measuring - How can you embody 'luxury' qualities in UX design?

I recently observed a group of branding professionals brainstorming ideas for a luxury brand. They used a host of inspirations to hopefully inspire a sense of exclusivity and quality. These included Mercedes, Mont Blanc, Apple, and several fashion brands. The design of these conveyed luxury. I wondered how this is applied in the field of UX.

Imagine you are designing a site to convey similar characteristics to luxury products, the feeling of excellence, specialness. (Referring to quality in the sense of luxury.) i.e. The doors of a Mercedes and a Chevy both close but the Merc is designed to feel better.

I am not just thinking about aesthetics (as that might a question for a different board) but in different facets of the design and it's effect.

Can UX help achieve a feeling of luxury? If so, are there good analogies that might help communicate this to clients?

Answer

In addition to the HEART metrics (Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task Success) we also measure 1) new user adoption by whether or not training costs decreased and 2) existing user adoption by whether help calls decreased.

I'll try to answer your follow up question and to do so you must first understand the personality of the user's you're designing for. Think through all of the details about your users, from their personality to their socio-economic status to how they would interact with the system. (i.e. the personality of a Scion consumer will differ than that of a Lexus user). If you can add in unobtrusive details that cater to the user's personality it will help create that emotional connection with the system. Think of a quadrant like the one below (source) to help determine the personality and tone.

Attention to detail is possibly the second most important aspect when creating something that feels well-rounded and polished. By not overlooking the details you make the user feel more valued, like you took the time to make sure everything was perfect. Go into the waiting room at a Lexus dealership vs. Toyota and you'll see how different everything is down to the flooring they choose.

As an interesting aside, I saw Billy Hollis speak recently and he talked about how advertising spaces for luxury stores typically have a lot of open space, defying the myth of horror vacui. Sometimes less is better and reducing "clutter" on a screen can help significantly.