After hearing that a bunch of my cool classmates have sent in position papers for CHI workshops, I decided that I too want to try to get a paper in to a workshop. Plus, I figured I could take advantage of Jeff’s class to help me pre-write this paper. After looking through the list of possible workshops at CHI I decided that the workshop about user experience evaluation methods best suited my interests.

One question in the workshop that I found particularly interesting is:

What are the requirements to UX evaluation methods in product development, taking into account not only the pragmatic but especially the hedonic aspects?

I found this question very interesting, especially the part about hedonism. The majority of methods in HCI are focused on people’s tasks and user goals. In HCI have some great methods for evaluating usability, but how do we evaluate pleasure?

I find this question very difficult. My initial thought is that it is less about evaluation and more about understanding humans holistically before creating the design. This holistic understanding then leads to concepts, which can be qualitatively evaluated using experience prototyping.

That’s about all I have for now, and I think 4 sentences is a bit short for a position paper. Do any of you have ideas? What I have just stated is obviously a very phenomenological approach; does anyone see how structuralism can be used to evaluate experience? Does anyone want to write this short paper with me?