Designers' influence on attitude change towards user experience (UX) in a software development environment

Abstract

User Experience (UX), a practice within Human Computer Interaction (HCI), aims to create products that best benefit the end-user by invoking favourable emotions upon interaction as to maintain their satisfaction with the product. In a software development environment, there are four typical stakeholders to consider: UX designers, developers, project management and clients. However, research shows that UX is often not included in software development projects in South Africa. As a consequence, this research is concerned with identifying the challenges and successes of a pro-UX software development company and how the UX Designers of the company had changed their stakeholders’ perceptions towards UX. In order to understand these attitude, Personal Construct Theory was used and the Six Principles of Persuasion were used to understand how these attitudes had changed. The generated results provided the basis for a persuasive UX model that was then evaluated by UX-experts in other companies. The results of the expert evaluations provide evidence that the model could help UX designers to change their stakeholders’ attitudes towards UX. The study concluded with significant practical implications for UX designers and software development organisations.