Factoring User Experience into the Design of Ambient and Mobile Systems

The engineering of ubiquitous computing systems provides important challenges. Not least among these is the need to understand how to implement designs that create a required experience for users. The paper explores a particular class of such systems for built environments. In particular it is concerned with the capture of experience requirements and production of prototypes that create experience. The aim is to develop methods and tools for such environments to enable the creation of particular sorts of experience in users. An approach that combines the use of scenarios, personae and snapshots with the use of prototypes and models is described. The technique aims to elicit an understanding of the required experience of the system and then create a design that satisfies the requirements.