Welcome to User Experience Lab @ Department of Design, IIT Delhi!

 

We study human experiences in context of digital product usage.

Some of the questions we attempt to understand at this lab are:

 

· What are human experiences?

· What causes them?

· How can UX be measured?

· How can we design to have a measurable UX?

 

Why are the above questions important?

 

Because design of nearly all the products are to cause some experience in humans. Purchase decisions are mostly biased by the experience expected and created by the products. In a competitive world where we all have numerous choices from the complex engineering based to simple craft based products we have moved much beyond utility they provide. We are constantly deciding on the basis of the experience the products produce. Hence, it has become increasingly important to understand human experiences and design for them.

 

How do we study human experiences at UX lab?

 

From John Dewey (1859-1952) to Steve Jobs (1955-2011), from philosophy to psychology, from art to neurochemistry; many people, many methods, many theories have been produced. Our choice is the measurable physiological approach triangulated with psychometrics. We, so far, have tried to break the measurable experiences into cognitive, affective and intellectual components. At this lab, we use eye tracking, electro electroencephalography (EEG), verbal response (TA) and systematic observation using dedicated software (Morae) to measure cognitive load; use pupil dilation, galvanic skin response (GSR) and deep qualitative interviews to understand affective responses and use questionnaires and structured interview techniques for understanding intellectual responses.

 

What are the applications?

 

As complexity of the interaction between human and built environment is increasing, be it mobile phone, be it washing machine, be it automotive, the load on the human mind has increased due to the steps involved in operating the product. On the other hand a very easy to use product may also be reported boring as it does not evoke enough novelty, surprise and exploration. There is constant need in product development to evolve to an optimum level of cognitive load. The optimum cognitive load not only gives a satisfaction of use but also causes a positive emotion and loyalty towards the product and brand. Measurement of UX pertaining to a product use is likely to distribute and critically position products of right mix in different environments. Further, trust and affect has been known to lead to better sales in e-commerce sites. Being able to measure the affect produced during the purchase process of the product online will provide strong cues to effective e-commerce sites.

 

The UX lab dives deep into these issues at research, design and testing levels using state of art physiological tools, creative brainstorming methods and deep qualitative interview methods.