User Experience Research

User Experience Research, before starting the design of a new product or service, goes beyond identifying the existing and potential target audience. It aims to observe their behaviors, foresee and test the potential relationship they will build with the product, and prevent design processes that could be costly to change later using the insights gathered at this stage. User Experience Research is conducted by UX Researchers. User experience research has many techniques and, as part of the design methodology, has its own dedicated methodology. In research, observations are made and data is collected using various tools. The necessary preparations are made to collect this data in a meaningful way. Before designing the relevant product or service, the research methods to be used are selected and applied by UX researchers. The data generated from this process is first presented by the UX researchers and then shared in meetings that also include interaction designers. The correct selection and proper application of observation techniques culminates in the selection, analysis, and reporting of the necessary data regarding the product or service’s intended goals. These outcomes generally provide concrete outputs on how the product should be designed, but sometimes they can also provide insights for marketing activities, pricing, and even product strategy.

Pre-Research Activities for User Experience Research

User experience design can be approached like an engineering process. In fact, this is one of the most important factors that distinguishes user experience design from graphic design today. Therefore, since it is treated like an engineering project, planning and feasibility studies need to be conducted. These studies may vary depending on the specific needs of each product and service. In the planning activities before user experience research, what matters is ensuring that usability design processes are ready in alignment with the project plan. Generally, the design of these products and services pursues commercial objectives, and therefore, identifying the requirements before the research will contribute to these goals.

Stakeholder Meeting

This is the meeting where all relevant stakeholders of the project to be developed come together, also known in practice as a kick-off meeting. It is very important to bring together all stakeholders who touch the project in one way or another and to gather everyone’s expectations from the project as an outcome. Through this meeting, the goal is to learn everyone’s expectations from the project and gather the necessary information about the scope the product to be designed should cover and the priority order of objectives.

Checklist

The checklist serves to document the rules, guidelines, recommendations, and standards that must be followed as part of goal-oriented design, and to ensure that work is always carried out in adherence to what is written. This checklist is a method used to prevent potential errors and unnecessary workload for the people who will develop the relevant product or service.

Competitor Analysis

In this method, within the scope of the relevant project, the products and services of the project’s existing and target market competitors are examined. Their strengths and weaknesses are analyzed, along with which channels users reach those products through, what motivations drive them, and the channels and services offered by the product owners to their users are all fully analyzed (Levy, 2015). One of the most effective methods in competitor analysis is usability testing on competitor products. It bears similarity to the SWOT analysis used in other areas of the social sciences.

Usability Planning

At this stage of the work, it is necessary to plan usability in advance. At the end of the day, the resulting product will be designed for a purpose, and this purpose usually requires a cost-benefit analysis in commercial environments. The cost-benefit analysis also affects the usability of the product. Determining which research methods will be used, their time and cost plans, and laying out the usability features and expectations to be applied based on the results helps foresee potential requirements that may arise later. Although user experience design is based on subject-specific research and data, the opinions of experienced professionals about the product or service also come to the forefront within certain rules. There is a methodology known in the literature as “Expert Analysis” or “User Experience Expert Review.” According to this methodology, the usability, interaction design, and interface design of the relevant product are reported based on the heuristics of industry experts. One of the approaches used for this reporting is “10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design,” published by Jakob Nielsen in 1995 (Çağıltay, 2011).

Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time.

Match between system and the real world: The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user. Information should appear in a natural and logical order.

User control and freedom: Users often choose system functions by mistake and need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended process. Undo and redo options are provided for this purpose.

Consistency and standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. The application should be internally consistent.

Error prevention: Rather than having users encounter an error message, careful design should prevent the error from occurring in the first place.

Recognition rather than recall (or minimizing memory load): Objects, actions, and options should be visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for using the system should be visible and easily accessible.

Flexibility and efficiency of use: Accelerators—unseen by novice users—should not be overlooked. Experienced and inexperienced users generally exhibit different usage behaviors. To cater to both groups, methods that accelerate interaction for expert users should be employed. Users should be given the ability to customize frequently used functions according to their preferences.

Aesthetic and minimalist design: Dialogues should not contain irrelevant or rarely needed information. Every additional piece of information in a dialogue competes with relevant information and creates clutter. If removing an image or piece of information from the interface makes no difference in terms of usability, it is unnecessary. The principle of “if it’s unnecessary, don’t use it” should be followed.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), should precisely indicate the problem, and should constructively suggest a solution.

Help and documentation: Even though it is preferable for the system to be usable without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Information in the help system should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps for solutions, and should not be too lengthy.

Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics table (adapted from Çağıltay, 2011). Another study on heuristics for defining the current user experience on a relevant product or service is the “Xerox Heuristic Evaluation – Checklist,” published by Xerox in 1995. The topics examined by the Xerox Heuristic Evaluation – Checklist are as follows:

• Visibility of System Status
• Match Between System and Real World
• User Control and Freedom
• Consistency and Standards
• Helping Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Prevent Errors
• Error Prevention
• Recognition Rather Than Recall
• Flexibility and Minimalist Design
• Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
• Help and Documentation
• Skills
• Pleasurable and Respectful Interaction with the User
• Privacy.

Usability Satisfaction Survey

Usability satisfaction surveys are used to measure users’ satisfaction with the usability of the products or services they use. One of the most commonly used survey methods is the “System Usability Scale – SUS,” developed by John Brooke in 1986. It is a widely used survey in practice due to its simplicity and quick applicability. Another frequently used usability satisfaction survey is the “Software Usability Measurement Inventory – SUMI,” published in 1993 by the Human Factors Research Group at the University of Cork (Ireland). This survey is also commonly used in practice.

Methods Used During User Experience Research

At its core, the research methods used to examine user behaviors in relation to the intended purpose of the relevant product or service are quite numerous. The number of these methods can be increased depending on the specific product or service, and their content may also vary for each case. I have compiled the following list from “Usability.gov” and “Usabilitybook” publications as the most commonly applicable methods in practice:

• Ethnography
• Netnography
• Contextual Interviews
• Card Sorting
• First Click Test
• Focus Group
• Interviews
• Shadowing
• Field Study
• Usability Tests
• Cultural Probe – Diary Study – Photo Study
• Future Workshop
• Persona
• Claims Analysis
• Affinity Mapping – Customer Journey Map
• Stakeholder Analysis
• Cognitive Models

Ethnography

An ethnographic study involves observations made by UX researchers who become part of users’ lives over a certain period of time (this period can generally continue until the desired insights regarding the targeted objective are gathered). This method, already used by research firms for various insight studies, is also an important research method in the user experience creation phase. Through this research method, the habits, preferences, perceptions, and desires of existing and potential users—all the behaviors that also form their culture—are identified in their daily lives. These findings provide in-depth information that will be transformed into personas, customer journey maps, and other tools frequently used in user experience design.

Netnography

In today’s internet, which has become a virtual world for people in one way or another, people exhibit behaviors similar to those in their everyday lives. However, what is described as “similar” here is not the behaviors themselves but rather the fact that they exhibit behaviors at all—that is what is considered the similarity. In the virtual world, people sometimes react to events and situations the same way they would in real life, while at other times they may respond differently according to the sociological environment created by the virtual world. Sometimes, the advantages provided by virtual environments allow people’s subconscious to surface, enabling you to observe behaviors that you could never observe through ethnographic research. People communicate through various channels on the internet (blogs, social media, various content creation platforms, etc.) in one-way or two-way communication, and they can take many actions that they do or cannot do in everyday life. The greatest contribution of these physical and virtual actions to user experience is that everything leaves a trace in the digital world. For this reason, netnographic research holds an extremely important place in user experience. Because when these traces are examined within the framework of measurability—the most important feature of the digital world—you can analyze users’ behaviors here and carry out some of the user experience research methods that would require many UX researchers in the physical world, in less time and at lower costs. Therefore, it would not be wrong to consider netnographic studies as the ethnography of the digital world.

Contextual Interviews

These are interviews conducted by UX researchers with users in their usual environments or in the likely environment where the product or service to be designed will be used, using semi-structured questions. In contextual interviews, the researcher never asks questions in a leading or directive manner. The ultimate purpose of all questions is to understand through which paths the relevant product or service will be used by that user, or similarly, through which paths it will be reached. Based on the user’s answers, questions are restructured and asked again in line with the ultimate objective. In these questions, rather than directing, it is observed which options lead to the relevant goal, or perhaps it is discovered that the person is not in the target or potential audience at all, and how they never reach the relevant goal. This way, insights, initial touchpoints, and potential difficulties that may be encountered can be captured from users. Contextual interviews can perhaps be characterized as one of the most important research methods in the user experience research process. User experience is a journey. Within this larger journey, the aim is for targeted users to experience the process in the shortest and best way possible, which will lead us to our goal. While the observations we use to understand users’ journeys give us the journey in broad strokes, semi-structured contextual interviews give us a better chance of understanding their experiences related to our objective. Questions that people can generally answer on a yes-or-no basis will reveal their journey while reaching—or sometimes not reaching—the relevant goal. The researcher preparing the contextual interview questions prepares future questions in advance based on potential answers. Based on the user’s responses, without directing them toward the relevant goal, the researcher tries to find out how close they can get to that goal. This journey of discovery itself actually produces the conclusion that, while observations draw the general framework, contextual interviews may need to be restructured with each result obtained.

Card Sorting

This is a research method used in practice especially for categorization on websites, and it is the research outcome most needed by the interaction designer when building the information architecture. In this research method, researchers give users pre-prepared cards—each representing certain categories and products, sometimes content groups and subject headings, with various possible variations—in a mixed order and ask them to group the cards. The data provided by the users can be analyzed and presented for the most fundamental tools of information architecture reflected in practice (website maps, product categories).

First Click Test

We could almost call this research method the “love at first sight” test. According to some research, the rate of love at first sight is %XXX. First impression matters tremendously to all of us. Naturally, just as a person’s first impression of another person is important, so is their first impression of a product. That is why the packaging of nearly all physical products is so important—because when buying an unfamiliar brand, the conversion rates of packaging are, according to some research, %XXX. Just as with physical products or meeting someone for the first time, the screen(s) users encounter when they first open your website or mobile application and their first clicks are very important. These first clicks also hold an important place in user experience research. Based on where the first clicks land, clues are obtained about how well users understand the product and about the information architecture of the design. First click tests can be applied alongside usability tests when products are in their prototype and final usage stages.

Focus Group Studies

These are meetings where a certain number of users are gathered at a predetermined location with a moderator, around pre-established topics and questions. The aim here is to try to capture at which points users share the same opinions or exhibit the same behaviors, and where the opposite occurs. However, in practice, the extent to which people can accurately describe the actions and behaviors they take in such highly structured processes emerges as a topic worthy of research.

Interviews

The interview method, or in other words user interviews, is conducted with individuals selected from the existing or targeted audience of the product or service. Interviews are conducted by UX researchers with interviewees in digital or physical settings. The aim is to better understand the selected user group through questions asked during the interview, depending on the objective to be reached. Since the data obtained emerges from users sharing certain insights, the analysis of this data should be properly positioned according to the purpose of the product or service.

Shadowing

This is a method carried out by observing users—especially while they are performing the targeted action—without their awareness, and when necessary, recording the entire experience. This way, all user behaviors can be detailed down to the smallest details by reviewing these recordings. It is important that the people conducting this observation are UX researchers and interaction designers, as it is crucial for the people who will design the experience to witness these insights firsthand. For example, it will help you decide at which payment step to show checkout cross-sell opportunities on an e-commerce site. Let’s say your e-commerce site will operate in the large retail sector, selling a wide variety of items such as food, clothing, and household appliances. In that case, you should go to a large retail store and observe people’s behavior at the checkout. You can find answers to many questions: how often the products placed right next to the checkout are purchased; whether these fast-moving consumer goods are picked up before or after all items in the shopping cart are placed on the belt; whether the payment method used has any relationship with the purchase of these products; how often these products are purchased after payment is made; and which ones are picked up and then put back and why. These answers will guide you in making a design decision that may seem like a very simple decision process but will directly affect the conversion rates of your e-commerce site’s checkout cross-sell opportunities.

Field Study

These are studies conducted in the field by UX researchers with users according to the usage scenario of the relevant product or service to be designed. In these studies, while users are specifically asked to perform certain scenarios, researchers take notes on user behaviors and, if necessary, record video to review later and share with interaction designers. The aim here is to measure users’ reactions to the exact desired scenarios and to see how they behave.

Usability Tests

These are tests conducted with users using real-use scenarios on the current state of the relevant product or service, or at the prototype stage if it is being built for the first time. It is one of the most important research methods in the user experience design process. Users’ interactions, emotions, and behaviors with the product are conducted under the supervision of a researcher. The researcher takes notes on user behaviors throughout the entire test, and the interaction is video recorded. Generally, in a laboratory setting, the user is recorded from different camera angles along with the product they are interacting with. While varying depending on the size of the product—or more precisely, the complexity of the goals and the length of scenarios—usability tests generally take between 40-60 minutes. The observations from these tests can yield a wide variety of results, including errors in existing products, issues in the experience, and what emotions they evoke in users. For a newly developed product, usability tests conducted at the prototype stage can similarly reveal existing experience issues and serve as a user-centered guide during the product development phase.

How Accurate Are Usability Tests and Their Impact on Product Development

There are two important debates regarding usability tests. The first is whether the test results are obtained in a healthy environment, and the second is whether results obtained from, say, a test group of 6 people can provide meaningful data about all users of the site. The main factors affecting whether test results can be obtained in a healthy environment include: careless behaviors arising from the fact that people came there for a specific purpose, the guiding behaviors of the researcher conducting the test that could influence the outcome, and unnatural behaviors seen in people who know they are being recorded. To eliminate these factors, it is necessary to ensure that test subjects are never repeatedly selected from the same individuals, so that participants engage in the tests with full concentration and curiosity. Although the laboratory environment is clearly perceived by the subject, whenever possible, they should be provided with a device they are familiar with (if device-specific behavior is not important in the test) and, as much as possible, a classic work or living room setting (if it is a computer-based test and no environment-based variables are being considered). The researcher conducting the test should be prevented from being directive in a way that affects the outcome. Test scenarios should be determined in advance by the research team, and the relevant personas should be expected to naturally reach the relevant goals on their own. The principle is that each person charts their own path. If a specific scenario must absolutely be tested in usability tests, it should still be carried out within a natural flow. The most important tool to use when guiding the person toward the relevant goal is the natural barriers or necessities presented by the test environment. Let us explain this with an example: QUESTION: We want to observe how users behave when their credit card or any payment method balance is insufficient on an e-commerce site. Instead of telling the researcher present at the test “your credit card is insufficient and you received an error on this screen, what do you do,” you start the scenario by saying “today is February 13th and buy whatever you want for your significant other with this 100 TL gift card tomorrow.” When the user makes a payment and sees that the gift card is actually not 100 TL, you can observe the natural flow of the process. When you say “sorry, there was a mistake, the gift card was 50 TL,” you can observe how the user naturally uses the back button, or perhaps closes the page and reopens it, or clicks the cart icon above and first removes the previously selected product from the cart and then clicks on the category menu, among many other scenarios in a natural flow. HYPOTHESIS: If it is a special occasion, users will prioritize among the items in their cart—after checking or without checking their balance—or start looking at products again. If it is not a special occasion, they will end the shopping session. INTERPRETATION: ??

Cultural Probe – Diary Study – Photo Study

At the root of people’s behaviors, there are many variables that can lead to unpredictable behaviors—their socioeconomic life, education, family, and more. For this reason, researchers cannot always predict or foresee user behaviors. Therefore, in user experience research, it can sometimes be beneficial to leave the management of the process to the users. In this method, they are asked to take photographs or video recordings with a device while using a product or service, keep a journal, and write their thoughts without any rules or scenarios throughout the process. When the process is complete, all these records are examined with the aim of understanding the factors that determine the perspectives of existing or potential users toward that product or service.

Future Workshop

This study is generally conducted between the product or service owners and the UX researcher. Workshop participants are asked how they would like to see their product in the future. For example, participants may be asked to write how their product would be featured as a news headline in a newspaper in future years, in order to concretize their future expectations.

Persona

A persona is a complete definition of the existing or targeted user group with all relevant details. Individuals are created with demographic and segmented information such as names, ages, and education levels, as well as their direct and indirect habits related to the topic, behavioral frequencies, and all details that may be relevant to the subject. These definitions are utilized at every stage of the products and services to be offered.

Claims Analysis

Claims Analysis in product or service design is a study in which hypotheses are listed. Especially after certain UX research methods have been conducted, researchers and interaction designers write down the hypotheses they put forward—along with their cause-and-effect relationships and expectations—before moving on to the other questions they will begin seeking answers to. Subsequent research focuses on these hypotheses. In practice, it generally takes place in the middle of the user experience research process.

Affinity Mapping – Customer Journey Map

After user experience research is conducted, all the data obtained is displayed by placing it on a map that shows the entire process from the beginning to the end of the product or service. Starting with where users come from to reach this product, the first experiences they have when they begin using it, what they feel, their expectations, senses, and thoughts are all written down. These are written separately for each stage, ensuring that the experience journey map of the relevant product or service is presented with all its relationships.

Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholders are the group of people who touch the product or service to be created in some way—from the smallest to the largest added value, whoever it concerns. Whether they express positive or negative views about the relevant product or service, or even if they rarely use it in their work, the opinions of all these people on the subject are gathered. The reason for gathering everyone’s views and contributions is both so that the product owners have important information about that product and to ensure that every aspect has been addressed before design begins.

Cognitive Models

Cognitive models aim to model the interaction users will have with the product or service. This way, performance predictions of the product from the user’s perspective can be made based on pre-established techniques. The most commonly used models in this method can be listed as Fitts’s Law, Hick’s Law, Gestalt Principles, and the GOMS model family.

INTERACTION DESIGN PHASE

After user experience research is completed for the products or services to be designed, the prepared report meets the interaction designer to proceed to the interaction design phase. The interaction designer’s task is to begin designing the interaction—starting from information architecture—by looking at the relevant reports, considering the technical details of which devices, which screen types, and other similar usage areas the experience to be designed will be used on, and leveraging their practical experience and general interaction design knowledge. Within the interaction design methodology, some applications are listed below.

Brainstorming

The brainstorming method, which we can summarize as a form of collaborative reasoning where people come together, is also used in the interaction design phase. In practice, brainstorming sessions are generally held between UX researchers and interaction designers, where ideas about encountered problems and solution proposals are put forward, and the first stages of the design concept can be established.

Storyboarding

This application, which can be translated as visual storytelling, is actually a study resembling comic books. In practice, it is generally a method where the interaction designer tells the entire story through a single user using the sketch technique with hand drawings. While it can also be drawn in a digital environment, it is similar to the Customer Journey Map in user experience research and serves to show the final process of the product in a single medium.

Parallel Design

It can be foreseen that while the goal is singular, interpretation can differ, and ultimately the work will come from a designer. For this reason, even though interaction design work is based on the same report, it is designed simultaneously by different designers, and the resulting outcomes are compared. Following the evaluation, work may continue on the selected design, or a new design may be created by evaluating the pros and cons of two different designs. Attention is paid to ensuring that the design teams work completely independently from each other and are free from any mutual interaction.

Prototyping

Before moving to the graphic design phase, the interaction designs can be tested for usability and goal-fitness by having the experience intended with this new design emerge at an early stage. These tests can be conducted within design teams as well as with real users through usability tests. Two tools are used in prototyping: paper prototyping and digital prototyping. In paper prototyping, the screen designs of the product or service are drawn on paper to simulate the experience, while on the digital side, depending on the tools used, if the product is digital, there is the opportunity to prototype and test an experience closer to the final product.

Wireframe

This is generally a tool used in product design in the digital world. It is the process of creating two-dimensional skeletons of interface elements. These skeletons, or “wireframes” as we call them, are drawn to cover all usage steps of the product. It is the tangible output of the step preceding the graphic design phase, where each page or action is individually drawn and shown, without colors and styles. The general template of each page, how to proceed to the next action, how to return to the previous state, and how to navigate to all other actions—as permitted—from that page are all established at this stage. In practice, they are generally drawn using gray elements. These drawings can be done either by hand on paper or digitally using many available tools. Establishing the entire usage flow of the product before moving to the graphic design phase also allows it to be prototyped and subjected to usability tests. Since usability tests conducted at this stage can provide significant cost advantages in the production process, wireframing is an extremely important step in user experience design.

GRAPHIC DESIGN PHASE

Graphic design, in short, is the stylized form of images and photographs. “Graphic” means line in Latin. It derives from the ancient Greek word “graphein,” meaning to write and to draw. Transforming information, news, and messages into graphic images provides the ability to convey the intended message to people through sight. Posters, books, information and warning signs, brochures, and similar items fall within the domain of graphic design. The goal in the graphic design phase is to maximize both communication and aesthetic quality. At this stage, it is important to pay attention to design principles. Line, light-dark gray, toning, color, form, texture, direction, scale, and balance, proportion, visual hierarchy, continuity, unity, and emphasis are important aspects of graphic design. Communication is the vital element of the graphic design process. Ultimately, what makes graphic design interesting, dynamic, and contemporary is that it is oriented toward communication (Becer, 2015). When we look especially at the literature and today’s practical examples, we see that Graphic Design is a more artistic field that appeals to emotions. That is why Graphic Design, coming after Interaction Design in the User Experience design process, is structured to encompass more subjective-seeming elements such as element types, colors, corporate identities, brand positioning, and similar considerations specific to whichever platform the product will be used on. However, graphic design is extremely important in the context of user experience design. In experience design, goal-oriented design is expected to lead to many products and services resembling each other over time. In experience design—where the intersection of people’s usage habits and expectations with the goals of products and services creates the design—while tools and audiences change over time, goals generally do not. In this structure, what will attract people’s attention and create differentiation will be the graphic design phase, which primarily appeals to their emotions. Therefore, giving due importance to the most prominent differentiating point where products touch the end user, without straying from the understanding that this is an art, capturing the relationship between the original design and the person who designed it, is the key point of this most subjective phase of the user experience process.

IMPLEMENTATION AND OPTIMIZATION PHASE

The counterparts of the designs and requirements in the digital world are realized through code. At the end of the User Experience Design process, whether it is a web application or a mobile application, it needs to be coded. The relevant designs are translated into code by programmers and come to life as interfaces that users can use. The coding of these interfaces is considered the final step of the design process. In classic software development stages, this final step is not seen as part of the design. It is seen as part of the engineering process and comes to life as a phenomenon preceding—and sometimes opposing—design. However, especially in what I would characterize as the post-Apple era, we are beginning to see engineering processes being approached as part of a holistic design approach. User Experience design is a lifecycle. Within this lifecycle, users’ behaviors, habits, and product needs can change. It is often not possible for the entire experience to respond to these changes at the same pace. Therefore, it is necessary to approach the relevant systems within a continuous optimization framework. In digital products, this optimization can include the necessity of small changes such as the shape and color of each element, and sometimes it can involve re-engineering the system when needs change. To be prepared for such situations, the designs and their reflection in the interface—the code—must be continuously measured, evaluated, and optimized through relevant tools. When considering the concept of optimization within user experience, rather than focusing on an existing product, it should be approached as a big picture during the product development phase. Just like the Object-Oriented approach in software development, we can also approach design in an object-oriented manner. Object-oriented design is actually a topic within interaction design. The entire design is created in parts, and a process is formed from them. This way, alternatives for each part, their ability to evolve more easily according to new developments, and their measurement become easier. Measurement is the most important design output of user experience. Design that is continuously and thoroughly measurable—down to the finest detail possible—can already be considered within the optimization process. It means a design philosophy that is optimization-ready from the start. Designs made with this philosophy become ready for evolving and changing experiences from the very beginning in the long run. User experience design means goal-oriented design. Goals serve the ultimate objective. Sometimes these goals are increasing sales on an e-commerce site, and sometimes reducing queue waiting times at a bank. Generally, in today’s digital landscape, the concept of user experience is used in designs aimed at these objectives. In physical processes, these goal-oriented designs—especially in processes applied to users by someone else—come to life as part of the Customer Experience concept. When carrying out goal-oriented design, two elements are taken into consideration. In addition to our ultimate goal and the sub-goals determined to reach it, the target audience of the product or service to be designed must be known. Whatever is being designed today, it has a target audience, and the aim is for it to be used with high efficiency by people. This goal sometimes manifests as a purchasing decision on a website, while in another example, the aim might be for a news article on a content site to be shared on social media or other platforms. Goals vary and are designed to serve the ultimate objective or objectives. The architecture to be built when making these designs is also determined through research into the behaviors, habits, and experiences of the people in the target audience. There are various research methods for this purpose. These research methods are conducted to foresee the relationship of the existing and targeted audience with the product or service, and to shed light on the design. Once the audience is understood, the interaction design process begins. In this process, human-computer interaction is particularly prominent in the digital world. This interaction is addressed in all its aspects on a device and process basis and is shaped according to findings from the research report. In interaction design, every point of the process is addressed and designed. These designs are often implemented in the form of wireframes. After all interactions are designed, the graphic design process begins. During the graphic design process, special attention is paid to element types, color palettes, typography, screen resolutions, and adaptations based on device-specific variations. After the graphic design process is completed, the implementation phase begins. In physical processes, the implementation phase—which takes the form of printing or manufacturing—is carried out through codes in the digital world, which we can describe as the language computers understand.

User experience design is a lifecycle. Because users and their experiences are constantly subject to change.

While ongoing experiences that we call habits continue at certain rates, many factors—especially today’s advancing technology and communication channels—touch and influence people’s experiences. That is why, in today’s world where even habits we might consider unchangeable can shift, people’s responses to products and services can also change rapidly. Considering all these factors, user experience processes are designed in a structure that can be continuously changed and updated for every product and service. These designs may need to be technically optimized. Likewise, the designs themselves can be optimized. Optimization can be approached as a lifecycle, resulting in continuously improved interfaces. For this reason, optimization in user experience design has been gaining increasing importance in recent times.

User Experience Research

User Experience Research, before starting the design of a new product or service, goes beyond identifying the existing and potential target audience. It aims to observe their behaviors, foresee and test the potential relationship they will build with the product, and prevent design processes that could be costly to change later using the insights gathered at this stage. User Experience Research is conducted by UX Researchers. User experience research has many techniques and, as part of the design methodology, has its own dedicated methodology. In research, observations are made and data is collected using various tools. The necessary preparations are made to collect this data in a meaningful way. Before designing the relevant product or service, the research methods to be used are selected and applied by UX researchers. The data generated from this process is first presented by the UX researchers and then shared in meetings that also include interaction designers. The correct selection and proper application of observation techniques culminates in the selection, analysis, and reporting of the necessary data regarding the product or service’s intended goals. These outcomes generally provide concrete outputs on how the product should be designed, but sometimes they can also provide insights for marketing activities, pricing, and even product strategy.

Pre-Research Activities for User Experience Research

User experience design can be approached like an engineering process. In fact, this is one of the most important factors that distinguishes user experience design from graphic design today. Therefore, since it is treated like an engineering project, planning and feasibility studies need to be conducted. These studies may vary depending on the specific needs of each product and service. In the planning activities before user experience research, what matters is ensuring that usability design processes are ready in alignment with the project plan. Generally, the design of these products and services pursues commercial objectives, and therefore, identifying the requirements before the research will contribute to these goals.

Stakeholder Meeting

This is the meeting where all relevant stakeholders of the project to be developed come together, also known in practice as a kick-off meeting. It is very important to bring together all stakeholders who touch the project in one way or another and to gather everyone’s expectations from the project as an outcome. Through this meeting, the goal is to learn everyone’s expectations from the project and gather the necessary information about the scope the product to be designed should cover and the priority order of objectives.

Checklist

The checklist serves to document the rules, guidelines, recommendations, and standards that must be followed as part of goal-oriented design, and to ensure that work is always carried out in adherence to what is written. This checklist is a method used to prevent potential errors and unnecessary workload for the people who will develop the relevant product or service.

Competitor Analysis

In this method, within the scope of the relevant project, the products and services of the project’s existing and target market competitors are examined. Their strengths and weaknesses are analyzed, along with which channels users reach those products through, what motivations drive them, and the channels and services offered by the product owners to their users are all fully analyzed (Levy, 2015). One of the most effective methods in competitor analysis is usability testing on competitor products. It bears similarity to the SWOT analysis used in other areas of the social sciences.

Usability Planning

At this stage of the work, it is necessary to plan usability in advance. At the end of the day, the resulting product will be designed for a purpose, and this purpose usually requires a cost-benefit analysis in commercial environments. The cost-benefit analysis also affects the usability of the product. Determining which research methods will be used, their time and cost plans, and laying out the usability features and expectations to be applied based on the results helps foresee potential requirements that may arise later. Although user experience design is based on subject-specific research and data, the opinions of experienced professionals about the product or service also come to the forefront within certain rules. There is a methodology known in the literature as “Expert Analysis” or “User Experience Expert Review.” According to this methodology, the usability, interaction design, and interface design of the relevant product are reported based on the heuristics of industry experts. One of the approaches used for this reporting is “10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design,” published by Jakob Nielsen in 1995 (Çağıltay, 2011).

Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time.

Match between system and the real world: The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user. Information should appear in a natural and logical order.

User control and freedom: Users often choose system functions by mistake and need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended process. Undo and redo options are provided for this purpose.

Consistency and standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. The application should be internally consistent.

Error prevention: Rather than having users encounter an error message, careful design should prevent the error from occurring in the first place.

Recognition rather than recall (or minimizing memory load): Objects, actions, and options should be visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for using the system should be visible and easily accessible.

Flexibility and efficiency of use: Accelerators—unseen by novice users—should not be overlooked. Experienced and inexperienced users generally exhibit different usage behaviors. To cater to both groups, methods that accelerate interaction for expert users should be employed. Users should be given the ability to customize frequently used functions according to their preferences.

Aesthetic and minimalist design: Dialogues should not contain irrelevant or rarely needed information. Every additional piece of information in a dialogue competes with relevant information and creates clutter. If removing an image or piece of information from the interface makes no difference in terms of usability, it is unnecessary. The principle of “if it’s unnecessary, don’t use it” should be followed.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), should precisely indicate the problem, and should constructively suggest a solution.

Help and documentation: Even though it is preferable for the system to be usable without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Information in the help system should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps for solutions, and should not be too lengthy.

Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics table (adapted from Çağıltay, 2011). Another study on heuristics for defining the current user experience on a relevant product or service is the “Xerox Heuristic Evaluation – Checklist,” published by Xerox in 1995. The topics examined by the Xerox Heuristic Evaluation – Checklist are as follows:

• Visibility of System Status
• Match Between System and Real World
• User Control and Freedom
• Consistency and Standards
• Helping Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Prevent Errors
• Error Prevention
• Recognition Rather Than Recall
• Flexibility and Minimalist Design
• Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
• Help and Documentation
• Skills
• Pleasurable and Respectful Interaction with the User
• Privacy.

Usability Satisfaction Survey

Usability satisfaction surveys are used to measure users’ satisfaction with the usability of the products or services they use. One of the most commonly used survey methods is the “System Usability Scale – SUS,” developed by John Brooke in 1986. It is a widely used survey in practice due to its simplicity and quick applicability. Another frequently used usability satisfaction survey is the “Software Usability Measurement Inventory – SUMI,” published in 1993 by the Human Factors Research Group at the University of Cork (Ireland). This survey is also commonly used in practice.

Methods Used During User Experience Research

At its core, the research methods used to examine user behaviors in relation to the intended purpose of the relevant product or service are quite numerous. The number of these methods can be increased depending on the specific product or service, and their content may also vary for each case. I have compiled the following list from “Usability.gov” and “Usabilitybook” publications as the most commonly applicable methods in practice:

• Ethnography
• Netnography
• Contextual Interviews
• Card Sorting
• First Click Test
• Focus Group
• Interviews
• Shadowing
• Field Study
• Usability Tests
• Cultural Probe – Diary Study – Photo Study
• Future Workshop
• Persona
• Claims Analysis
• Affinity Mapping – Customer Journey Map
• Stakeholder Analysis
• Cognitive Models

Ethnography

An ethnographic study involves observations made by UX researchers who become part of users’ lives over a certain period of time (this period can generally continue until the desired insights regarding the targeted objective are gathered). This method, already used by research firms for various insight studies, is also an important research method in the user experience creation phase. Through this research method, the habits, preferences, perceptions, and desires of existing and potential users—all the behaviors that also form their culture—are identified in their daily lives. These findings provide in-depth information that will be transformed into personas, customer journey maps, and other tools frequently used in user experience design.

Netnography

In today’s internet, which has become a virtual world for people in one way or another, people exhibit behaviors similar to those in their everyday lives. However, what is described as “similar” here is not the behaviors themselves but rather the fact that they exhibit behaviors at all—that is what is considered the similarity. In the virtual world, people sometimes react to events and situations the same way they would in real life, while at other times they may respond differently according to the sociological environment created by the virtual world. Sometimes, the advantages provided by virtual environments allow people’s subconscious to surface, enabling you to observe behaviors that you could never observe through ethnographic research. People communicate through various channels on the internet (blogs, social media, various content creation platforms, etc.) in one-way or two-way communication, and they can take many actions that they do or cannot do in everyday life. The greatest contribution of these physical and virtual actions to user experience is that everything leaves a trace in the digital world. For this reason, netnographic research holds an extremely important place in user experience. Because when these traces are examined within the framework of measurability—the most important feature of the digital world—you can analyze users’ behaviors here and carry out some of the user experience research methods that would require many UX researchers in the physical world, in less time and at lower costs. Therefore, it would not be wrong to consider netnographic studies as the ethnography of the digital world.

Contextual Interviews

These are interviews conducted by UX researchers with users in their usual environments or in the likely environment where the product or service to be designed will be used, using semi-structured questions. In contextual interviews, the researcher never asks questions in a leading or directive manner. The ultimate purpose of all questions is to understand through which paths the relevant product or service will be used by that user, or similarly, through which paths it will be reached. Based on the user’s answers, questions are restructured and asked again in line with the ultimate objective. In these questions, rather than directing, it is observed which options lead to the relevant goal, or perhaps it is discovered that the person is not in the target or potential audience at all, and how they never reach the relevant goal. This way, insights, initial touchpoints, and potential difficulties that may be encountered can be captured from users. Contextual interviews can perhaps be characterized as one of the most important research methods in the user experience research process. User experience is a journey. Within this larger journey, the aim is for targeted users to experience the process in the shortest and best way possible, which will lead us to our goal. While the observations we use to understand users’ journeys give us the journey in broad strokes, semi-structured contextual interviews give us a better chance of understanding their experiences related to our objective. Questions that people can generally answer on a yes-or-no basis will reveal their journey while reaching—or sometimes not reaching—the relevant goal. The researcher preparing the contextual interview questions prepares future questions in advance based on potential answers. Based on the user’s responses, without directing them toward the relevant goal, the researcher tries to find out how close they can get to that goal. This journey of discovery itself actually produces the conclusion that, while observations draw the general framework, contextual interviews may need to be restructured with each result obtained.

Card Sorting

This is a research method used in practice especially for categorization on websites, and it is the research outcome most needed by the interaction designer when building the information architecture. In this research method, researchers give users pre-prepared cards—each representing certain categories and products, sometimes content groups and subject headings, with various possible variations—in a mixed order and ask them to group the cards. The data provided by the users can be analyzed and presented for the most fundamental tools of information architecture reflected in practice (website maps, product categories).

First Click Test

We could almost call this research method the “love at first sight” test. According to some research, the rate of love at first sight is %XXX. First impression matters tremendously to all of us. Naturally, just as a person’s first impression of another person is important, so is their first impression of a product. That is why the packaging of nearly all physical products is so important—because when buying an unfamiliar brand, the conversion rates of packaging are, according to some research, %XXX. Just as with physical products or meeting someone for the first time, the screen(s) users encounter when they first open your website or mobile application and their first clicks are very important. These first clicks also hold an important place in user experience research. Based on where the first clicks land, clues are obtained about how well users understand the product and about the information architecture of the design. First click tests can be applied alongside usability tests when products are in their prototype and final usage stages.

Focus Group Studies

These are meetings where a certain number of users are gathered at a predetermined location with a moderator, around pre-established topics and questions. The aim here is to try to capture at which points users share the same opinions or exhibit the same behaviors, and where the opposite occurs. However, in practice, the extent to which people can accurately describe the actions and behaviors they take in such highly structured processes emerges as a topic worthy of research.

Interviews

The interview method, or in other words user interviews, is conducted with individuals selected from the existing or targeted audience of the product or service. Interviews are conducted by UX researchers with interviewees in digital or physical settings. The aim is to better understand the selected user group through questions asked during the interview, depending on the objective to be reached. Since the data obtained emerges from users sharing certain insights, the analysis of this data should be properly positioned according to the purpose of the product or service.

Shadowing

This is a method carried out by observing users—especially while they are performing the targeted action—without their awareness, and when necessary, recording the entire experience. This way, all user behaviors can be detailed down to the smallest details by reviewing these recordings. It is important that the people conducting this observation are UX researchers and interaction designers, as it is crucial for the people who will design the experience to witness these insights firsthand. For example, it will help you decide at which payment step to show checkout cross-sell opportunities on an e-commerce site. Let’s say your e-commerce site will operate in the large retail sector, selling a wide variety of items such as food, clothing, and household appliances. In that case, you should go to a large retail store and observe people’s behavior at the checkout. You can find answers to many questions: how often the products placed right next to the checkout are purchased; whether these fast-moving consumer goods are picked up before or after all items in the shopping cart are placed on the belt; whether the payment method used has any relationship with the purchase of these products; how often these products are purchased after payment is made; and which ones are picked up and then put back and why. These answers will guide you in making a design decision that may seem like a very simple decision process but will directly affect the conversion rates of your e-commerce site’s checkout cross-sell opportunities.

Field Study

These are studies conducted in the field by UX researchers with users according to the usage scenario of the relevant product or service to be designed. In these studies, while users are specifically asked to perform certain scenarios, researchers take notes on user behaviors and, if necessary, record video to review later and share with interaction designers. The aim here is to measure users’ reactions to the exact desired scenarios and to see how they behave.

Usability Tests

These are tests conducted with users using real-use scenarios on the current state of the relevant product or service, or at the prototype stage if it is being built for the first time. It is one of the most important research methods in the user experience design process. Users’ interactions, emotions, and behaviors with the product are conducted under the supervision of a researcher. The researcher takes notes on user behaviors throughout the entire test, and the interaction is video recorded. Generally, in a laboratory setting, the user is recorded from different camera angles along with the product they are interacting with. While varying depending on the size of the product—or more precisely, the complexity of the goals and the length of scenarios—usability tests generally take between 40-60 minutes. The observations from these tests can yield a wide variety of results, including errors in existing products, issues in the experience, and what emotions they evoke in users. For a newly developed product, usability tests conducted at the prototype stage can similarly reveal existing experience issues and serve as a user-centered guide during the product development phase.

How Accurate Are Usability Tests and Their Impact on Product Development

There are two important debates regarding usability tests. The first is whether the test results are obtained in a healthy environment, and the second is whether results obtained from, say, a test group of 6 people can provide meaningful data about all users of the site. The main factors affecting whether test results can be obtained in a healthy environment include: careless behaviors arising from the fact that people came there for a specific purpose, the guiding behaviors of the researcher conducting the test that could influence the outcome, and unnatural behaviors seen in people who know they are being recorded. To eliminate these factors, it is necessary to ensure that test subjects are never repeatedly selected from the same individuals, so that participants engage in the tests with full concentration and curiosity. Although the laboratory environment is clearly perceived by the subject, whenever possible, they should be provided with a device they are familiar with (if device-specific behavior is not important in the test) and, as much as possible, a classic work or living room setting (if it is a computer-based test and no environment-based variables are being considered). The researcher conducting the test should be prevented from being directive in a way that affects the outcome. Test scenarios should be determined in advance by the research team, and the relevant personas should be expected to naturally reach the relevant goals on their own. The principle is that each person charts their own path. If a specific scenario must absolutely be tested in usability tests, it should still be carried out within a natural flow. The most important tool to use when guiding the person toward the relevant goal is the natural barriers or necessities presented by the test environment. Let us explain this with an example: QUESTION: We want to observe how users behave when their credit card or any payment method balance is insufficient on an e-commerce site. Instead of telling the researcher present at the test “your credit card is insufficient and you received an error on this screen, what do you do,” you start the scenario by saying “today is February 13th and buy whatever you want for your significant other with this 100 TL gift card tomorrow.” When the user makes a payment and sees that the gift card is actually not 100 TL, you can observe the natural flow of the process. When you say “sorry, there was a mistake, the gift card was 50 TL,” you can observe how the user naturally uses the back button, or perhaps closes the page and reopens it, or clicks the cart icon above and first removes the previously selected product from the cart and then clicks on the category menu, among many other scenarios in a natural flow. HYPOTHESIS: If it is a special occasion, users will prioritize among the items in their cart—after checking or without checking their balance—or start looking at products again. If it is not a special occasion, they will end the shopping session. INTERPRETATION: ??

Cultural Probe – Diary Study – Photo Study

At the root of people’s behaviors, there are many variables that can lead to unpredictable behaviors—their socioeconomic life, education, family, and more. For this reason, researchers cannot always predict or foresee user behaviors. Therefore, in user experience research, it can sometimes be beneficial to leave the management of the process to the users. In this method, they are asked to take photographs or video recordings with a device while using a product or service, keep a journal, and write their thoughts without any rules or scenarios throughout the process. When the process is complete, all these records are examined with the aim of understanding the factors that determine the perspectives of existing or potential users toward that product or service.

Future Workshop

This study is generally conducted between the product or service owners and the UX researcher. Workshop participants are asked how they would like to see their product in the future. For example, participants may be asked to write how their product would be featured as a news headline in a newspaper in future years, in order to concretize their future expectations.

Persona

A persona is a complete definition of the existing or targeted user group with all relevant details. Individuals are created with demographic and segmented information such as names, ages, and education levels, as well as their direct and indirect habits related to the topic, behavioral frequencies, and all details that may be relevant to the subject. These definitions are utilized at every stage of the products and services to be offered.

Claims Analysis

Claims Analysis in product or service design is a study in which hypotheses are listed. Especially after certain UX research methods have been conducted, researchers and interaction designers write down the hypotheses they put forward—along with their cause-and-effect relationships and expectations—before moving on to the other questions they will begin seeking answers to. Subsequent research focuses on these hypotheses. In practice, it generally takes place in the middle of the user experience research process.

Affinity Mapping – Customer Journey Map

After user experience research is conducted, all the data obtained is displayed by placing it on a map that shows the entire process from the beginning to the end of the product or service. Starting with where users come from to reach this product, the first experiences they have when they begin using it, what they feel, their expectations, senses, and thoughts are all written down. These are written separately for each stage, ensuring that the experience journey map of the relevant product or service is presented with all its relationships.

Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholders are the group of people who touch the product or service to be created in some way—from the smallest to the largest added value, whoever it concerns. Whether they express positive or negative views about the relevant product or service, or even if they rarely use it in their work, the opinions of all these people on the subject are gathered. The reason for gathering everyone’s views and contributions is both so that the product owners have important information about that product and to ensure that every aspect has been addressed before design begins.

Cognitive Models

Cognitive models aim to model the interaction users will have with the product or service. This way, performance predictions of the product from the user’s perspective can be made based on pre-established techniques. The most commonly used models in this method can be listed as Fitts’s Law, Hick’s Law, Gestalt Principles, and the GOMS model family.

INTERACTION DESIGN PHASE

After user experience research is completed for the products or services to be designed, the prepared report meets the interaction designer to proceed to the interaction design phase. The interaction designer’s task is to begin designing the interaction—starting from information architecture—by looking at the relevant reports, considering the technical details of which devices, which screen types, and other similar usage areas the experience to be designed will be used on, and leveraging their practical experience and general interaction design knowledge. Within the interaction design methodology, some applications are listed below.

Brainstorming

The brainstorming method, which we can summarize as a form of collaborative reasoning where people come together, is also used in the interaction design phase. In practice, brainstorming sessions are generally held between UX researchers and interaction designers, where ideas about encountered problems and solution proposals are put forward, and the first stages of the design concept can be established.

Storyboarding

This application, which can be translated as visual storytelling, is actually a study resembling comic books. In practice, it is generally a method where the interaction designer tells the entire story through a single user using the sketch technique with hand drawings. While it can also be drawn in a digital environment, it is similar to the Customer Journey Map in user experience research and serves to show the final process of the product in a single medium.

Parallel Design

It can be foreseen that while the goal is singular, interpretation can differ, and ultimately the work will come from a designer. For this reason, even though interaction design work is based on the same report, it is designed simultaneously by different designers, and the resulting outcomes are compared. Following the evaluation, work may continue on the selected design, or a new design may be created by evaluating the pros and cons of two different designs. Attention is paid to ensuring that the design teams work completely independently from each other and are free from any mutual interaction.

Prototyping

Before moving to the graphic design phase, the interaction designs can be tested for usability and goal-fitness by having the experience intended with this new design emerge at an early stage. These tests can be conducted within design teams as well as with real users through usability tests. Two tools are used in prototyping: paper prototyping and digital prototyping. In paper prototyping, the screen designs of the product or service are drawn on paper to simulate the experience, while on the digital side, depending on the tools used, if the product is digital, there is the opportunity to prototype and test an experience closer to the final product.

Wireframe

This is generally a tool used in product design in the digital world. It is the process of creating two-dimensional skeletons of interface elements. These skeletons, or “wireframes” as we call them, are drawn to cover all usage steps of the product. It is the tangible output of the step preceding the graphic design phase, where each page or action is individually drawn and shown, without colors and styles. The general template of each page, how to proceed to the next action, how to return to the previous state, and how to navigate to all other actions—as permitted—from that page are all established at this stage. In practice, they are generally drawn using gray elements. These drawings can be done either by hand on paper or digitally using many available tools. Establishing the entire usage flow of the product before moving to the graphic design phase also allows it to be prototyped and subjected to usability tests. Since usability tests conducted at this stage can provide significant cost advantages in the production process, wireframing is an extremely important step in user experience design.

GRAPHIC DESIGN PHASE

Graphic design, in short, is the stylized form of images and photographs. “Graphic” means line in Latin. It derives from the ancient Greek word “graphein,” meaning to write and to draw. Transforming information, news, and messages into graphic images provides the ability to convey the intended message to people through sight. Posters, books, information and warning signs, brochures, and similar items fall within the domain of graphic design. The goal in the graphic design phase is to maximize both communication and aesthetic quality. At this stage, it is important to pay attention to design principles. Line, light-dark gray, toning, color, form, texture, direction, scale, and balance, proportion, visual hierarchy, continuity, unity, and emphasis are important aspects of graphic design. Communication is the vital element of the graphic design process. Ultimately, what makes graphic design interesting, dynamic, and contemporary is that it is oriented toward communication (Becer, 2015). When we look especially at the literature and today’s practical examples, we see that Graphic Design is a more artistic field that appeals to emotions. That is why Graphic Design, coming after Interaction Design in the User Experience design process, is structured to encompass more subjective-seeming elements such as element types, colors, corporate identities, brand positioning, and similar considerations specific to whichever platform the product will be used on. However, graphic design is extremely important in the context of user experience design. In experience design, goal-oriented design is expected to lead to many products and services resembling each other over time. In experience design—where the intersection of people’s usage habits and expectations with the goals of products and services creates the design—while tools and audiences change over time, goals generally do not. In this structure, what will attract people’s attention and create differentiation will be the graphic design phase, which primarily appeals to their emotions. Therefore, giving due importance to the most prominent differentiating point where products touch the end user, without straying from the understanding that this is an art, capturing the relationship between the original design and the person who designed it, is the key point of this most subjective phase of the user experience process.

IMPLEMENTATION AND OPTIMIZATION PHASE

The counterparts of the designs and requirements in the digital world are realized through code. At the end of the User Experience Design process, whether it is a web application or a mobile application, it needs to be coded. The relevant designs are translated into code by programmers and come to life as interfaces that users can use. The coding of these interfaces is considered the final step of the design process. In classic software development stages, this final step is not seen as part of the design. It is seen as part of the engineering process and comes to life as a phenomenon preceding—and sometimes opposing—design. However, especially in what I would characterize as the post-Apple era, we are beginning to see engineering processes being approached as part of a holistic design approach. User Experience design is a lifecycle. Within this lifecycle, users’ behaviors, habits, and product needs can change. It is often not possible for the entire experience to respond to these changes at the same pace. Therefore, it is necessary to approach the relevant systems within a continuous optimization framework. In digital products, this optimization can include the necessity of small changes such as the shape and color of each element, and sometimes it can involve re-engineering the system when needs change. To be prepared for such situations, the designs and their reflection in the interface—the code—must be continuously measured, evaluated, and optimized through relevant tools. When considering the concept of optimization within user experience, rather than focusing on an existing product, it should be approached as a big picture during the product development phase. Just like the Object-Oriented approach in software development, we can also approach design in an object-oriented manner. Object-oriented design is actually a topic within interaction design. The entire design is created in parts, and a process is formed from them. This way, alternatives for each part, their ability to evolve more easily according to new developments, and their measurement become easier. Measurement is the most important design output of user experience. Design that is continuously and thoroughly measurable—down to the finest detail possible—can already be considered within the optimization process. It means a design philosophy that is optimization-ready from the start. Designs made with this philosophy become ready for evolving and changing experiences from the very beginning in the long run.