2.5 User Experience Design, the digital brother


Another family member of Service Design is User Experience Design, often abbreviated as UX, or UX design.
Today, UX design is focused on the interaction between humans and digital products or services.

That’s why I love to call this the digital brother. A User Experience designer is a person who tries to make your apps and websites more user-friendly and less frustrating.

At least this is how the majority see UX today. However, back in the day, when Don Norman was the first to use the term User Experience in a job title at Apple, he had the idea that UX shouldn’t only focus on digital aspects, but also some physical aspects.

In an interview with Adaptive Path, Don stated the following:
I invented the term, because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system including industrial design graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and the manual. Since then, the term has spread widely, so much so that it is starting to lose its meaning.

In a way, the original meaning of UX design was pretty near to what I believe Service Design is today. But today, most people see UX design as the brother of Service Design, who is quite nerdy about everything digital.