The term User Experience (or UX) is widely linked to the web, device and mobile worlds. However, User Experience can be seen everywhere from bathroom doors to websites. It is a what and a how, which added to the why creates the perfect mix of what the user wants to experience and what the brand/product wants to communicate.
But let’s get back to bathroom doors.
While at a pub yesterday, after a few beers I decided to use the restroom. While sitting down letting all that beer get out, I looked at the cabin door. Its was very pretty, with details crafted in beautiful wood. What is a bathroom cabin door for, anyways? For not letting people see me while I do my business. From a strictly functional point of view, that door could be a blunt piece of wood, or metal, or plastic – not glass – and it would 100% fulfill it’s functional purpose (How) – then why was it full of ornaments? I went to that pub because I like the Western feel of the place, the details in the walls and the wooden ornaments all over. If I had gotten to the bathroom and seen a boring metal door to close the cabin it would frankly break my mood. It did not. It fed me what I was expecting to get from that environment.
That is User Experience – a seamless one.
The same applies to the Web, Apps, Phones, Devices – Product Design in general. No one should run away from User Experience or, even worse, ignore it. If you want to launch a successful product (whether it is a pub, a bottle of juice, a computer, software, a website, sneakers, a campaign, etc), you need to know the why . The reason your product is appealing to the user should be your main drive.
