Geke Dina Simone Ludden

Surprise As a Design Strategy

Imagine yourself queuing for the cashier’s desk in a supermarket. Naturally, you have picked the wrong line, the one that does not seem to move at all. Soon, you get tired of waiting. Now, how would you feel if the cashier suddenly started to sing? Many of us would be surprised and, regardless of the cashier’s singing abilities, feel amused. The preceding story is an example of how a surprise can transform something very normal, and maybe even boring, into a more pleasant experience. Analogously, a surprise in a product can overcome the habituation effect that is due to the fact that people encounter many similar products everyday. Colin Martindale describes this effect as ‘the gradual loss of interest in repeated stimuli’.¹ A surprise reaction to a product can be beneficial to both a designer and a user. The designer benefits from a surprise reaction because it can capture attention to the product, leading to increased product recall and recognition, and increased word-ofmouth.² Or, as Jennifer Hudson puts it, the surprise element “elevates a piece beyond the banal”.³ A surprise reaction has its origin in encountering an unexpected event. The product user benefits from the surprise, because it makes the product more interesting to interact with. In addition, it requires updating, extending or revising the knowledge the expectation was based on. This implies that a user can learn somethingnew about a product or product aspect. Designers already use various strategies to design surprises in their products. Making use of contrast, mixing design styles or functions, using new materials or new shapes, and using humor are just a few of these. The lamp ‘Porca Miseria!’ designed by Ingo Maurer that is shown in the left part of Figure 1 consists of broken pieces of expensive porcelain tableware, making it a lamp with a unique shape. The idea that another product had to be destroyed to make this lamp may inflict feelings of 3 puzzlement and amusement on someone who sees this lamp. The perfume ‘Flowerbomb’ (right part of Figure 1) designed by fashion designers Victor & Rolf is another example. The bottle is shaped like a hand grenade and it holds a sweet smelling, soft pink liquid. By combining conflicting elements in their perfume bottle, Victor & Rolf have succeeded in creating a perfume that attracts attention amidst the dozens of perfumes that line the walls of perfumeries.

How to Increase Reach and Adherence of Web-Based Interventions: A Design Research Viewpoint

Nowadays, technology is increasingly used to increase people’s well-being. For example, many mobile and Web-based apps have been developed that can support people to become mentally fit or to manage their daily diet. However, analyses of current Web-based interventions show that many systems are only used by a specific group of users (eg, women, highly educated), and that even they often do not persist and drop out as the intervention unfolds. In this paper, we assess the impact of design features of Web-based interventions on reach and adherence and conclude that the power that design can have has not been used to its full potential. We propose looking at design research as a source of inspiration for new (to the field) design approaches. The paper goes on to specify and discuss three of these approaches: personalization, ambient information, and use of metaphors. Central to our viewpoint is the role of positive affect triggered by well-designed persuasive features to boost adherence and well-being. Finally, we discuss the future of persuasive eHealth interventions and suggest avenues for follow-up research.

Touch versus in-air hand gestures: evaluating the acceptance by seniors of human-robot interaction

Do elderly people have a preference between performing in-air gestures or pressing screen buttons to interact with an assistive robot? This study attempts to provide answers to this question by measuring the level of acceptance, performance as well as knowledge of both interaction modalities during a scenario where elderly participants interacted with an assistive robot. Two interaction modalities were compared; in-air gestures and touch. A scenario has been chosen in which the elderly people perform exercises in order to improve lifestyle behavior. The seniors in this scenario stand in front of the assistive robot. The robot displays several exercises on the robot screen. After each successfully performed exercise the senior navigates to the next or previous exercise. No significant differences were found between the interaction modalities on the technology acceptance measures on effort, ease, anxiety, performance and attitude. The results on these measures were very high for both interaction modalities, indicating that both modalities were accepted by the elderly people. In a final interview participants reacted more positive on the use of in-air gestures.

Visiting Cultural Heritage with a Tour Guide Robot: A User Evaluation Study in-the-Wild

In this paper we present a user evaluation study on location at the Royal Alcazar in Seville, Spain, with the fully autonomous tour guide robot FROG. In this robot, technological innovations in navigation and vision were integrated with state-of-the-art design for robot behavior in order to provide interactive tours and adaptive content to visitors. In our user evaluation study we aimed to gain insights in user experiences of and attitudes and responses towards this fully autonomous social robot. Such studies are important, because they provide information about how people interact with social robots outside a controlled setting. Invited as well as spontaneous visitors followed tours guided by FROG and were interviewed about their opinions and experiences. Our findings indicate that even if isolated technical features work perfectly in controlled settings, they might not work well in the integrated system, because naive people interact with the system in an unforeseen manner.

How does it feel? Exploring touch on different levels of product experience

Technological innovations pave the way for alternative interaction paradigms, which allow for more intuitive and pleasurable user experiences. Such new interaction types are particularly called for when considering that people are facing an ever-increasing information flow that in the end oftentimes hamper satisfying experiences with technology. Connecting knowledge from the fields of interaction design, product design, and psychology, we present a theoretical framework that explains how different modalities can be used in interaction with products. We will focus on the tactile modality in particular and present two case studies that show how designers can design for this modality in a direct (functional) and in an abstract (symbolic) manner, respectively.

User acceptance in a changing context: why some product-service systems do not suffer acceptance problems

The Western world is increasingly moving towards a service-oriented economy. The concept of product-service systems (PSSs) can help to deal with this transition. However, users and businesses are generally required to change their normal way of behaving to adhere to a PSS and this often acts as a barrier for successful implementation. This lack of required behavioural change often results in poor user acceptance and many PSS initiatives fail after successful pilot projects. Various measures are put forward to improve acceptance, but not all measures focus on changing user habits. This paper argues that PSSs can be more powerful in gaining user acceptance when they are designed to address lost habits, owing to unwillingly changed behaviour

Surprising the Senses

ABSTRACT We perceive the world around us and the objects in it with all our senses. Designers can therefore influence the way we experience everyday products by paying attention to the multiple sensory aspects of products. When sensory information from two or more senses conflicts, people can be surprised. Currently, more and more product designers are experimenting with designing products that provide incongruent sensory information. Creating such products enables these designers to evoke interest for their products and let people experience something new. In several studies, we have investigated peoples reactions to and opinions about products with sensory incongruities. The results of our studies suggest that evoking surprise by incorporating sensory incongruities in products can be seen as a means to create more pleasurable product experiences.

A Multi-touch Tool for Co-creation

Multi-touch technology provides an attractive way for knowledge workers to collaborate. Co-creation is an important collaboration process in which collecting resources, creating results and distributing these results is essential. We propose a wall-based multi-touch system (called CoCreate) in which these steps are made easy due to the notion of connected private spaces and a shared co-create space. We present our ongoing work, expert evaluation of interaction scenarios and future plans.

Design for Behaviour Change: Theories and practices of designing for change

Design impacts every part of our lives. The design of products and services influences the way we go about our daily activities and it is hard to imagine any activity in our daily lives that is not dependent on design in some capacity. Clothing, mobile phones, computers, cars, tools and kitchenware all enable and hold in place everyday practices. Despite designs omnipresence, the understanding of how design may facilitate desirable behaviours is still fragmented, with limited frameworks and examples of how design can effect change in professional and public contexts. This text presents an overview of current approaches dedicated to understanding how design may be used intentionally to make changes to improve a range of problematic social and environmental issues. It offers a cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral overview of different academic theories adopted and applied to design for behaviour change. The aim of the volume is twofold: firstly, to provide an overview of existing design models that integrate theories of change from differing scientific backgrounds; secondly, to offer an overview of application of key design for behaviour change approaches as used across case studies in different sectors, such as design for health and wellbeing, sustainability, safety, design against crime and social design. Design for Behaviour Change will appeal to designers, design students and practitioners of behavioural change.

Slowing down: introducing calm persuasive technology to increase wellbeing at work

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a system that aims to motivate people to take regular breaks. In a world where stress, and related mental conditions such as depression and burnout, are becoming ever more prevalent, it is important that we study how we can design environments, products and/or systems that support people to take control over their working behaviour. Informed by theory on calm, persuasive technology, break objects were designed that together facilitate taking regular breaks. In a controlled lab experiment, we evaluated whether our design influenced positive affect. Based on our findings, we conclude that using calm persuasive technology to motivate people to take regular breaks might have a positive effect on peoples wellbeing at work. Further, we argue that physical tools like the one presented here should be part of monitoring and coaching systems aimed at behaviour change.