Definition

“User experience is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user has when using a product or system.It most commonly refers to a combination of software and business topics, such as selling over the web, but it applies to any result of interaction design.” (wiki)

Based on a single or series of interactions and first-hand impressions with a product, or system, users create a rich experience that can be satisfactory, engaging, enjoyable, etc. When we begin to speak about the design of this experience, we are referring to the planning and construction of the various parts that will affect the experience.

Due to the wide spectrum of elements that need to be considered when designing a user experience, the field encompasses many disciplines ranging from marketing and business to aspects of graphic design to ethnography, linguistics and psychology to computer science and much more.

Process

1. Designers must first discover who these users are which results in the definition of user personas.
2. Formulate the system design: what features will this system have? Content Requirements
3. How should the features of the system work? Navigation, Structural Interface design
4. How should they be organized? Interaction design, Functional specifications.
5. Overall production of a skeleton which includes functional specifications documents, content matrices, wireframes, sitemaps and task flows.

Observations

• It’s clear that we can’t remove an experience from its context. Context is the unique history of the individual having the experience; it is context that gives experience meaning
• Designers design occasions for experiences; experiences themselves are personal. Different people have different experiences in (what are supposed to be) the same situations.
• The user brings a unique set of perceptions – perceptions rooted in unique personal histories – to everything they experience.
• How can designers create opportunities for meaningful experiences for people they don’t know? By paying close attentions to patterns. What we call experiences typically happen in clusters.
• A designer wishing to create an experience knows the relevant triggers, signals and indicators
  

Sources

http://www.uxmag.com/features/101/experiencing-and-designing-experience?pg=2

http://www.paradymesolutions.com/articles/what-is-user-experience-design/