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Theories behind UX research and how they are used in practice

Article · May 2012

DOI: 10.1145/2212776.2212712

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Workshop Summary CHI 2012, May 5–10, 2012, Austin, Texas, USA

Theories behind UX Research and

How They Are Used in Practice

Marianna Obrist Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila Abstract

Culture Lab
School of Computing Science
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU, UK
marianna.obrist@ncl.ac.uk
Virpi Roto
Aalto University
School of Art and Design
P.O.Box 31000
00076 Aalto, Finland
virpi.roto@aalto.fi
Effie Lai-Chong Law
University of Leicester
Department of Computer
Science
LE1 7RH Leicester, UK
elaw@mcs.le.ac.uk
Tampere University of Technology
Unit of Human-Centered Tech.
P.O.Box 589
FI-33101 Tampere, Finland
kaisa.vaananen-vainio-
mattila@tut.fi
Arnold Vermeeren
Delft University of Technology
Fac. of Ind. Design Engineering
Landbergstraat 15, NL 2628 CE,
Delft, The Netherlands
a.p.o.s.vermeeren@tudelft.nl
Elizabeth Buie
Luminanze Consulting, LLC
2909 Collins Avenue
Silver Spring MD 20902
ebuie@luminanze.com
At CHI2011 we organized a SIG session asking the
question “What theoretical roots do we build on, if any,
in UX research?” Overall, 122 single items from about
70 participants were collected, which corroborates the
relevance of and interest in this topic. Whilst the
theoretical foundations for UX research are not yet
established, those responses can serve as candidate
resources for setting the theoretical directions. A
primary conclusion from the SIG discussion is that the
CHI community needs theories in UX research and
practice. A major contribution of the workshop will be
to clarify the applicability and transferability of different
theories, theoretical foundations, concepts in informing
UX design and evaluation in both research and practice.
In particular we will look into theories that have already
been applied in practice.
Keywords
User Experience, Theory, Practice, Models, Frameworks
ACM Classification Keywords
H.1.2 User/Machine Systems
H.5.m Miscellaneous (e.g. Theory)

Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). General Terms

CHI’12, May 5-10, 2012, Austin, TX, USA. Theory, Human Factors
ACM 978-1-4503-1016-1/12/05.

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Workshop Summary
Introduction and Motivation
User Experience (UX) is understood as inherently
dynamic, given the ever-changing internal and
emotional state of a person and differences in the
circumstances during and after an interaction with a
product [3]. A considerable amount of work in the field
of user experience (UX) has been conducted with
different goals: investigating common definitions and
understanding of UX; creating appropriate concepts,
frameworks and models for supporting design and
development processes; and developing methods and
techniques for evaluating UX [7]. However, theoretical
discussions and the search for theoretical roots for UX
research seem to lag behind (e.g., [8][9]). There is a
need to give high priority to this crucial question and to
explore it deeply within the UX community.
Recent publications by Kuutti [5] and Luojus [4]
underline this research effort. Specifically, Kuutti
argues that there is a need for more researchers
starting to speculate and experiment with models and
theories for UX. The value and need for such discussion
at CHI is further evidenced through the successful and
well-attended SIG session at CHI2011 [6], organized by
several of the proposers of this workshop. While the
goal of the SIG session was to explore the state of the
art in the theory of UX, this workshop aims to dig
deeper into the actual usage of theories for informing
UX design and evaluation efforts. We recognize the
previous attempts at CHI (e.g., [1][2][10]) and aim to
further fertilize the discussion based on the data
collected at the CHI2011 SIG session.
UX Research and its Theoretical Roots
We analyzed 122 individual items on theories collected
in the CHI2011 SIG on UX theories and theoretical
CHI 2012, May 5–10, 2012, Austin, Texas, USA
frameworks [6]. The data set was filtered and
categorized over several iterations, resulting in 56
items distributed over seven major categories and
related to nine disciplines. We analyzed the diversity of
the collected UX theories and the linkage of the found
theory categories to UX work.
The seven main resulting categories are briefly
described below.
A. Human/user: Understanding the user, the users’
characteristics, emotions, motives and cognitive
processes — e.g., psychological models and theories.
B. Product/artifact: Taking product/artifact as the
starting point for UX design — e.g., formalist aesthetics
and product semiotics.
C. User/artifact/environment relations: Focusing on the
interplay between user and product — e.g., Gestalt
theory and the theory of MEMES.
D. Social nature of UX: Theories about relations and
communication between people — e.g., co-experience
and communication accommodation theory.
E. Design: Theories inspired by the art and design fields
— e.g., design rationale and performance as
interaction.
F. Frameworks involving several themes from A to E:
The interrelationship between users and their roles in
interaction situations — e.g. actor-network theory or
symbolic interactionism.
G. Broader frameworks related to human existence:
Broad theoretical frameworks and philosophical views
about human existence — e.g. American pragmatism or
feminist theory.
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Workshop Summary
There is a strong interest in theories and theoretical
foundations in the CHI community, and in this
workshop we will investigate how some of the theories
are, or could be, applied in research and practice.
Topics of Interest & Objectives
This workshop aims to bring together researchers from
academia and industry, as well as industry
practitioners, who are conducting UX design and
evaluation work and who either are applying theories,
theoretical concepts and frameworks in their UX
research or have concrete plans to do so. This
workshop addresses three topics:
! Applicability and appropriation of theories and
theoretical concepts in UX design and evaluation:
Which theories are used, and for what purpose?
When are theories considered and proven to be
useful in UX design and evaluation situations? How
are theories and theoretical concepts applied
and/or adapted to UX research questions?
! Transferability of theories and theoretical concepts
from research to practice: How different are
researchers’ views from practitioners’ with respect
to the necessity, utility and difficulty of applying
theories in UX design and evaluation work?
! Scoping of theories: Is there a general theory that
can be applied to studying UX in different settings?
Conversely, is there a specific theory that is
applicable only for studying UX in a unique context?
This workshop intends to produce three outputs:
! Insights on how theories and theoretical concepts
are used in UX design and evaluation cases (based
on the presentations by workshop participants).
CHI 2012, May 5–10, 2012, Austin, Texas, USA
! Identification of the different perspectives of UX
and understand how the different stances on UX
use theories for UX research and practice.
! Summary of challenges in applying theories and
theoretical concepts in UX design and evaluation
work, and outlining of the next steps to overcome
existing barriers between theory and practice.
Intended Audience
The workshop aims to attract researchers and
practitioners from various disciplines addressing UX in
design and evaluation. Contributions where theories
and concepts have been applied in practice are
especially welcome. An interdisciplinary audience
should enrich discussion for theoretical UX research.
Workshop Format
This is a one-day workshop with breakout sessions,
alternating with moderated group discussion. The
workshop will start with a brief introduction to the
topic, followed by a short introductory round to
familiarize participants with each other and their topics.
Next, the organizers will present the common themes
of the submitted position statements, grouping them
into different sessions. The different groups will then
discuss their topic during a breakout session, creating a
list of conclusions. After lunch, the large group will
come back together to discuss their conclusions. The
last part of the workshop will be devoted to producing a
poster to be shared with the broader CHI2012
community. The workshop organizers have previous
experience in setting up related events at CHI and HCI-
related conferences.
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 Workshop Summary
Participation
We welcome insightful papers in the area of UX
theories, especially ones fostering an interdisciplinary
perspective and the usage of theories in practice.
Workshop candidates are invited to send in a position
statement (up to 4 pages in ACM EA format) via the
workshop website. The topics include, but are not
restricted to:
• Analyses of the applicability and transferability of a
theory and theoretical concepts to UX research or
practice.
• Case studies of using a theory, theoretical concept
in UX design and/or evaluation work.
• Review papers on the theories used in the existing
UX work in terms of their fitness.
Submissions will be reviewed by the program
committee and will be selected according to their
significance, the quality of their presentation, and their
potential to stimulate discussion.
Dissemination
After the workshop the accepted contributions will be
posted on the website, the summarized results of the
workshop will be published, and further discussion of
the topic will be stimulated in a wider audience. The
workshop organizers will consider the publication of a
revised version of accepted papers as part of a special
issue in an HCI-related journal.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support by the Marie Curie IEF
Action of the European Union (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF).
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CHI 2012, May 5–10, 2012, Austin, Texas, USA
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