by Eric Reiss - 23 June 2004

Here's an alternative to Peter Morville's provocative "honeycomb" diagram of user experience.

As opposed to Peter, I see two very different sides to user experience - the communicator (blue) and the receiver (orange). In most instances, the communicator will be the site owner and the receiver will be the site visitor/user.

The "story" that is to be told may actually consist of many different stories - product/service descriptions, an HR handbook, an annual report, etc. These depend on the specific goals of the communicator. Receivers also have a reason for coming - they are seeking stories. If the stories match, both the communicator and receiver will often achieve their individual goals. In traditional usability testing, this would be considered "successful completion of a task."

"Understanding" and "Getting the message" mean that both the communicator and the receiver are able to establish a shared reference. Both sides are "on the same page" to use today's buzz-wordyish vernacular. This also implies that the site/application was usable - including the subsets of "findable" and "accessible." Without either, the message would have been tainted or possibly not received at all.

"Believability" is a particular shade of "credibility." It is an expression of whether the receiver accepts the truth of the stories being told.

"Trustworthiness" is the other side of the credibility coin. Here, it expresses the extent to which the receiver is willing to enter a relationship of some kind. This may be as simple as sharing ones e-mail address to something as daunting as applying for a loan.

"Loyalty" means that the receiver will specifically seek out this communicator for information, products, and services as a suppliment/alternative to a generic web search.

For those of you who are wondering why Peter's "desirable" doesn't appear in my model, it's because I simply don't believe all sites need to be "desirable." If, for example, I check out the website for an extremist political group to find out what they stand for, I don't need to find the site "desirable" or even vaguely attractive in order to achieve my goal.

And just to be provocative, may I mention that some abhorrent organizations allow folks to renew their membership online whereas the Usability Professionals' Association does not.