The User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) includes the following in their Usability Body of Knowledge's glossary:
"Every aspect of the user's interaction with a product, service or company that make up the user's perceptions of the whole.
User experience design as a discipline is concerned with all the elements that together make up that interface, including layout, visual design, text, brand, sound, and interaction.
UX works to coordinate these elements to alllow for the best possible interaction by users."
Emergence
Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
Disparate fields coalesce (Psychology, Sociology, Social Science, Computer Science)
Creation, Application, Testing
UX - Practical HCI - applied to the software engineering process. Not just an afterthought.
Importance
Users are NOT silent.
System should conform to the user, not vice-versa.
More holistic approach.
Modern UX
More than just tangible factors and functionality.
"Humans are variously skilled and part of assuring the accessibility of technology consists of seeing that an individual's skills match up well with the requirements for operating the technology.
There are two components to this; training the human to accomodate the needs of the technology and designing the technology to meet the needs of the human.
The better we do the latter, the less we need of the former."
Perception
The way our senses work deeply influences the user experience
Vision
Touch
We need to be aware of how the technology influences the human.
Cognition
Attention
We need to keep the attention from the user in the software they are using, and make sure they are engaged.
Memory
We can't rely on memory to expect the user to be able to use the software. If the user used the application a year ago and now they're trying to use it again, they might not recall how it worked in the past. If it took them a while to learn it previously, they would have to repeat that same process again, meaning we should avoid overloading memory when possible.
We should emphasise repetition and familiarity. If users use the same UI everyday, users will match the elements with experiences through association. For example, Microsoft Office has the buttons generally in the same place, making it far easier for users to use them between different applications.
Exploration
Allowing the user to try out different things without running into too much trouble.
Communication
Explicit / Overt
Implicit / Covert
Input
Keyboard: The primary inpiut device which enables control of everything via scan codes
Cursive: Pen-based naturalistic input
Pointing: Mice and trackballs
Force F/B: Physical feedback
Speech: Speech to text recognition and control
Touch: Touch screens, pads, and tablets - including touch gestures -mobile devices
Gesure: 3D gesture recognition, (e.g: Xbox Kinect)