What is user experience design?

Here's a brief intro to user experience design. Basically, user experience design (UX) refers to the overall satisfaction and experience during the process of interacting with a product.

Alot of us may have bad experiences with products due to bad designs and functionality bugs. Insufficient clues on how to use a product would definitely cause inconvenience to us. It also creates a bad mental image about the brand. As a result, we tend to lose confidence in that brand. Thus, the chances for us to return to that brand of goods would be low.

<---- would you use soap that look like this? http://www.nopeitssoap.com/

Remember, bad news usually spreads faster than good ones. People would tell 10 person about a bad product and only tell 1 person about a good product. Thats what i was told in my marketing lecture a few semesters ago and its very much true. Generally, good design sells, while bad design will continue to stay on the shelves. Therefore, sufficient usability tests should be done on a product before releasing it to the market.

Technological advances have made things easier but at the same time have increase the complexity of things. In the end consumers still favours need, simple, easy to use designs. Therefore, product designers please spare us from those complicated, brain cracking designs and don't make our lives difficult buy introducing hard to use products.

For more information, you can refer to http://www.paradymesolutions.com/articles/what-is-user-experience-design/ or some of the UX links I have provided on the right panel.
:)