Observation and Reflection: The Behavioral Fields of UX Industry and Its Dilemma

The pursuit of a common theoretical framework of User Experience (UX) is challenging but important, as Experience Design, being an emerging and rapidly evolving discipline, encompasses diverse backgrounds, hindering the establishment of universally accepted principles. Our study aims to identify potential strategies to navigate this dilemma. We conduct a qualitative examination of the UX industry over the past decade, revealing that the conventional industry and academic perspectives often overlook behavioral fields indirectly related to UX practice. These fields, however, unveil crucial underlying factors that impede the development of a unified UX theory. Our findings highlight the need for directed efforts to overcome the obstacles in theory-building and provide a comprehensive overview of the eight behavioral fields relevant to UX. This serves to contextualize hidden causal factors and offers a panoramic view of the UX industry, laying a foundation for the development of a unified UX theory.