Aesthetic and Symbolic Qualities as Antecedents of Overall Judgements of Interactive Products

Abstract

Quality aspects of an interactive system that address user needs that go beyond users' instrumental needs are one important area for user experience research. Two categories of non-instrumental qualities seem to be important: aesthetic and symbolic aspects. In an explorative study the role of different dimensions of non-instrumental quality and their influence on overall judgements, like beauty or goodness of an interactive product, were studied. Four digital audio players were used to get information on users' perception of instrumental and non-instrumental quality perceptions as well as overall judgements. The results show the importance of various non-instrumental quality aspects and point out the need for further research.

User experience over time

“…Surprisingly, stimulation (i.e. the product's ability to address the human need of stimulation, novelty and challenge) did not seem to have a significant effect on either overall evaluative judgment [3,10]. While goodness was affected by experience, with utility gaining importance after the first interaction, beauty was not affected by this initial usage experience.…”

“…innovation, novelty). Mahlke [10] found a quality called expressive aesthetics [8] (arguably comparable to the quality here called stimulation) to have an impact on goodness but not on beauty judgments, during the first experiences with tangible mp3 players. Further, the nature of the experience differed significantly in this study.…”

“…Further, the nature of the experience differed significantly in this study. Both Hassenzahl [3] and Mahlke [10] asked participants to carry out a number of tasks in a laboratory context; in this study participants had the opportunity to use the product at their homes over an extended period and the first evaluation took place during the first days of use.…”

Identifying the user experience factors of a multi-component sports product

“…Many UX models have been proposed during the past decade (Desmet and Hekkert [3]; Forlizzi and Battarbee [6]; Hassenzahl and Tractinsky [8]; Hassenzahl [9]; Jordan [13]). Moreover, in the context of longterm UX, there are a few published research studies (Courage et al [2]; Hassenzahl et al [10]; Karapanos et al [15,16,17]; Kujala et al [20]; Mahlke [23]; Tractinsky and Zmiri [27]; Von Moellendorff et al [30]). …”

“…In some studies (Hassenzahl et al [10]; Mahlke [23]; Tractinsky and Zmiri [27]) the investigation was performed in short test tasks. In one study (Courage et al [2]), the researcher investigated five weeks of usage.…”