Co-experience: Understanding user experiences in social interaction

48 2 USER EXPRERIENCE DEMYSTIFIED
the moment and to future experiences. Further, the same illustration contains the
various ways to access these experiences: the doing, saying and the making.
Mäkelä and Fulton Suri break down the moment of experiencing to the elements
that can be analysed: the context, motivations and actions. The model
describes how previous experiences influence motivated actions in context,
which produce expectations. (Mäkelä & Fulton Suri 2001) This model then lists
the things that need to be studied: a person’s past experiences, his or her current
motivations and what he or she does, the context and any expectations
for coming experiences be identified (see Fig. 8). The importance of this model
is that it is also relatively simple and it takes time into account – experiences
change in time.
Further, Kankainen (née Mäkelä) elaborates in her dissertation the motivational
theory behind part of the work. It postulates that action is influenced
both by motivational level needs (why someone is doing something) and action
level needs (how something is accomplished in the moment), which may
be emotionally directed. (Kankainen 2002) This follows that the motivational
level of action is engaged with thinking about identity, roles, values and such,
and that action level needs connect with usability and tasks. This distinction
derives most likely from the process of interface development. However, the
examples presented of motivational and action level needs are too similar and
seem to suggest that drawing these distinctions, or at least their application
to field study findings, is not straightforward. Social learning and influence of
others are mentioned as important factors in forming expectations. Positive
emotions and satisfaction are the results of met or exceeded expectations, but
over time products face value erosion – something that was delightful today
may be ordinary tomorrow and dissatisfying the day after.
Forlizzi & Ford base their work on the philosophy of John Dewey and examine
what happens to user experiences in interaction. They identify and address
three ways of talking about experience: as the ongoing, as an event that has a
beginning and an end, and as something that is part of storytelling. Experience
thus fluctuates between these states. The model suggests that experiences can
be of different natures: well learned and subconscious, or in the process of being
learned and cognitive (see Fig. 9). As experiences become meaningful, people’s
actions take on a storytelling quality, resulting in changes in the product,
and changes in the person (Forlizzi & Ford 2000). The nature of experience is
volatile and ever-changing. This model has been later elaborated to include coexperience
as well (Forlizzi & Battarbee 2004, article 5).
This is, as far as can be seen, the first model of user experience that mentions
meaning explicitly as a part of user experience. The model also accounts for