Usability or User Experience – what’s the Difference?

The term ‘user experience’ is now widely used, with its exponents claiming that it goes beyond mere usability by including such attributes as usefulness, desirability, credibility and accessibility. By contrast, ‘usability’ is often depicted as a narrower concept focusing on systems being easy to use.

Personally, I do not really care what this area is called, but I have had to take a view in my capacity as Chair of the sub-committee of the International Standards Organisation (ISO), which is responsible for the revision of ISO 13407 - the International Standard for Human Centred Design.

The ISO concept of usability is much closer to the broad concept of user experience than it is to the concept of ‘easy to use’, so we have decided to adopt the term ‘user experience’ in the new version of ISO 13407 (which will be called ISO 9241-210 to bring it into line with other usability standards).

‘EASY TO USE’ IS NOT ENOUGH
Golf has an established set of rules which evolve very slowly, and a major part of the attraction is that it is not easy and demands skill, concentration and practice. Within this context, the concept of usability as defined in ISO 9241 part 11 works very well. A usable golf club will be effective in allowing you to apply power and direction to your swing, efficient in transferring your energy to the ball and satisfying to use.

Similarly, the ISO concept of usability allows aesthetic issues to be addressed, if they are important to the user. One of Apple’s strengths is that most of its products are highly engaging and attractive. If the user’s task was simply to select and play MP3 files then the iPod would not have the market dominance it has. For most people, their task involves personal entertainment and having a product which is a delight to hold and use is part of that experience.

SO WHAT DOES USER EXPERIENCE INCLUDE?
In the revised standard we define user experience as ‘all aspects of the user’s experience when interacting with the product, service, environment or facility’ and we point out that ‘it is a consequence of the presentation, functionality, system performance, interactive behaviour, and assistive capabilities of the interactive system. It includes all aspects of usability and desirability of a product, system or service from the user’s perspective’.

Of course, Apple is particularly good at the total user experience. I recently visited the Apple Store in Fifth Avenue, New York, with my wife Fiona. As we waited for her free appointment at the Genius bar, I could not help compare this with my own experiences of trying to get help from other software vendors. I concluded that I’d much rather visit an iconic building staffed by people who seemed really enthusiastic and get free personal help than be kept on hold after pressing innumerable buttons to find someone who would only speak to me if I paid £15 since my product was out of warranty (yes, that really happened).

Providing an equivalent of the Apple Genius Bar does go a bit beyond our usual idea of usability, but it is part of the infrastructure of training and support which should be designed as part of the human-centred design process.

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS?
I hope that by making the user experience part of the human centred design process we can make it a key business driver for all kinds of systems. Thinking ‘user experience’ for consumer oriented products should encourage us to look at such issues as aesthetics, branding, packaging and support; at work it should encourage us to think more about work organisation, job design, training and support.

Whatever we call it, getting the relationship between people and technology right is critical to a project’s success and the intelligent application of a structured, people centred approach to design can only be a step in the right direction.

Associated Link: System Concepts: Training in User Centred Design

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