A Performance Perspective on UX

Implications for methodology

When the focus of analysis is on subjective user experiences, there are significant implications to the way in which such research should be carried out. An important aspect of this kind of performative user experience research that must not be taken for granted is that this research is completed in the context of a social encounter that comes with predefined roles, expectations, and norms and standards. The social encounters that have been created for the purpose of user studies, whether that is an interview, an observation session, or even the use of quantitative sensing to record behaviours remotely, must take into account the issues associated with the social encounter.

Another important issue is that the experience or phenomenon that is the focus of study often is not practical or accessible to be studied directly in the context in which it appears. For example, during a longitudinal deployment of a multimodal mobile system it is not practical or ethical to constantly shadow a participant in order to observe interaction as it naturally and sporadically occurs throughout the day. Additionally, it is often the case that the experience itself is not easily observable or that the observations themselves are not enough to understand the experience thoroughly. For example, observations alone may not be sufficient to understand why a user chose not to use a gesture-based interaction while commuting. In many cases, the study of user experience must be completed outside the actual context where that experience occurs through interviews and discussions after the fact. Only through the triangulation of a variety of data can the researcher gain a more complete understanding of observed behaviours.

This performative approach to user experience is essentially mixed, drawing from both quantitative and qualitative techniques. For the following popular techniques for user experience research, this paper discusses the particular implications for completing these techniques from a performative perspective.

Surveys

Surveys are powerful tool for gathering initial reactions to and perceptions of performative interaction techniques at a relatively low cost and can be completed early in the design process. The content of the questions used in such surveys should be based on the key factors described above in order to address issues such as location, audience, and appearance. Successful examples of surveys used to evaluate performative user experience, in particular social acceptance.

Focus groups

The focus groups used to evaluate user experience from this perspective must create an experience and use this experience to generate both quantitative and qualitative data. This typically involves the use of experience prototypes and the collection of a variety of data such as multiple choice responses, card sorting activities, and open-ended discussions. By creating experiences that give performers the opportunity to experience and imagine the places where they might use a given interaction and the audiences they might perform that interaction in front of, focus groups can address several of the key concepts described above. 

Interviews

One of the great advantages of interviews is that they can easily be completed at most stages of development, and can address both past experiences and imagined future experiences. Interview questions that probe any one of the key concepts described above will address the important aspects of performance from which a researcher can develop of rigorous analysis.

'in the wild' user studies

This approach encourages the evaluation of user experience in the wild given its heavy reliance on subjects' real world subjective experiences. Completing user studies is a good way to look at experience over longer time scales, but can also be completed in the early stages of design using prototypes to investigate simpler experiences. The user studies come in a variety of forms, from using basic experience prototypes, to completing controlled 'on-the-street' studies, to relatively uncontrolled longitudinal prototype deployments. In all of these, however, the goal is to create an experience for users and gather as much data as possible through remote sensing technology, interviews, questionnaires, and observations. User experience can then be studied through the variety of qualitative and quantitative data collected throughout the experiment.