Co-experience: Understanding user experiences in social interaction

example, the grace and care needed in using an old record player with a needle
should be compared to the operations of compact disk players. (Hummels 2000)
The full capacity of people’s senses could be addressed more widely in the design
of electronic products. Aesthetics is not just for the eye but for action as
well. This view seems to emphasise a designer’s way of seeing and relating to
objects, although it is true that the experience of operating products is commonly
not addressed as much as it should.
Hassenzahl states that people have two modes for product interaction: goals
and action. The goal mode is practical and work-oriented; the action mode is
for fun and entertainment (see Fig. 3). Hassenzahl thus suggests that enjoyment
has more to do with the human mindset than with the product. Hassenzahl
helps to clarify why the same thing can be experienced at times as irritating
and stressful (in the goal oriented mode) but at other times exciting, challenging
and fun, when in the action oriented mode. (Hassenzahl 2003) The model
does not account for how or why these modes change or what other aspects
may influence experience, such as aesthetics.
As can be interpreted from the variety of these mainly person-centred models,
determining the most relevant dimensions that people find significant in
product experiences and making them understandable, accessible and usable
is not simple. In that sense, Jordan’s framework of pleasures is probably the
most general yet practical. Focusing more on action and the moment of experience,
Hassenzahl’s model explains why Hummels’ call for resonance sounds
at the same time both wonderful and annoying, as our preference for enjoying
action versus accomplishing tasks varies in interaction. These two models tie
our experience more tightly to the moment of experiencing instead of separating
utility from pleasure and other emotional aspects.
42 2 USER EXPRERIENCE DEMYSTIFIED
2.1.2 PRODUCT-CENTRED FRAMEWORKS:
DESIGN AND RESEARCH CHECKLISTS
As design is about creating something, it is natural that models also focus on
the qualities of the design and their relationship to people’s experiences and
evaluations of them.
Jääskö et al. have developed a framework that describes the elements that
contribute to user experience from the product point of view especially in the
context of concept design and user studies. To understand the user experiences
that relate to products, five different viewpoints, or worlds, can be identified:
the world of activities, the world of product meanings, the physical world, the
world of products and the world of humans (see Fig. 4). They call the set up
the scene of experiences (Jääskö et al. 2003).