WEBVTT 00:00:07.894 --> 00:00:13.775 Given that satisfaction aspect that was in ISO  standards and early talk of HCI 00:00:13.775 --> 00:00:20.453 – it was in NORD for so many years – why is it that now you've probably got a title 00:00:20.453 --> 00:00:24.996 – you could well have a title – like User Experience Designer or something like that. 00:00:24.996 --> 00:00:31.080 So user experience has become an intimate part and often the dominant part   00:00:31.080 --> 00:00:36.224 of the way in which we look at people  interacting with computer technology. 00:00:36.224 --> 00:00:42.072 So why is that the case? Well, part of it was the  shift to service orientation, 00:00:42.072 --> 00:00:47.659 and that's quite crucial, obviously, for what you're doing today. If you're service oriented, 00:00:47.659 --> 00:00:54.663 there's a different aspect of user experience than things that are more pay once and go on. 00:00:54.663 --> 00:01:00.565 So the Internet pushed this movement towards service orientation, the digital goods, 00:01:00.565 --> 00:01:05.882 the paying on a subscription basis, rather than the paying once and for all. 00:01:05.882 --> 00:01:09.480 But because as soon as something becomes a service, 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:13.654 then there are multiple choice points. 00:01:13.654 --> 00:01:18.561 If these are domestic products, then there's a choice point based by the actual user, 00:01:18.561 --> 00:01:23.079 rather than a client on behalf of the user, perhaps their boss. 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:27.805 And if there are more choice points,  then usability and user experience 00:01:27.805 --> 00:01:33.288 increase in importance. Because if the person  isn't enjoying what they're doing, 00:01:33.288 --> 00:01:39.430 if they're not feeling it's fulfilling them, then they're  going to choose another service and swap services. 00:01:39.430 --> 00:01:45.942 It's easier to swap services than to swap  harder, once-and-for-all bought products.   00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:53.405 So there's a sort of a criticality to user  experience that grew out of this service orientation. 00:01:53.405 --> 00:01:56.943 However, that's not the end of the story. 00:01:56.943 --> 00:02:00.229 In some ways, and you might have heard that phrase, 00:02:00.229 --> 00:02:04.500 "You've never had it so good." – there's an element of this towards user experience. 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:09.960 Some of you will probably come across Maslow's  hierarchy of needs. There are multiple memes   00:02:09.960 --> 00:02:13.684 with variations of this triangle going round  social media. 00:02:13.684 --> 00:02:17.468 You've probably seen the ones with Wi-Fi at the bottom. 00:02:17.468 --> 00:02:22.185 What Maslow said was that there are different levels of need. 00:02:22.185 --> 00:02:27.601 At the very base there are things like our  physical need for food. Are you hungry? 00:02:27.601 --> 00:02:33.086 Are you thirsty? Are you cold or too hot? 00:02:33.086 --> 00:02:39.578 Above that, there are slightly higher-level needs for safety and security. And this involves shelter. 00:02:39.578 --> 00:02:43.740 Is your roof leaking? Is it a solid house you're in? 00:02:43.740 --> 00:02:49.318 Do you feel secure where you're at or do you feel  in danger? 00:02:49.318 --> 00:02:55.513 Next up the hierarchy are what's called love needs or social needs, for your children, 00:02:55.513 --> 00:03:00.060 your parents, your partner, your friends. 00:03:01.434 --> 00:03:05.317 Next in the hierarchy again, is esteem or ego. 00:03:05.317 --> 00:03:09.565 The things that make you feel good. Prestige  in your job, status, 00:03:09.565 --> 00:03:13.405 self-worth, self-confidence. 00:03:13.405 --> 00:03:18.836 Then Maslow placed at the top of this, although there's variance sometimes, even additional layers. 00:03:18.836 --> 00:03:23.480 But the original one at the top of  this was self-actualization, things like being 00:03:23.480 --> 00:03:28.642 creative, autonomous, a sense of personal growth  and identity and learning, 00:03:28.642 --> 00:03:31.788 like you're doing now. 00:03:31.788 --> 00:03:37.015 What Maslow suggested was we fulfill these needs in a fairly strict order. 00:03:37.015 --> 00:03:44.068 So we don't try and worry about higher-level needs when the lower-level ones are unsatisfied. 00:03:44.068 --> 00:03:50.000 So first of all, [if] we're hungry, that dominates everything. After that, there's safety. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:55.598 After that, there's love needs. That was Maslow's suggestion about the way these worked, 00:03:55.598 --> 00:04:00.160 and these have been used quite a lot in the psychology literature in order to try and 00:04:00.160 --> 00:04:03.385 understand the kinds of decision making that people do. 00:04:03.385 --> 00:04:07.037 And there's certainly a truth to that. 00:04:07.037 --> 00:04:12.974 Now you can sort of see an equivalence of this for user interfaces. In one sense there's raw functionality. 00:04:12.974 --> 00:04:19.514 Does it do the job? Does my phone help me make a phone call or help me connect to the Internet?   00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:25.103 Once you've got that bare functionality,  you know, does my light come on 00:04:25.103 --> 00:04:29.280 when I want it to come on? You then start [thinking] about usability. You know, is it easy   00:04:29.280 --> 00:04:35.527 to phone somebody? Is it easy to use the Internet?  Is it easy to get my lights to come on when I want to? 00:04:35.527 --> 00:04:41.093 And then, once you've got that usability,  you can start to worry about user experience. 00:04:41.093 --> 00:04:46.669 Is it a joy, the way in which my lights come  on, perhaps automatically, subtly, 00:04:46.669 --> 00:04:50.447 in just the right way? Or perhaps when I just make this faintest suggestion 00:04:50.447 --> 00:04:56.854 it's getting dark here and my household assistant realizes that means I'm about. 00:04:57.540 --> 00:05:03.581 And there's a suggestion in a way you  can think of these a little bit like the Maslow ones. 00:05:03.581 --> 00:05:08.953 The functionality comes first. Then once you've got functionality, you then worry about usability, 00:05:08.953 --> 00:05:12.833 and then you worry about user  experience. And so you can think about it that, 00:05:12.833 --> 00:05:17.940 over the years, we've sorted out how to get  functionality and technologies improved. 00:05:17.940 --> 00:05:22.720 Our ability to work out what people need has  improved. Then we've sorted out usability, 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:27.042 and then of course user experience becomes important at the top of the cake. 00:05:27.042 --> 00:05:33.629 And again, there is a truth to that. There is... in some sense we need, the lower level needs to be satisfied. 00:05:33.629 --> 00:05:38.340 And certainly if you look in certain sorts of situation, if particularly – say, a safety-critical 00:05:38.340 --> 00:05:44.721 situation – functionality and usability, probably  more significant there than user experience. 00:05:44.721 --> 00:05:50.768 So again, there's some truth to it, but  not entirely true, I should say. 00:05:50.768 --> 00:05:55.738 There are contradictions. So I think there is a truth to this, it's worth thinking about 00:05:55.738 --> 00:06:01.538 and realizing that when you make design decisions, where you're putting your focus, 00:06:01.538 --> 00:06:06.649 is it on user experience, is it on usability, is it on functionality? 00:06:06.649 --> 00:06:11.400 Think about which are *most critical* for people. 00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:17.040 However, if you look at both the Maslow's hierarchy and then think about this in terms of user experience,  00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:24.276 there are clear contradictions. So, the Western obsession with slimming, which is about putting 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:31.919 ego and self-actualization potentially, arguably,  puts prestige versus hunger 00:06:31.919 --> 00:06:40.549 and sort of saying, “I'm prepared to be hungry in order to be the ideal shape that society says I should be.” 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:46.434 If I'm talking too long, if my video is too long  and you get hungry, 00:06:46.434 --> 00:06:53.566 does your need or your desire for learning, self-actualization, overcome your desire for that hunger? 00:06:53.566 --> 00:07:00.121 Now there'll be a point when that probably won't be the case. But we do trade these things off. 00:07:00.121 --> 00:07:05.000 Apple, of course, known for their user experience. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:10.196 They create delightful products that make people feel committed to them. 00:07:10.196 --> 00:07:17.507 It's about identity as well as about joy. But if  you unwrap an Apple box 00:07:17.507 --> 00:07:23.701 – their packaging is an experience, it's like opening these things.   00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:29.111 However, often over the years, and this is going  back, you know, not a recent thing. 00:07:29.111 --> 00:07:37.766 Apple has sacrificed usability and functionality in order to get something that looks good, feels good,   00:07:37.860 --> 00:07:43.894 but sometimes may be a little harder to use.  And sometimes doesn't even do the right thing. 00:07:43.894 --> 00:07:50.242 And yet the computer I'm using now is an Apple  computer. 00:07:50.242 --> 00:07:57.239 So clearly they get something right, even though I know that they lose things as well along the way. 00:07:57.239 --> 00:08:03.402 So, there's both a truth to this hierarchy and not, but this certainly helps explain 00:08:03.402 --> 00:08:11.431 one of the reasons why experience is so crucial. If everything else is right, then it becomes the key differentiator. 00:08:11.431 --> 00:08:17.679 The thing that says somebody wants to use your product, that you've designed, rather than somebody else's.