Jussi P. P. Jokinen

Emotional Dimensions of User Experience: A User Psychological Analysis

User psychology is a human–technology interaction research approach that uses psychological concepts, theories, and findings to structure problems of human–technology interaction. As the notion of user experience has become central in human–technology interaction research and in product development, it is necessary to investigate the user psychology of user experience. This analysis of emotional human–technology interaction is based on the psychological theory of basic emotions. Three studies, two laboratory experiments, and one field study are used to investigate the basic emotions and the emotional mind involved in user experience. The first and second experiments study the measurement of subjective emotional experiences during novel human–technology interaction scenarios in a laboratory setting. The third study explores these aspects in a real-world environment. As a result of these experiments, a bipolar competence–frustration model is proposed, which can be used to understand the emotional aspects of user experience.

Defining user experience goals to guide the design of industrial systems

The key prerequisite for experience-driven design is to define what experience to design for. User experience (UX) goals concretise the intended experience. Based on our own case studies from industrial environments and a literature study, we propose five different approaches to acquiring insight and inspiration for UX goal setting: Brand, Theory, Empathy, Technology, and Vision. Each approach brings in a different viewpoint, thus supporting the multidisciplinary character of UX. The Brand approach ensures that the UX goals are in line with the companys brand promise. The Theory approach utilises the available scientific knowledge of human behaviour. The Empathy approach focuses on knowing the actual users and stepping into their shoes. The Technology approach considers the new technologies that are being introduced and their positive or negative influence on UX. Finally, the Vision approach focuses on renewal, introducing new kinds of UXs. In the design of industrial systems, several stakeholders are involved and they should share common design goals. Using the different UX goal-setting approaches together brings in the viewpoints of different stakeholders, thus committing them to UX goal setting and emphasising UX as a strategic design decision.

Emotional user experience

Emotional experience has become an important topic in human-technology interaction research and design. Nevertheless, such research and design often lacks a proper explanatory basis and methodologically robust operationalisation. In this article, a conceptualisation of emotional user experience is formulated based on the appraisal theory of emotion, where the goal congruence of the interaction events and the task-independent individual traits are thought to underlie the users emotional response. A laboratory study with N=50 participants conducting ordinary computer tasks is reported. The results suggest that subjective emotional experience depends on a number of factors relating to individual differences in coping and task events. Emotional user experience, as analysed according to a competence-frustration model of emotion, is dependent on the user?s technological problem-solving tendency, frustration tendency, pre-task self-confidence, and task performance. Individual differences in emotional responses in human-technology interaction were investigated.Competence is affected by individual differences in planful problem solving trait.Frustration is affected by individual differences in frustration tendency trait.Self-confidence of the user affects emotional user experience.

Appraisal and Mental Contents in Human-Technology Interaction

User experience has become a key concept in investigating human-technology interaction. Therefore it has become essential to consider how user experience can be explicated using psychological concepts. Emotion has been widely considered to be an important dimension of user experience, and one obvious link between modern psychology and the analysis of user experience assumes the analysis of emotion in interaction processes. In this paper, the focus is on the relationship between action types and elicited emotional patterns. In three experiments including N = 40 participants each, it is demonstrated that the types of emotions experienced when people evaluate and use technical artefacts differ based on the stances they take toward these artefacts. One cannot approach user experience irrespective of the careful analysis of the situation-specific emotional themes. It is essential to any theory of user experience to consider the nature of the situation and relevant actions.

Designing Gesture-Based Control for Factory Automation

We report the development and evaluation of a gesture-based interaction prototype for controlling the loading station of a factory automation system. In this context, gesture-based interaction has the potential to free users from the tedious physical controls but it must also account for safety considerations and users’ perceptions. We evaluated the gesture interaction concept in the field to understand its applicability to industrial settings. Our findings suggest that gesture-based interaction is an emotional, physically charged experience that has the potential to enhance the work process. Participants’ feedback also highlighted challenges related to the reliability of gesture recognition technology in the workplace, the perceived professionalism of gesture-based interaction, and the role of physical feedback in promoting feeling of control. Our results inform the development of gesture-based interaction for similar contexts.

Apperception as a multisensory process in material experience

Visual perspective has dominated experience research in human-technology interaction for decades now. The neglect of other sensory modalities is gradually being addressed by scholars and designers, who investigate user experience based on touch, smell, taste, sound and even expressive bodily interactions. In cognitive and affective processes, user experience is always multi-modal, not just regarding perceived multi-sensory information, but also while perceiving through one modality we mentally construct information relevant to the other senses. This article reports the results of an experiment, where participants (N = 52) appraised materials either only by touching them or only by seeing. The results indicate that with certain affects, the logic of the appraisal depends on the modality. These results are discussed within the theoretical framework of mental content, apperception, and appraisal. Further, we discuss the relevance of the findings for material design, especially in the context of multimodal interaction.

Overcoming Cultural Distance in Social OER Environments

Open Educational Resources (OERs) provide opportunities as enabler for societal development but also create new challenges. From the perspective of content providers and educational institutions, particularly cultural and context-related challenges emerge. Even though barriers regarding large-scale adoption of OERs are widely discussed, evidence through empirical work for determining challenges in relation to particular contexts is still rare. Such context-specific barriers generally can jeopardize the acceptance of OERs and in particular, social OER environments. We conducted a large-scale (N=882) cross-European investigation in the school context determining how teachers and learners perceive cultural distance as a barrier against the usage of social OER environments. The findings indicate how nationality and age of the respondents are strong predictors of cultural distance barrier. The study concludes with identification of context-sensitive interventions for overcoming the related barriers. These consequences are vital for OER initiatives and educational institutions for aligning their efforts on OER.

Aesthetic Appeal and Visual Usability in Four Icon Design Eras

Technological artefacts express time periods in their visual design. Due time, visual culture changes and thus affects the design of pictorial representations in technological products, such as icons in user interfaces. Previous research of temporal aspects in human-computer interaction has been focusing on particular interaction situations, but not on the effects of design eras on user experience. The influence of icon design styles of different eras on aesthetic and usability experiences was studied with the method of primed product comparisons. Affective preferences and their processing times were analysed in order to examine visual usability in terms of semantic distance and aesthetic appeal of icons from different design eras. Aesthetic and usability preferences of icons from different eras varied, which allowed the investigation of the process in which users experience icons. This examination results in elaborating the process, for example the relationship between cognitive processing fluency, familiarity, and beauty.

Radical Innovation by Theoretical Abstraction – A Challenge for The User-centred Designer

Abstract It is generally accepted that scientific disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology contribute beneficially to design by providing understanding of users’ needs, experiences, and desires. Arguably, however, these disciplines have more to contribute, because they include theories and models that can be applied as design frames and principles. More specifically, goal-setting, visualization, thematization, and conceptual reconfiguration are general mechanisms through which theories translate into design contributions. Actualizing radical design solutions via these mechanisms is discussed: theories provide appropriate means of abstraction, which allows ‘distance’ from user data; departure from the existing design and user paradigms toward ‘what has not yet been imagined’ is thereby possible. These suggestions draw from and are exemplified by a ship bridge design case.

Evaluating the Authenticity of Virtual Environments

Immersive virtual environments VEs have the potential to provide novel cost effective ways for evaluating not only new environments and usability scenarios, but also potential user experiences. To achieve this, VEs must be adequately realistic. The level of perceived authenticity can be ascertained by measuring the levels of immersion people experience in their VE interactions. In this paper the degree of authenticity is measured via an authenticity index in relation to three different immersive virtual environment devices. These devices include 1 a headband, 2 3D glasses, and 3 a head-mounted display HMD. A quick scale for measuring immersion, feeling of control, and simulator sickness was developed and tested. The HMD proved to be the most immersive device, although the headband was demonstrated as being a more stable environment causing the least simulator sickness. The results have design implication as they provide insight into specific factors which make experience in a VE seem more authentic to users. The paper emphasizes that, in addition to the quality of the VE, focus needs to be placed on ergonomic factors such as the weight of the devices, as these may compromise the quality of results obtained when examining studying human-technology interaction in a VE.