User experience with portable IT artefacts
Authors: Ζαμάνη Ευπραξία 
Published: August 2021

Traditionally, IT artefacts have been examined as instruments for the successful and accuratecompletion of work-related tasks. As such, extant literature has focused primarily on utilitarianrelatedfactors. Yet, over the recent years, technology has moved beyond the work environment andpenetrated that of the user’s personal everyday life. At the same time, technological advances havemade possible the launch of numerous IT artefacts, vying for the consumer’s attention. As a result,designers are required to offer distinct experiences and fascinate users, in order to be successfulagainst the competition. Specifically, it has been argued that, users may adopt and remain engagedwith an IT artefact simply because they find the interaction and the artefact itself irresistible(Overbeeke, Djajadiningrat, Hummels, Wensveen, & Frens, 2005a).Therefore, the shift in the use context, together with the need to create attractive IT artefacts explains,to a certain extent, the ever-growing interest on the study of user experience. Indeed, extant literatureon this field is certainly rich. However, the majority of studies adopt the quantitative approach, andemphasise the measurement of impact of cognitive and affective factors on user satisfaction.Moreover, in several occasions, user experience is investigated through the lens of usability, as it isoften considered the latter’s offspring, which makes the differentiation between the two quite difficult(Law, 2011). Most importantly however, such approaches lead inevitably to results that remain silenton people-product relationships and “the wider role that products play in users’ lives” (Jordan, 2000).Not unexpectedly, there are numerous, qualitative-based studies, as well. Yet, they tend to focus onspecific aspects of the experience, as for example, enchantment and engagement, and typically theytypically deal with positive and pleasurable experiences.In light of this, the present thesis adopts an interpretive approach towards investigating users’experience with the tablet, a portable touch-focused IT artefact, which has been relatively recentlypopularised with the advent of the iPad and similar devices. The main objective is to understand indetail how users use the tablet and the role the tablet plays in their lives, in order to understandadditional issues governing the relationship between users and portable IT artefacts, a centralchallenge for the user experience literature and practice.The thesis is structured around an interpretive embedded single case study, investigating useraccounts as documented through unsolicited blogposts. Specifically, it follows three distinct, yetinterconnected paths. First, the analysis traces user sensemaking with the IT artefact, with theobjective to understand the process through which users formulate and interpret their own, privateexperiences, without separating the investigated phenomenon from the context within which itunfolds. Second, it focuses on the fact that even the most advanced information systems may fail tomeet user expectations; therefore, it investigates user sensemaking specifically under uncertain,unfamiliar and even problematic episodes that may take place during one’s interaction with the tablet;therefore, it investigates user sensemaking, seeking to examine how such episodes may affect theoverall user experience. Third, it describes and delineates the impact of the various components ofexperience on each other and on the user’s emotions, placing particular emphasis on the dynamicnature of the experience, investigating in detail its spatiotemporality, and the semantic charge of theinteraction, as perceived through the aesthetics of the IT artefact and the various stimulicommunicated through the human factors and the cognitive ergonomics.The study’s results show that making sense of experience with technology, and specifically with thetablet, is a highly dynamic process, and begins from the early stages of users’ considering to acquire itor anticipating their interaction. With regards to uncertain conditions, there is ample evidence thatworkarounds are in no way related to resistance-related intentions, and that in several occasions, whenthe IT artefact seems to fail initially set goals, users may choose to adapt themselves to the tabletrather than replace it with a different computing device, simply because the overarching resultingexperience is pleasurable; they thus proceed to minimise the importance of the witnessed discrepancy.In addition, findings illustrate that the tablet can acquire several roles within everyday life, none ofwhich is mutually exclusive. In other words, the tablet transcends the boundaries between the workand the home environment, and is used interchangeably in a myriad of ways. While examining user narratives, results have shown that, all the components are important for the formulation of the userexperience. Yet, the semantic charge, i.e., the experience of meaning is particularly significant, sinceseveral users develop strong associations and even personify the device; both behaviours leading to aunique experience.The central contribution of the study is that it has approached experience with technology holistically,without focusing on snapshots of the phenomenon, by examining it through the user’s viewpoint,within the sociocultural context it unfolds. In contrast to the majority of research on experience withtechnology, it has focused on the process of making sense of experience from the early stages ofinteracting with the IT artefact, up to the point of technology failing users’ expectations. Therefore, ithas offered insightful results in relation to user practices at the individual level without adopting astrict task- or hedonic-specific perspective. This is in contrast to most studies, which adopt anorganisational or task-specific perspective, awarding the individual or the technology with a fixedrole.