
We may joke about users being lazy, inpatient and never happy. But we do love them and really want to take care of them!
I spent 3 amazing days at the UX London 2010 conference & workshop; it was a very interesting insight into the not-so-new field of User Experience oriented design.
What is UX?
The first thing that is important to note is that UX is not just a geeky thing. By users, we mean people, as every object does pass a design test. Objects around us are not a material or a tool but a medium to an experience – their design must reflect their use as a medium.
An experience is an ethereal, subjective and intangible thing that is created through the actual existence of users.
Therefore, as a combination of users and their experiences, UX design is centered around the engagement of users with the object, across all senses.
As defined by Jesse James Garrett , UX works on 4 levels:
- Perception – using the senses
- Action – using the body (i.e. Nintendo Wii)
- Cognition – interacting with objects
- Emotion – engaging with objects
These 4 characteristics must be comprehended within an environment: capabilities of the users, constraints from the users, and context of the experience.
As you may have guessed, UX is an incredibly interesting field, but it’s also an inexact and empirical, as it revolves around unpredictable characteristics. It’s also a new field and the major challenge for UX people is to make the business understand this shift from the object to the medium and the importance of taking care of the experience of the users.

Josua Porter and Jesse James Garrett
2 ways to do UX
As explained by Joshua Porter in his lecture about Metrics-driven Design, there are 2 types of approach to UX design.
The first approach is the intuitive approach, which Porter qualifies as a daring instinctive vision.
The second approach is the “Google” approach, based on evidences, where design solves a logic problem, and where the possible solutions are tested and the winner implemented.
The evidence approach involves a “political environment” where the main goal is to get things done and where there is a hierarchy-based decision making process.
This approach creates concepts.
The intuitive approach is based on a “prayer environment” where the results can’t be tested or foreseen and the work is based on wisdom and experience. This approach creates new possibilities.

What to avoid when creating UX.
How to do you do metrics-driven UX?
Across these 2 approaches, Porter suggested the following steps for the designers in order to structure a metrics-driven UX:
1. Identify the design objectives
It’s important to think about what the site is actually meant to achieve. The tricky bit is to make sure that designers and execs are aligning their answers.
2. Map out the UX lifecycle
For this step, you have to question what actions users must do to meet business expectations.
For example, designers can break down the stages for the users to engage with the site. Once this lifecycle is defined, it’s important to focus on what is actually happening between these stages; i.e. what is happening between a sign up and a 2nd visit to the site.
3. Identify the core metrics
Once you have your steps described, designers must prioritise.
Google analytics provides some valuable data for whoever want to feel reassured about the site visits – what Porter calls “Vanity matrix”, however it isn’t enough to actually make decisions for the UX design.
When you look at the figures per steps, you can realize when you are actually losing users (disengagement). UX designers must focus on these drop offs in the funnel of actions.
Cohort analysis also help to understand the needs for a better design: you can compare across the time the engagement of the users: for example, in June, check if the users registered in May, April, Mars are still on the site and what is their level of engagement.
4. Continuous improvement of the lifecycle
This analysis of steps-focused metrics must be carried on all the time: UX redesign happens at each iteration of the site.
It’s important to bear in mind that you can always revert the site to a design that worked better!
To conclude, there are different approaches to UX design, which can both be successful. However, it’s important to focus on the right metrics that are relevant for what user actions the site is aiming at and designed for.