When did people start using the phrase “user experience†when they really mean “design?†As in “I’d like you to show me the mockups of the new user experience†or “that website recently came out with a new user experience.”
I mean, seriously.
In a sense, though, I suppose that in changing the design, the experience of the user is, of course, different. But the user’s experience is a property that emerges from the user’s interaction of a bunch of things that includes the actual design of the artifact. Unless someone has gone to the trouble of not just redesigning the website, but also the user’s browser, computer, environment, senses, and brain, to name a few things, then you can’t really go see the new user experience.
And really, how can you ever “see†a user experience just by looking at a picture or by clicking around on a newly designed website.
The best I can figure is that it’s yet another case of buzzwords gone horribly wrong. There is an increasing sense that “user experience†is important—that it’s important to design for good user experiences, to have user experience professionals kicking around the office. Somehow, maybe, that got reduced to “user experience = design.”
But it’s as annoying as saying “user testing.”