Understanding User Experience Through Sensemaking Processes

Abstract

This research explores users’ experiences, a significant component of service design, which in recent years has gained value within the business and public sectors. Today, we cannot even imagine some products without their service component, and, because of that, brands are increasingly concerned with understanding user experience. Using public transportation in Indianapolis as the context to examine the sensemaking process, this research intends to develop a procedure to understand user experiences in service design, which can be applied to other problem spaces. This research has been organized into four parts; the first one, Initial Explorations, discusses the motivations that have led me to choose this specific topic, its importance, the role of user experience as the cornerstone of service design, and concludes with a justification of the use of public transportation as the study context. The second part illustrates the research conducted in public transportation as the context to use different methods and tools for understanding user/commuter experience; in first place, collecting data that will be analyzed and later synthesized using a sensemaking process. The third chapter identifies key points of the procedure looking for ways to improve the application of methods and tools to develop a procedure that could be applied in other contexts. Finally, chapter four concludes with some thoughts and recommendations about the role and importance of the sensemaking process in service design.