Nehal, I think this is a much more productive way to think about what we mean by the term 'experience'. You've articulated a few variables that can affect a person's experience: expectation borne of experience - which is essentially a conflation of your use of familiarity, memory, and the references to either getting, or not getting what you expected. You also talk about the notion that experiences are built up over time.
The working definition of an experience I prefer is the one that goes something like "An experience is the aggregate of all interactions with a product/service/thing/entity". I think that this definition encapsulates most of the elements you've mentioned. I don't agree with your statement: "an experience is what you get when you didn't achieve what you wanted". I have to ask: what is it called when we *do* achieve what we wanted? If the interaction is consistent with your expectation isn't that also an experience? But basically, I disagree with the notion that it's reasonable to attempt to model experience using mathematics. Especially using undefined terms such as 'soul' and rather unwieldy concepts - mathematically speaking - such as memory or emotion. Lastly, it's probably worth pointing out that experience is a qualitative concept. Whilst you may be able to measure the intensity of an experience - in subjective terms; or the effect of that experience on some other attribute - such as brand perception; the experience itself is not subject to such analysis; it can only be described in terms of other things. You might like to take a read of Eric Reiss' attempt at defining (user) experience http://www.fatdux.com/blog/2009/01/10/a-definition-of-user-experience/. Regards Steve 2009/2/7 Nehal Almerbati <n.almurb...@gmail.com> > Steve > Going with simple variables don%u2019t show the relationships they > have if intersected, as it is the situation with every experience ... > meaning: an experience is what you get when you didn%u2019t achieve > what you wanted... but the %u2019you%u2019 here is related to how you > have familiarise yourself with the new design, that might have hints > of earlier design experiences which your memory recall and subtract > from the new experience influence... > If your mind or body had imagined or visualized this experience and > didn%u2019t get it the way it was supposed to be, then you%u2019re > getting something new out of it. Taking into consideration the > numbers of times this experience or similar ones happened to the > user, or divide it to the number and period of its accuration which > will defiantly effect the UX. And with the use of technology the time > element is an ever changing variable that really effect the new > experience. Right ? > -- Steve 'Doc' Baty | Principal | Meld Consulting | P: +61 417 061 292 | E: steveb...@meld.com.au | Twitter: docbaty | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevebaty Blog: http://docholdsfourth.blogspot.com Contributor: UXMatters - www.uxmatters.com UX Australia: 26-28 August, http://uxaustralia.com.au UX Book Club: http://uxbookclub.org/ - Read, discuss, connect. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
