Experience Design: Definition

Overview of The Field:

Experience Design
User Experience Design
Interaction Design
Cognative Psychology

Experience Design has been summed up as being "The practice of designing products, services, processes, events and environments...each of which is a human experience...based on the consideration of an individual's or group's needs, desires, beliefs, knowledge, skills, experiences, and perceptions..." (cultural ethnography). This umbrella field encompasses related fields including User Experience Design and Interaction Design. Experience Design is widely cross-disciplined too, drawing from areas such as:

cognitive psychology
perceptual psychology
linguistics
cognitive science
architecture and industrial design
environmental design
haptics
product design
information design
information architecture
game design
game theory
ethnography
brand management
interaction design
accessibility
service design
human computer interaction and human centered computing
storytelling / narrative design
heuristics
design thinking
popular culture

Simply put, Experience Design is the design of the experienced environment, both physical and virtual.

Experience Design Interpreted Through the Lens of Semiotics:

In the associated field of User Experience Design usability and accessibility factors are key. The extent to which these factors are considered in a design depends a lot on the intentions of the designer, the audience and the intended message embedded in the design. User Experience Design entails "(t)he creation of the architecture and interaction models which impact a user's perception of a device or system. This includes all aspects of a user's interaction with a system or product and how it is:

perceived
learned
used

It has its roots in human factors and ergonomics which now includes:

HCI (Human Computer Interaction)
IA (Interface Architecture)
Interaction Design
User Interface design
Usability and Usability Engineering
Visual Design
Sound Design (Sensory Design)
Information Design

and incorporates aspects of:

Psychology
Anthropology
Computer Science
Graphic Design
Industrial Design
Communication Design
Instructional Design

As with Experience Design it can involve collaboration with a subject matter expert for content creation. Practitioners in this field will traditionally spend most of their time designing flows and navigation maps, user stories and scenarios, persona, wire-frames, prototypes, specifications and graphic mock-ups...methods and techniques to which no Experience Designer is a stranger.

Much of the time Experience Designers will wear the shoes of the Interaction Designer and will focus on "defining the behavior of products and systems that a user can interact with" such as:

software
mobile devices
electronic devices
virtual environments