Designing Mobile Applications with Empathizing User Experience

Abstract

User Experience is recognized as an important aspect for designing mobile applications. Each application satisfies different user needs and hence demands for a different evaluation criteria. The aim of this study was to devise a user centered design framework to objectively evaluate and enhance user experience of mobile applications. Using the Empathizing-Systemizing theory, we conducted a user study to understand the cognitive needs of users in user-technology interactions of mobile applications. We found out that even though user preferences are varied and contextual, the user experience is optimum when applications are designed for inclusivity of both the "Empathizing (E)" and "Systemizing (S)" aspects. We have assessed the same for a few popular reminder applications on mobile as a use case to explain and validate our proposed framework. This study also provides insights into the process of evolving such a framework.