Co-experience: Understanding user experiences in social interaction

24 1 INTRODUCTION
ever, it is evident that there is cultural bias regarding human qualities should
be supported with design, and what are “less nice”, but the truth of what sells
products often overrides it (Hudspith 1997). It would seem odd that matters of
vice and virtue should affect which user needs are articulated for design. However,
when discussing matters of, for example, designing for pleasure and fun,
these value judgements become evident. Perhaps user experience as a term can
help to legitimise this discussion in a constructive manner.
The beyond usability movement, which stems from hedonic psychology, is
one approach for looking beyond functionality and its objective, measurable
qualities. Jordan proposes a hierarchy, where functionality is followed by usability,
which is topped with pleasure, loosely following a maslowian hierarchy.
Jordan’s adaptation of Tiger’s four pleasures identifies four kinds of pleasures
that products can provide: ideo, socio, psycho and physio pleasures which are
discussed mainly in a consumer product context. (Jordan 2000) Although the
pleasures are convincingly presented and capture a wide range of product experiences,
the relevance hierarchy can be questioned – is there not some pleasure
in “pure” functionality, regardless of its usability? Hedonistic psychology has
been studied also in the area of interfaces (Hassenzahl 2003). However, focusing
only on pleasure may fail to account for understanding the role of negative
emotions in experience (Desmet 2002). Negative emotions provide depth and
contrast for positive experiences: they make challenges exciting and accomplishments
sweet. The most satisfying products are ones that support people
in achieving suitable degrees of satisfaction, success and sense of reward.
It is a shame that the word experience means so many things at the same
time – certain distinctions might be useful. For example in Finnish, there are
two words, kokemus and elämys. The latter denotes “an experience” (a term and
distinction that is also proposed by Dewey 1980), something that is multisensory
delightful, unusual and that stands out from the rest. The word kokemus
means experience in the sense of the experience of the moment, and accumulated
experience. The approaches to these different kinds of experience are
quite different as well.
Perhaps due to this all-inclusiveness, though, the term “experience” has
become an umbrella concept that encompasses all aspects of the product including
usability as well as more fleeting feelings of positive or negative quality
and things such as entertainment and events. Design for user experience
focuses on the user centred design and the challenge of considering people’s
product-related experiences in design. To rephrase an old design slogan: form
and function must fulfil fantasy (Cagan & Vogel 2002).