User Experience (UX) Defined

Although there are several definitions for user experience (UX), one of the most comprehensive I’ve seen is:

“UX is about technology that fulfills more than just instrumental needs in a way that acknowledges its use as a subjective, situated, complex and dynamic encounter. UX is a consequence of a user’s internal state (predispositions, expectations, needs, motivation, mood, etc.), the characteristics of the designed system (e.g. complexity, purpose, usability, functionality, etc.) and the context (or the environment) within which the interaction occurs (e.g. organizational / social setting, meaningfulness of the activity, voluntariness of use, etc.).” (Hassenzahl & Tractinsky, 2006, p. 95).

A couple other examples can be found here and here.

References

Hassenzahl, M., & Tractinsky, N. (2006).  User experience – a research agenda.  Behaviour & Information Technology, 25, 91-97.