Table Of ContentSPRINGER BRIEFS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
Ali al-Azzawi
Experience with
Technology
Dynamics of
User Experience
with Mobile
Media Devices
SpringerBriefs in Computer Science
Series Editors
Stan Zdonik
Peng Ning
Shashi Shekhar
Jonathan Katz
Xindong Wu
Lakhmi C. Jain
David Padua
Xuemin Shen
Borko Furht
V. S. Subrahmanian
Martial Hebert
Katsushi Ikeuchi
Bruno Siciliano
For further volumes:
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Ali al-Azzawi
Experience with Technology
Dynamics of User Experience
with Mobile Media Devices
1 3
Ali al-Azzawi
Digital World Research Centre
University of Surrey
Guildford, Surrey
UK
ISSN 2191-5768 ISSN 2191-5776 (electronic)
ISBN 978-1-4471-5396-2 ISBN 978-1-4471-5397-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-5397-9
Springer London Heidelberg New York Dordrecht
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013944515
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For Mama, Baba, Rachel and my daughters,
Hannah, Amaani, Leila and Mariam
Foreword
Experience with Technology reports the Ph.D. work of Ali al-Azzawi while based
at Digital World Research Centre and the Department of Psychology, University
of Surrey. This context is important to the intellectual orientation of the enquiry,
since Digital World is focussed on the design of new media systems while the
Department of Psychology is concerned with the fundamental understanding of
internal psychological processes. Bringing together these perspectives, through
Ali’s creativity and enthusiasm was an exciting process for us all and the results,
reported in this book, are a novel and theoretically grounded insight into the way
people make sense of everyday technology.
Within this context, Ali chose to examine the psychology of experience with
digital media technology and its relation to various design attributes of MP3 music
players of the Ph.D. period (2005–2010). His findings are therefore relevant both
to the design of digital media devices and to the relationships we have with many
similar ‘gadgets’ in our lives, especially as they unfold and deepen over time and
use. In fact, the dynamic and changing nature of those relationships and their sen-
sitivity to different layers of design turns out to be one of the main discoveries and
insights of the work.
The theoretical lens chosen to examine experience with technology is that of
the personal construct. This notion was introduced by George Kelly in his 1955
book entitled ‘The psychology of personal constructs’. According to Kelly, per-
sonal constructs are the concepts we use to categorise things in the world and
make sense of our experience with them. He illustrates and embodies this insight
in a simple ‘repertory grid’ technique of asking people to sort three objects into
two groups showing what is the same and different about them. If you try this
now for any three objects in your field of view, you will find that the criterion
you use to do this sorting is important to the way you think about the objects, and
quite specific to you personally. In this book, Ali uses a variation of the repertory
grid technique to get people sorting different kinds of MP3 players, at different
stages of use. By talking to them about the criteria they use and analysing pat-
terns of sorting across groups of participants, it is possible to expose a secret world
of perceptions (constructs) not available by interview alone. Surprisingly, this
has seldom been applied to interactive products before, and never with a view to
developing personal construct theory in this domain. Ali does both these things to
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viii Foreword
reveal a variety of new findings regarding the perception of digital devices, as well
as developing a new model of user experience based on the evolution of personal
constructs over time.
Three studies reported in the book unfold to provide a unique insight into peo-
ple’s experiences with technology and potentially with the other objects we choose
to interact with. In the first study, a structured sorting task provides access to the
constructs people employ to make initial judgements about MP3 players and the
way they shape their views of ‘beauty’. These constructs are then used to produce
a new questionnaire for measuring user experience. In the second study, this ques-
tionnaire is used by 16 participants to rate four canonical MP3 designs, before and
after interaction with them. The findings reveal a number of ‘super constructs’
describing users’ changing experience with the devices, including novelty, usa-
bility, complexity, aesthetics and physicality. A concise set of constructs are pro-
vided in the form of a UX-Scale in Appendix D, and can now be freely used to
create a UX profile for any interactive product, based on these super constructs.
The third study goes on to provide innovative links between theories of cycles
of consumption and those of changing experience over time, and turn to exam-
ine how people’s relationships with and expectations of technology change from
purchase through use to replacement. Following eight users through real time, the
final study provides an insight into their thoughts and feelings around the devices
they actually bought. In the closing chapters, the book brings together the various
streams of theory and empirical results to form an integrative theory of experience.
The book integrates diverse literatures on user experience and presents new
findings and concepts. It should therefore be of value to both academics and
researchers seeking to understand the area in greater depth and to practitioners
seeking to shape our experience with new products and services in a more custom-
ised and personal way.
University of Surrey, June 2013 Prof. David Frohlich
Dr. Margaret Wilson
Endorsement
Experience with Technology provides some missing DNA to the world of HCI. I
am impressed with how Dr. al-Azzawi brings in literatures that are often neglected
by mainline user researchers, e.g. social theory, categorization, and brand. He does
so in a thoughtful and compelling manner. The scholarship is thorough and top-
notch, especially in the synthesis of it all in his ICE model. This book straddles
the line that is often hard to manage; it serves as a solid foundation for academic
coursework as well as an impetus for practical application of theory. In it all, his
writing is lucid and pithy; there is not a wasted word. I strongly recommend this to
HCI practitioners who believe there is nothing new in the field. There is, and it is
within the pages of this book.
Robert Schumacher
ix
Preface
While working as a physicist and an engineer, installing, supporting and servicing
MRI scanners around the world, I became acutely aware of how some machines,
in comparison with others, seemed easier to run, maintain and fix. The difference
appeared to be linked to features such as the small LEDs that indicate whether
a hardware module is on, off, or on standby. Such basic aspects of the implied
user interface seemed to have escaped the attention of the designers of these high
quality machines, manufactured to high technical standards. Somehow, it felt as
though they had not always considered the user, even another technical user. These
kinds of frustrations were the seeds that led eventually to my desire to investigate
how people experience technology and to learn more about ways to improve the
user experience. So, after many years of running a web development company,
I eventually embarked on a research project at the University of Surrey which I
envisaged would help me to better understand how people experience technology,
with the hope also that the project would contribute to the vast body of knowledge
across the fields of design, psychology, and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
This book brings together a summary of some of the key ideas, thoughts and
approaches from within the HCI, design, marketing and psychology literature, as
well as the main insights from my research at Surrey. These findings were made
possible with the help of nearly 250 participants and with the support of many
academics and fellow researchers at the Digital World Research Centre and the
School of Psychology to whom I am very grateful. I am also indebted to my
academic supervisors, mentors and cheerleaders, Professor David Frohlich and
Dr. Margaret Wilson, whose patience and positive attitude towards their craft has
truly been a great inspiration.
During this project, I found myself in the unique position of being able to
draw on a range of experiences, including my early technical training and many
years of involvement in design, development and business, which, in combina-
tion with my research findings, have allowed me to formulate concurrent views
on the three main elements of user experience (UX): technology, business and
users. Though still involved in academia, I have therefore returned to industry as a
UX researcher and designer with the intention of making a positive, practical, and
insightful contribution to this expanding commercial field. Consequently, I have
attempted to keep this book focused on these main elements, remaining grounded
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xii Preface
in the realities of industry, whilst still maintaining an academic interest. The book
is therefore aimed at both academic researchers and industrial practitioners alike,
who are interested in exploring the theoretical understandings of how people expe-
rience technology in ways that offer an alignment of theory with practical meth-
ods. I hope you find it both useful and enjoyable.
Dubai, May 2013 Dr. Ali al-Azzawi
