[IxDA Discuss] Definitions of User Experience..

[Jeff Howard]

John Dewey explores the concept of experience in his book Art as
Experience.
http://www.amazon.com/Art-as-Experience-John-Dewey/dp/0399531971

In Chapter 3: Having an Experience, Dewey distinguishes between
"experiences" and "an experience". The first is the unformed
daily rush of things that happen in our lives (what he calls inchoate
experience). For something to count as "an experience" it needs to
be fully formed, with a well-defined beginning, middle and end.

You might also reference the work of the sociologist Erving Goffman.
There are some parallels in his description of human experience in
general. Goffman describes three phases in human-to-human
interactions: initiation, maintenance and leave-taking. To tie that
back to Dewey, a well-defined beginning, middle and end.

Both of these are foundational readings from the graduate program at
the Carnegie Mellon School of Design. Dewey is definitely canon
there.

// jeff


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://beta.ixda.org/discuss?post=16871