 7 May 2011 through 12 May 2011

ER -