Origin and Evolution of the User Experience Concept
User Experience (UX) is now an essential pillar in the design of products, services, and digital journeys. It plays a decisive role in user satisfaction, loyalty, and business performance.
A leading player in France, UXOP has set itself the mission of providing independent, rigorous expertise in Usability Research.
By intervening at every stage of the interface lifecycle, the company delivers the most objective analyses possible, enabling product and design teams to make informed decisions an focus their efforts where they will have the
greatest impact on the experience and on business outcomes.
Yet this now-omnipresent concept has its roots in an interdisciplinary convergence between cognitive psychology, industrial design, ergonomics, and computer science.
Since the late twentieth century, these disciplines have converged to better understand human–technology interaction. This dynamic gave rise to a human-centered approach, progressively formalized under the term “user experience.”
The Pioneers of the Concept: A Human-Centered Approach
Although the term “User Experience” was formalized in the 1990s by Donald Norman, its foundations rest on earlier disciplines:
Ergonomics
From the mid-twentieth century onward, ergonomists sought to improve human–tool interactions, taking into account users’ physical and cognitive capabilities.
Cognitive Psychology
Researchers such as H. L. Mencken and John Sweller explored how humans perceive, process, and remember information, influencing early theories of ease of use.
User-Centered Design
From the 1970s, approaches such as human-centered design emerged, shaping modern design methodologies.
The Emergence of the Term “User Experience”
The term “User Experience” is attributed to Donald Norman, famed for The Design of Everyday Things (1988).
When he joined Apple in the early 1990s, Norman held the pioneering title
“User Experience Architect,” reflecting the growing awareness that products must deliver a
holistic, positive experience.
Norman explains: “I invented the term ‘User Experience’ because I felt ‘user interface’ and ‘ergonomics’ were too limited. I wanted to cover all aspects of a person’s experience with a system, including industrial design, the interface, physical interactions, and even the emotion the product evokes.”
A Multidimensional Concept
The richness of the User Experience lies in its ability to encompass and connect several essential dimensions:
Functionality and Usability
To what extent does the product allow users to complete tasks effectively and intuitively? This includes technical performance as well as clarity and simplicity of the interface.
Emotion and Satisfaction
What overall impression does the product leave?
Frustration and misunderstanding, or pleasure and emotional engagement? These factors deeply influence perceived quality.
Broader Context
Beyond direct interaction, how does the product fit into the user’s daily life? Does it meet needs while accounting for
social, cultural, and economic context? This holistic view is essential for experiences that
integrate seamlessly into real life.
Key Milestones in the Evolution of User Experience
1980s–1990s: The Rise of Graphical Interfaces
With personal computers and systems like Apple’s Macintosh, graphical user interfaces (GUI) spread widely. Conventions for intuitive navigation (icons, windows, clicks) emerged to
simplify interaction.
2000s: The Web and Mobile Boom
As the internet became ubiquitous, attention shifted to websites and mobile apps. Responsive design and user testing became pillars for delivering high-quality User Experience across devices.
2010s: User Experience at the Core of Strategy
User Experience became a strategic growth driver. Pioneers like Google, Apple, and Amazon placed User Experience at the center of their models, showing that smooth, intuitive, engaging interfaces can decisively impact loyalty and performance.
UX Design has moved beyond “just design” to a
cross-functional priority, alongside methodologies like Design Thinking and the expansion of
Customer Experience (CX) across the full journey.
The Fundamentals of UX Design
UX Design rests on principles that guide practice:
Understanding User Needs
research through surveys, interviews, and tests to grasp expectations, behaviors, and frustrations, focusing on what truly matters.
Human-Centered Design
creating products and services aligned with
functional, emotional, and cognitive
needs and constraints.
Prototyping and Testing
iterative testing with prototypes to locate friction and refine solutions.
Accessibility and Inclusivity
ensuring an experience for everyone, regardless of abilities or devices, for maximum accessibility.
These principles sit at the heart of UX Design practice, enabling experiences that are
effective,
inclusive, and satisfying.
UX Today: Beyond the Digital Realm
While UX emerged in digital contexts, it now extends far beyond screens into many domains, aiming for fluid, memorable experiences across environments:
Physical Services
Experience design shapes retail spaces, airports, and public venues, where signage, flow management,
and spatial ergonomics create simple, pleasant, intuitive interactions.
Phygital Experiences
At the intersection of online and offline, for example,
connected stores,
phygital solutions blend channels so interactions enrich one another, ensuring a continuous, coherent user experience.
En conclusion
User Experience is more than ergonomics or interface work: it is a human-centered design philosophy that blends functionality, emotion, and context of use. Since its emergence in the 1990s with Donald Norman, "User Experience" has become a strategic, cross-functional discipline, integrated at the highest levels of decision-making.
Today, it reaches beyond the digital realm to transform
physical spaces, public services, and
hybrid
experiences. In this broader context, UXOP plays a keyrole by ensuring independent evaluation and delivering directly applicable insights. Its approach helps companies optimize interface performance while reducing friction-related costs, creating experiences that are truly smooth, relevant, and differentiating.
By combining neutrality, methodology, and
collaboration with design teams, UXOP helps build a durable competitive advantage,
to the benefit of both users and business results.
Don retired five times, starting in
1993. He first retired from the
University of California, San Diego, where he
founded the Department of Cognitive Science.
He then joined Apple as an
Apple Fellow and became the UX architect of a three-person team called the “User Experience Office.” (This was the first use of the term “User Experience” in a job title. It wasn’t yet called “UX”.)
He took his fifth retirement in 2020, again at the University of San Diego, where he created the
Design Lab.
Among his other retirements, he is co-director of the MMM dual-degree program at Northwestern University, which combines an MBA and an engineering degree with a focus on design.
He is cofounder of CHI, from which he received the
lifetime achievement award, and a member of numerous societies such as the ACM, Human Factors and Ergonomics, the Design Research Society, and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He is a member of the
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), in the
engineering division.
Today, he is an active board member of NN/g as well as a member of the nonprofit The Don Norman Design Award and Summit. He is only 88, and he looks forward to remaining very active.
