UX in the AAL field of practice : interaction design framework targeting long-standing user engagement with interactive systems

Abstract

The term User Experience was firstly shaped by Don Norman who joined Apple in the year 1993 and where he established the User Experience Architects Office. This was now 25 years ago and since then the term has grown into an important design discipline. Moreover, the term continues to grow and to evolve. By "User Experience" we mean all aspects of how people are exploring, using, playing with, learn from, and respond to products. These aspects highlight that the term User Experience can be used in a broad manner. The expression diversity of the term is, on the one hand, a positive factor since it reflects that users perception is versatile and that the field of Human Computer Interaction is in need to address this versatility. On the other hand, the expression diversity carries the drawback that it is challenging to address its characteristics from the practical standpoint. This work tackles this drawback and provides a practice-oriented approach that incorporates User Experience Design aspects into well-known and well elaborated interaction design routines. This dissertation thesis presents a conceptual interaction design framework that supports user interface designers and interaction designers during the design process of new interactive systems. The conceptual framework, named "Interaction Design Framework", is structured in two core components: into a dynamic user model covering the User Experience and the User Experience design aspects and into an interaction design research grid covering the practical standpoint from the Active and Assisted Living domain. This work illustrates the usefulness of the concept based on a scenario that reflects the commutative experience gained through the work in the field for more than one and a half decades.