Abstract

Buildings are built for a purpose, according to which they can express usability conditions for their users. In this way, usability of the built environment is the expression of a social context, connected to user experience (UX) and their feedback about environment characteristics, design and ways of use. On the basis of a literature review, the chapter deals with the application of usability and UX concepts to the built environment scientific field, along the last decades. For achieving these goals, methodological issues for building evaluation and their potentialities in design of sustainable living and working places for all are described and analyzed. In these terms, sustainable buildings need to be related to the safeguard and the maximize of their functionality and serviceability as well as aesthetic quality conditions offered. Moreover, a useful building and/or city space must be designed for protecting health and offering comfort and safety for its users. The chapter ends with a discussion about the current challenge for establishing connections between usability, UX concepts and global goals of social sustainability centered on human needs, by considering potentialities of including users’ physical and psychological criteria in buildings and cities design process.