User-Experience from an Inference Perspective

van Schaik, P., Hassenzahl, M., & Ling, J. (2012). User-Experience from an Inference Perspective. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 19(2), 1–25. doi:10.1145/2240156.2240159

In many situations, people make judgments on the basis of incomplete information, inferring unavailable attributes from available ones. These inference processes may also well operate when judgments about a product’s user-experience are made. To examine this, an inference model of user-experience, based on Hassenzahl and Monk’s [2010], was explored in three studies using Web sites. All studies supported the model’s predictions and its stability, with hands-on experience, different products, and different usage modes (action mode versus goal mode). Within a unified framework of judgment as inference [Kruglanski et al. 2007], our approach allows for the integration of the effects of a wide range of information sources on judgments of user-experience.