User Experience (UX)

What is user experience?

User experience (UX) concerns a person’s interactions, perceptions, and feelings in relation to a product or service. It can extend across discovery, setup, use, support, and later encounters.

Kaplan’s article (2024) distinguishes this experience from UX as a professional practice. It also distinguishes UX from a user interface and from usability, which is one aspect of the broader experience.

Research can examine particular aspects, such as whether people find a service useful, understand it, trust it, or can complete a task. Report the aspect measured and the users involved rather than assume that satisfaction captures the whole experience.