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Top2. User Experience In Financial Product-Services
Mainly, user experience refers what the user does and feels when he/she interacts with a product in particular conditions. There is a great number of interaction evoke a positive or negative experience between people, products and environment. (Figure 1). Cultural and social factors also influence interaction in the particular context of use. From the perspective of the user; values, emotions, expectations and prior experiences influence the user product interactions. On the other hand, products have influential factors, such as mobility and reputation (Dewey, 2005; Forlizzi & Ford, 2000; Tunen, Laukka, Luomala, 2000).
Figure 1. User experience forms in interaction with user and product
With the driving force of new technologies, products and services become more complex and they are not always designed for fitting user’s needs (Visser, 2009). Especially in finance sector, the services provided to users (e.g. online banking) have different products that customers use (e.g. mobile applications, websites) where customers complete the tasks they want. These services also have multiple channels (e.g. call centers) where customers need to consult and get guidance during the service experience.
On the other hand, the context, which refers to ‘the environment of human-product interaction’, has a direct influence on user experience (Polaine, Lavrans & Reason, 2013). Customers need financial services in many different contexts: such as at different places, times, with the aim of assessing different financial activities and in different financial conditions. For example, the behavior for using online money transaction services might change based on how often user does this activity or how many times he/she needs to asses it during a week. The behavior while using financial product-services might be also related to how the user engaged with technology and his/her demographics. In this sense, it is important to design the financial product-services in a more holistic approach, considering the usability issues together with understanding user needs in different contexts of use.
Top3. User Experience Research Methods
There are many different research methodologies used for gathering insights from users. These methodologies involves different techniques from design, usability, ethnography fields, and especially helps understanding the reasons behind what users do and feel while they use a product (Stappers & Visser, 2011).