ARMY AL&T
THE MAIN SQUEEZE OF UX
Don Norman first used the term “user experience” (UX) design in the 1990s to describe the work he and his team were doing at Apple Computer. Norman had previ- ously worked at Bell Communications Research, in a spinoff of Karlin’s original human factors engineering department. He recognized that the field had shifted its focus and techniques since the 1940s, and he coined the new term to reflect that change. UX has surged in popularity and is now commonly used in industry, but it is often conflated with user interface (UI) design, which is actually a subset of UX.
Everyone can relate to this example—putting ketchup from a new, glass bottle on your fries used to be a somewhat nerve-wracking ordeal. How quickly would it come out of the bottle? How many times should you whack the side? Or is it the bottom? Should the bottle be at an angle? Straight up and down? No one would argue that the old glass bottles weren’t attractive, but the new squeeze bottles created a drastic improvement to the user experience.
The user interface design centers on how a product will look and function, but the user experience design goes much further to encompass the problem that the prod- uct should solve for the user, how the product will be acquired and how it will be integrated into the user’s life. (Graphic by USAASC)
UI vs. UX
the Army Geospatial Center. He and his team have participated in large-scale user events like the Joint Warfighting Assessment 2019 at Yakima Training Center, Washington, to do formal user testing and observation on the ENFIRE tool suite, which is designed to streamline the gathering and processing of map information. “We did an appliqué [add-on] integration into the Stryker vehicle,” he said. Te tool suite was connected to sensors on the Stryker to ingest and aggregate information about the terrain, essentially doing the job of a team of scouts. “It was sort of ‘smoke testing’ to get an idea of how interacting with the tools did or did not save time or optimize task completion for Soldiers,” he said.
“It’s a huge benefit to make sure you have that feedback built into the loop,” said Maj. Reginald Bennett, with the U.S. Army
Cyber Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon, Georgia. Bennett attended a recent test event at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Mary- land, where he observed Soldiers testing the Dismounted Assured PNT System (DAPS) device. “DAPS is a GPS-type device that works with the Nett Warrior ensemble. It’s everything a Soldier would need to have assured PNT in a PNT-contested environ- ment.” Bennett said that being able to observe Soldiers directly using the device was key to understanding any challenges or successes they had with the product. “We got a lot of really, really useful feedback. Getting that information early, before the Army starts making massive purchases, is a big deal.” Maj. David Picard, assistant program manager for DAPS at the Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, agreed with Bennett. “I think that’s tremendously useful and
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