Functionality, usability, and user experience: three areas of concern

: / 26 EVALUATION IS A MAINSTREAM ACTIVITY IN HCI. For many years we saw the emergence of a plethora of techniques to measure user-orientated quality assessment of technology: usability, satisfaction, efficiency, effectiveness, learnability, usefulness, and so on. In recent times, however, the discussion seems to have moved on. Issues surrounding the wider relationship between people and technology or the user experience are popular. And we’ve seen a number of new concepts emerging, such as engagement, pleasure, presence, and fun, to name a few. Their proponents suggest that these concepts represent important aspects of usage that are omitted by traditional approaches to evaluation. We’ve heard it all before, of course, but the words are new. However, does the emperor actually have new clothes? In their efforts to explore concepts related to the user experience, researchers have been slow to articulate how their proposals should be measured or indeed if they can be measured at all. Clearly what is needed is an organized discussion on what aspects of use need to be investigated when the time comes for evaluation and how they could be assessed. We propose that when evaluating technology, there are three primary elements that need to be considered, namely, the product, the interaction between the user and the product, and the experience of using the product. Each of these three elements represents a unique but interdependent aspect of usage. These are Functionality (product), Usability (interaction), and Experience (user experience). Each area asks a different question about usage using a different language of discourse.