Rapid advances in technology result in an ever-increasing diversity of new digital devices, from smartphones and tablets to body sensors and wireless home/car media systems. While some devices are continuously upgraded with more resources and services, others, such as body sensors, introduce new areas of use. What are the triggers for this huge commercial success? Is one of them user experience? If so, how can we define it? In general, how do people experience technology?

Ali al-Azzawi studied these questions during his PhD studies at the Digital World Research Centre and the psychology department, University of Surrey. The book’s introduction gives the reader a quick overview of the book’s content, including an analysis of existing theories regarding user experience; empirical studies that focus on dynamics and time; and the proposed interaction, construction, and evaluation (ICE) model of user experience.

The book’s main results address three important topics. The first is the conceptualization of the technology, or the way people interpret it. The author then investigates the dynamics of user experience, followed by his proposal of an original model for user experience.

The MP3 player was the specific technology used in this study, although the results cover other technology areas as well. The analysis of published works on user experience starts with an observation of the shift in the general public approach to technical products, from utility and efficiency to pleasurable experience and emotional design. The ultimate beneficiaries of these studies are the manufacturers. At the beginning of chapter 2, the different definitions of experience are presented. Its relationship with time and context is emphasized. Theories are abundant with either a philosophic substrate or a psychology framework where constructs and emotions play a central role. The chapter ends by summarizing the author’s processes of user experience, ICE: interaction is defined by action and perception; construction is about people creating their conceptualization of the environment and making meaning; and evaluation is about responses and consequences.

Chapter 3 presents empirical studies that evaluate user experience in general and then ICE. The scope is large, including Internet-based TV, wine websites, and other topics, giving the impression that the author lacks focus. Obviously, there are differences in user experience for such diverse aspects of technology, where the ultimate service is much more important than the technology itself.

Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the dynamics of experience, defined by the changes in user experience regarding one technological product in time. Measuring the dynamics of experience is carried out by rating attributes such as aesthetics, satisfaction, and usability at different moments in time. The author uses data to define five dimensions of user experience (which he calls super-constructs): novelty, usability, complexity, aesthetics, and physicality. For long-term dynamics, the chosen framework was that of product consumption. The net result is the addition of more super-constructs: convenience, value, relationship, self, and brand.

The sixth chapter provides a stronger reiteration of the author’s ICE model. Chapter 7, the final chapter, presents concluding details. In summary, this book addresses a topic of high interest in an age of tremendous technological development: user experience. The approach is governed by psychology and philosophy rather than by the technology. How and if technical improvements/upgrades can increase positive user experience is an unanswered question. Consequently, this book may be more useful to design/marketing people than to engineers.