UX/EX

Divya Murthy Kumar
Nov 2 · 4 min read

“User experience is the totality of the effects felt by the user before, during, and after interaction with a product or system in an ecology” (Hartson-Pyla, The UX Book,2019)

Growing up in Bombay, one of most crowded and busiest cities in the world, space was money. That’s what we all craved for, space. The city never slept, always moving, always teaming with people. The city was what I liked to think as organized chaos but surprisingly enough, I never felt suffocated. The city thrived and I thrived in it, along with it. The city has bad infrastructure, shoddy public transport, disorienting crowds and the killer monsoons, but I had some of the best experiences in that city. The nostalgia of childhood and growing into a young adult all still vividly engraved. It just got me thinking, what was it, what made me love that frenzied city so much and I zeroed back to the only thing that city lacked the most in, space. Weirdly enough it lacked space because it had space for everyone. Millions of people poured into Bombay seeking work and the city absorbed them all and made space for others to come. The spaces and buildings created in the colonial British era, the organic development of open greens and Cricket grounds, the spread of slum grounds, low cost mass housing and the chawls. Space was a premium and so Bombay literally reached for the sky, skyscrapers and high-rise buildings were the answer. I studied architecture in Bombay and as a young spatial designer in the city I felt that many of these urban needs could be redefined and redesigned for optimum efficiency. But many times, I was countered with way reinvent the wheel, if it not broken why try fix it. But I couldn’t wrap my brain around — why was is not broken, why does this city function. It’s like the honeybees, why can they fly, they say scientifically they shouldn’t be able to fly, but they sure do fly. So why was my beloved city functioning.

I came across this interesting section in a book called “The UX Book”, they were talking about the iPad, and how everyone thought that it would not work. The iPad was a redundant device just a bigger iPod touch. Technology gurus and critics couldn’t understand why someone would need the device — iPad was superfluous. It filled no obvious need. (pogue,2011). That the iPad might be a failure for apple. But it worked, the users found different ways to use it and personalize it. The iPad was able to connect to its users in an emotional level, giving the user the ability to manipulate and derive various responses. Today apple’s iPad is one of the most successful personal electronic devices, but for the iPad user like me, it’s more than a device it’s a lifestyle choice, it’s a device which moves and functions to the user’s pace and demands. The device is constantly being redefined and renewed. New features are added by learning what the users need. This symbiotic growth between the iPad and its users creates an environment where they end up having an emotional attachment — A personal relationship that develops and endures over time between human users and a product that has become a part of the user’s lifestyle. (Hartson-Pyla, The UX Book,2019).

This growth of Bombay was not predictable, it was not a pre-designed growth but more of a designing-for-need kind of growth. It was the users demands, the dwellers within the city that built this disorganized organic growth. The users of the city made way for other users to contribute to the city. Each user enhanced the experience for the other user, accommodating, molding, remolding and this constant reshaping makes this city not just an epicenter of commerce and trade but a personified organism — a system in an ecology. Living, breathing almost insatiable system which helps thrive around 18 million people. Bombay is the city of dreams, from the glitter of Bollywood, to the world’s largest slum, to the country’s biggest financial district, Bombay is a status symbol, being a Bombayite is a lifestyle choice and living in the city, breathing the salty sea is an emotional experience.

Obviously, a city is very complex and does not work like an electronic device, maybe we can’t even draw parallel between the two. But it’s the emotional quotient and how users are connected to an organic or digital ecology. I guess the concept of user experience is seamless growth, every system would eventually need reworks but if this revision and reshaping of the system happens with keeping the demands and needs of the user maybe we are one step closer to not just designing a good user experience but an creating an emotional connection.

- Divya Murthy-Kumar

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