Towards a shared definition of user experience

TLDR

User experience remains an elusive concept with many competing definitions, and the absence of a shared definition confuses customers and hampers research, management, and education efforts. The study aims to converge these divergent definitions, guiding the UX community toward a common definition and integrated perspectives. The SIG systematically compiles existing UX definitions and viewpoints, gathering feedback from experts and CHI'08 attendees.

Abstract

User experience (UX) is still an elusive notion with many different definitions, despite some recent attempts to develop a unified view on UX. The lack of a shared definition of UX not only confuses or even misleads customers of a product/service but also undermines the effectiveness of researching, managing and teaching UX. Diverse ideas have been generated in scientific activities that aim to develop a common understanding about the meaning and scope of UX. It is plausible, with sound methodologies, to converge these divergences, driving the UX community closer to a common definition and integrated views of UX. This SIG tackles this challenge by systematically assembling a set of existing definitions and viewpoints of UX and collecting opinions on them from known UX experts/researchers and general CHI'08 attendees.