Mapping experience research across disciplines: who, where, when

Abstract

Human experiences have been studied in multiple disciplines, Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) being one of the largest research fields with its user experience (UX) research. Currently, there is little interaction between experience researchers from different disciplines, although cross-disciplinary knowledge sharing has the potential to accelerate the development of UX and other experience research fields to the next level. This article reports a research profiling study of almost 52,000 experience publications over 125 years, showing the breadth of experience research across disciplines. The data analysis reveals the disciplines that study experiences, the prominent authors, institutions and countries in experience research, the most cited works by experience researchers across disciplines, and how UX research is situated on the map of experience research. This descriptive research profiling study is a necessary first step on the journey of mapping the landscape of experience research, guiding researchers towards understanding experience as a multidisciplinary concept, and establishing a more coherent experience research field.