What is behind the acronym UUX?
Prof. Michael Burmester: UUX has become accepted as an abbreviation for the two terms usability and user experience. Usability translates as "usability" or simply "ease of use" and focuses on interaction, i.e. what the user of a product wants to do and the physical and social environment in which this takes place. Good usability is ensured when the use is intuitive. The product takes a back seat and the achievement of personal goals takes center stage. The user experience - that is, the "user experience" - extends beyond interaction. This is primarily about the user's subjective impressions, i.e., everything he or she experiences in the context of the product. The user experience is shaped by feelings. If you want to design the user experience positively, you have to deal with the psychological needs of the users. Only when these are largely fulfilled during product use can positive experiences be created. In this context, psychological needs are not requirements or demands, but aspects such as connectedness or the feeling that we are making progress and being effective through what we are doing.
Why do we have such a hard time with UUX?
Prof. Michael Burmester: In many minds, these connections are unfortunately not yet present or the step towards consistent implementation is missing. Reasons in medium-sized companies are, for example, scarce resources - internally and at the customer - as well as a low acceptance of these factors in the usually more technically oriented development teams. Decision-makers also need to be involved and convinced, and the right mindset needs to be comprehensively established.
Why is UUX so important for companies?
Prof. Michael Burmester: Know-how about usability and user experience is a decisive competitive factor for companies today. Especially in the digitalization intuitive and human-centered products and tools take a special role. Whether the user is a customer or the company's own employee, digital products and services designed with UUX methods lead to higher productivity, joy of use and greater customer satisfaction. The better the UUX, the faster the digital transformation takes place.
You have developed the so-called "UUX-TransferSpace"
- what is it all about?
Prof. Michael Burmester: For the development of an innovation, the right approach and the appropriate mindset is of enormous importance. The federal government's "Mittelstand 4.0 Usability" competence center aims to raise awareness among small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups about how UUX can contribute to the success of individual or networked companies. The mobile UUX-TransferSpace offers the opportunity to simply try out UUX and experience it. The TransferSpace contains information about UUX and many useful materials. The PopUpToolkit is a creativity space to take along. It can be used to creatively collect and develop ideas at any location. It contains, for example, mini whiteboards for brainstorming and various creative materials. With paper fans, method descriptions and playing cards, psychological needs of users or social interaction of users can be identified and incorporated into product or service design.
Do you also support companies concretely in implementing UUX?
Prof. Michael Burmester: Yes, of course. In the first step, the company should deal with UUX. The competence center offers many opportunities for this. Our website provides large amounts of information and we have a lot of events throughout Germany. You can even get information via virtual regulars' tables. But companies can also contact us directly to discuss their challenges. For companies that want to try something out, we offer so-called pilot projects in which we provide a certain amount of support. Since we are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics, all services are free of charge. UUX is a very central success factor in digital transformation. That's why we call on companies to take the first steps and try out UUX in their own companies. This is like entering exciting new territory. We call it the Mission UUX.
Thank you for the interview!
