Fundamentals and issues of user experience in the process of designing consumer products

User experience (UX) application in the practice of engineering and product design is still limited. The present paper provides insights into research on UX design and recommendations for design practitioners by pointing out common criticalities. These outcomes are achieved through a literature review on how UX relates to design. First, issues in benefitting from UX understanding in design are identified with a specific focus on theoretical contributions. Second, experimental papers investigating UX and design are analysed in relation to previously identified issues. Although issues are present to some extent in all the contributions, the empirical studies dealing with UX in design are overall valid. The results highlight UX's support in revealing design requirements, but its capability of steering design processes is arguable, as concrete guidelines for practitioners are not well described. Based on identified issues, the authors propose a checklist to make UX studies in design more reliable and their outcomes more comparable.

Automated summary

This paper provides insights into research on UX design and offers recommendations for design practitioners by identifying common issues. The study shows that while UX plays a significant role in revealing design requirements, its ability to guide design processes is debatable due to the lack of concrete guidelines for practitioners. To address these issues, the authors propose a checklist to enhance the reliability and comparability of UX studies in design.