Factory workers' ordinary user experiences

Abstract

Experiences with technology often are described as exciting and outstanding, for instance, in relation to novel technologies at home or at work. In this article, we aim to complement this perspective by emphasizing people’s mundane and ordinary experiences with technology, that is, unremarkable experiences happening in the background of people’s attention. Based on our investigations of user experience in a semiconductor factory, we show how such ordinary experiences are substantial in workers’ everyday interactions with technology, which are mainly shaped by repetitive activities and routines. However, current conceptions of user experience seem to overlook those mundane experiences and how they can contribute to positive experiences with technology, as well as work engagement in the factory. In this article, we describe how ordinary experiences can be understood and described to amend current user experience conceptions by discussing theoretical, methodological, and design consequences.

Keywords

• user experience theory
• nuances of ordinariness
• experience with technology
• computer-supported practices
• factory
• automated systems