research on user experience

To really interpret and define what is user experience, I have found several sources that explain user experience.

Satisfying
When a user is done with the system for a particular session, he or she must feel satisfied that they have reached the goal they had when entering the system, be it search of information, or interaction with other users.

Enjoyable
Reaching satisfaction means nothing if the user doesn’t enjoy the ride to get there. This will be one of our primary aims.

Fun
Using humor to spice up the experience a bit will ensure for a fun visit.
Entertaining

Effective and appropriate sound effects and visuals (for sighted people) will be one of the many ways we will make the system entertaining.

Helpful
With the help of voice communication, help will always be closely at hand.

Motivating
With every new system, there will be a learning curve. We strive to keep this curve as easy as possible, and, for the more difficult tasks, we will implement features to keep the user motivated, such as appropriate praise messages where needed, or humor to lighten up the experience a bit.

Aesthetically Pleasing
Although not particularly important for blind people, this will be very important for other disabled people. We will not focus too much on this feature during the first phase, but will design the system with this aspect in mind to ensure that we don’t have to rewrite the system when we want to provide for other (sighted) disabled people.

Supportive of Creativity
Many disabled people have very creative brains. Mainly because their disability (such as blindness) makes their mind work harder to perceive certain situations or activities. We will make sure that the user’s creativity can be developed within the bounds of the system.

Rewarding
This links closely to satisfaction and the need to enjoy the system’s usage. If the user is satisfied that his or her visit to the system was satisfying and enjoyable, the reward will be in the way they feel after using it.

Emotionally Fulfilling
Once again, strongly related to the other aspects. If too few of these aspects are met, the visit will not be emotionally fulfilling. It is therefore important that user frustration be kept at the absolute lowest level and that most usability and user experience goals are met.

source: http://www.eagleeyes.co.za/?q=userexperience

Besides, there are also some other explanations of user experience:

“The overall experience, in general or specifics, a user, customer, or audience member has with a product, service, or event. In the Usability field, this experience is usually defined in terms of ease-of-use. However, the experience encompasses more than merely function and flow, but the understanding compiled through all of the senses.” – www.nathan.com/ed/glossary/ 

They also mentioned that there are few things that can affect an user experience which are the look and feel of the product/website, the workflow or information architecture, the interactivity and how did the user feel about his/her experience after using it.

source: http://kevinjmireles.wordpress.com/2006/05/04/user-experience-101/