Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Presented by: Advanced Usability October 25, 2004 Terry Vaughn

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation What we’ll cover today Introduction to aesthetics, affect, and perception Interpretations of Beauty Beauty in Context The Substance of Style Emotion and Design Process, Outcome and Affect Apparent Usability vs. Inherent Usability Assessing cultural perceptions of aesthetics and usability Conclusions

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Introduction to aesthetics, affect, and perception Some basic definitions… Aesthetics: the study of beauty in all forms and expressions Affect: the emotional reaction to an experience Perception: everything we experience is affected by what we know or believe

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Interpretations of Beauty Material Representation though material, form, color, arrangement, signal Kant: purely a subjective judgment not rooted in any preconceived notion of purpose Functional "To be truly beautiful, wondrous, and pleasurable, the product has to fulfill a useful function, work well, and be usable and understandable" (Norman, 2002) "Flow": An immersive, engaging quality that yields a sense of fulfillment by matching the user's goals and skills while providing feedback (Cziksentmihalyi, 1991) Art as experience: process of interaction between person and environment (Dewey, 1980) - Harmony: feeling at one with the process and result (Norman, 2002) Examples in performance: sport and art

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Beauty in Context Personal Lifestyle - Apple Function - work or play Variables - age, gender, peers Cultural Shared values Acceptance Peer group - work environment Identity and meaning through association Differing perceptions across cultures

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation The Substance of Style Virginia Postrel (2003) Approaches aesthetics from cultural and commercial perspective "the 21st Century is the Age of Aesthetics" Economic drivers: differentiation, competition Americans have more disposable income Aesthetic identity and meaning - "I like that. I'm like that” Example: Presidential logos (Postrel, 2004)

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Emotion and Design Don Norman (2002) Affect and cognition are independent information processing systems Each can influence the other Affect: "judgmental, assigning positive and negative valence to the environment rapidly and efficiently." Evolved as a survival mechanism "This is good, that is bad." "This is safe, that is dangerous." Fast-acting - helps us navigate through life

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Emotion and Design Affect and changes how we perform tasks (Norman, 2002) Regulates how we solve problems and perform tasks Negative affect focuses the mind (depth-first), but can inhibit performance Positive affect broadens thought processes (breadth-first), but can lead to distraction, prevent solution of a problem Therefore… Negative affect can make it harder to do even easy tasks Positive affect can make it easier to do difficult tasks Example: walking the plank

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Emotion and Design Implications for design: When tasks or environments impart negative affect (e.g. stress) minimize distractions, bottlenecks, and irritations When tasks or environments impart positive, users tend to overlook design faults Conclusion "Attractive things work better." Affect can manipulate our perception of performance

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Process, Outcome and Affect Andrew Dillon (2001) Critiques the practice of usability evaluation, which emphasizes satisfaction as a dependency of performance (or users' perception of performance) Affect also influences satisfaction Proposes a three level approach to user experience: Process Outcome Affect (before and after)

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Process, Outcome and Affect Aesthetics drive perception (Dillon, 2001) Strong correlation between aesthetics and usability Users tend to relate the two fairly predictably

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Affect - Before and After Before "if computers were perceived initially as diftlcult to use, users were more likely to express dissatisfaction with the interface of the system after four months of use” Hiltz, S.R. and Johnson, K. User satisfaction with computer mediated communication systems, Management Science (1990) After Resonance: "the ability of a product to evoke positive images, memories, and emotions, and to encourage a prolonged, subtle, or stimulating effect beyond the initial impact" (Hummels & Van der Helm, 2004)

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Apparent Usability vs. Inherent Usability (Kurosu & Kashimura, 1995) studied the relationship between users' aesthetic perceptions and their a priori perceptions of a system’s usability 26 screen layout patterns were tested for an ATM user interface 256 subjects were asked to rate: apparent usability and beauty Compared apparent usability with (beauty and 7 independent variables: distance, keypad type, grouping, sequence, hand domain, safety) used to describe inherent usability Found that apparent usability has a greater correlation with beauty (.589) than inherent usability People expect things that look good to work better

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Apparent Usability vs. Inherent Usability - Culture & Methodology (Tractinsky, 1997) Sought to validate and replicate the findings of Kurosu & Kashimura in a different cutural setting: Isreal Hypothesized that aesthetics were not expected to correlate in Isreal Japanese had a greater cultural tradition emphasizing aesthetics Using a much more rigorous methodology Tested three different ways to detect test or user bias With minor modifications, adapted the 26 Kurosu & Kashimura interfaces to Hebrew

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Apparent Usability vs. Inherent Usability - Culture & Methodology (Tractinsky, 1997) Results Replicated the findings of Kurosu & Kashimura First test recorded an even stronger correlation between perceptions of beauty and apparent usability (.921,.832,.920) Second & third reinforced the findings of the first Conclusions 1)Aesthetic perceptions are culturally dependent 2)Our current knowledge limits our ability to accurately predict how culture influences HCI related issues 3)“Perceptions of interface aesthetics are closely related to apparent usability and thus increase the likelihood that aesthetics may considerably affect system acceptability.”

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Conclusions Aesthetics - arouse user attention - engage the user to use and learn the product - maintain user interest People’s interpretations of aesthetics are not only based on material, form and function, they also are dependent upon… - the people’s interests and lifestyles - the culture in which they exist - and those perceptions can change over time Aesthetics alter users' perceptions of usefulness, usability, performance (before and after) (Davis, 1989; Dillon, 2001). “Attractive things work better. (Norman, 2002).

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Conclusions Affect changes how people perform tasks (Norman, 2002). Some emotions are driven by cognition, and cognition is influenced by affect (Norman, 2002). As the quality (usability) of products improve, firms need to place more focus on aesthetic appeal to differentiate themselves from other products (Postrel, 2003). Usability studies should take a more holistic approach in evaluating the user experience to take into consideration the former points.

Aesthetics, Affect and Perception The growing role of aesthetics in usability evaluation Discussion