Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 8292

Document

08292 Abstracts Collection – The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction

Authors: Marc Hassenzahl, Gitte Lindgaard, Axel Platz, and Noam Tractinsky

Abstract

From 13.07. to 16.07.2008, the Dagstuhl Seminar 08292 ``The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction'' was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available.

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Marc Hassenzahl, Gitte Lindgaard, Axel Platz, and Noam Tractinsky. 08292 Abstracts Collection – The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction. In The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 8292, pp. 1-12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2008)

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@InProceedings{hassenzahl_et_al:DagSemProc.08292.1,
  author =	{Hassenzahl, Marc and Lindgaard, Gitte and Platz, Axel and Tractinsky, Noam},
  title =	{{08292 Abstracts Collection – The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction}},
  booktitle =	{The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction},
  pages =	{1--12},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2008},
  volume =	{8292},
  editor =	{Marc Hassenzahl and Gitte Lindgaard and Axel Platz and Noam Tractinsky},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-16279},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Human-computer interaction, aesthetics, beauty, design, hedonics, concepts, measurement}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.2

08292 Executive Summary – The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction

Authors: Marc Hassenzahl, Gitte Lindgaard, Axel Platz, and Noam Tractinsky

Abstract

This seminar explored various aspects of the study of visual aesthetics in human-computer interaction (HCI). The discussed issues relating to theory building, measurement issues, antecedents of aesthetic design and its consequences. We also identified a set of research challenges that this emerging field needs to discuss.

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Marc Hassenzahl, Gitte Lindgaard, Axel Platz, and Noam Tractinsky. 08292 Executive Summary – The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction. In The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 8292, pp. 1-3, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2008)

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@InProceedings{hassenzahl_et_al:DagSemProc.08292.2,
  author =	{Hassenzahl, Marc and Lindgaard, Gitte and Platz, Axel and Tractinsky, Noam},
  title =	{{08292 Executive Summary – The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction}},
  booktitle =	{The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction},
  pages =	{1--3},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2008},
  volume =	{8292},
  editor =	{Marc Hassenzahl and Gitte Lindgaard and Axel Platz and Noam Tractinsky},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-16261},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Visual aesthetics, human-computer interaction, design, user experience}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.3

Aesthetics of Mundane Interactions

Authors: Dhaval Vyas

Abstract

John Dewey’s pragmatist aesthetics is used as a conceptual basis for designing new technologies that support staff-members’ mundane social interactions in an academic department. From this perspective, aesthetics is seen as a broader phenomenon that encompasses experiential aspects of staff-members’ everyday lives and not only a look-&-feel aspect.

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Dhaval Vyas. Aesthetics of Mundane Interactions. In The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 8292, pp. 1-2, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2008)

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@InProceedings{vyas:DagSemProc.08292.3,
  author =	{Vyas, Dhaval},
  title =	{{Aesthetics of Mundane Interactions}},
  booktitle =	{The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction},
  pages =	{1--2},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2008},
  volume =	{8292},
  editor =	{Marc Hassenzahl and Gitte Lindgaard and Axel Platz and Noam Tractinsky},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-16215},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Pragmatist Aesthetics, Mundane Interactions, Design}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.4

Five things I believe about the aesthetics of interaction design

Authors: Jonas Löwgren

Abstract

1. It makes little sense to talk about "visual aesthetics" as an isolated modality. 2. The genre determines the aesthetic qualities. 3. Aesthetic is not equal to good, pleasant, pretty, or nice. 4. Aesthetic experience is connected with intellectual deliberation as much as with immediate, "visceral" response. 5. We need holistic, interpretative approaches to dealing with aesthetics in interaction design. These five beliefs are introduced and substantiated by means of examples and argumentation.

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Jonas Löwgren. Five things I believe about the aesthetics of interaction design. In The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 8292, pp. 1-8, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2008)

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@InProceedings{lowgren:DagSemProc.08292.4,
  author =	{L\"{o}wgren, Jonas},
  title =	{{Five things I believe about the aesthetics of interaction design}},
  booktitle =	{The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction},
  pages =	{1--8},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2008},
  volume =	{8292},
  editor =	{Marc Hassenzahl and Gitte Lindgaard and Axel Platz and Noam Tractinsky},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-16234},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: Aesthetics, interaction design}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.5

On the impossibility of avoiding aesthetics in human-computer interaction

Authors: Frieder Nake

Abstract

The simple and almost trivial argument of this talk can be summarized like this. -Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a human action making use of computers (which means, making use of machinery called software). -This action involves operations carried out by the computer. They appear to us as if the computer was also active (which in a way, it is). -The human and the computer are constantly taking turns in their action and operation and, therefore, we call this entire happening "interaction". -Since interactive use of the computer by necessity requires sensory perception and, consequentially, interpretation, aesthetics must play an important role. This is so if we consider aesthetics as the study of sensory perception and understanding. Nothing in the world is true nor good nor beautiful. It is only through human judgment that layers of truth or goodness or beauty are generated. This is by three kinds of judgments: the logic, the ethic, and the aesthetic kind of judgment. So aesthetrics is, first of all, a way of making judgments. In so far, it is relational. It is not about features and properties of things. The aesthetic judgment discriminates at the sensory level but it possesses the innate tendency of going beyond the sensory domain. So in the aesthetic judgment, we have discrimination and valuation. Valuation is definitely different from evaluation: it is about qualities, whereas evaluation may result in quantity and, in fact, much research aims at this. The subject matter of aesthetics before valuation thus appears as human sensory perception as a component of semiosis, i.e. as the start into a sign process: a process of interpretation and re-interpretation, essentially without end. Visual aesthetics has ist subject matter reduced to the visual case. Until recently, usability was a great concern within the HCI community. It is not possible to seriously compare aesthetics to usability unless we destroy aesthetics to some sort of instrument. It may, however be justified to identify a few features of usability vs. Aesthetics. To usability, the computer is like a tool; only in an environment of work activity does usability make sense; here we have tasks and immediate purposes and, therefore, prediction and measure; in general, usability is a matter of practical reason. To aesthetics, the computer is like a medium; it becomes important in game activities; decision making and values are guiding principles; and aestheics is a matter of contemplative reason. As a general concept, I want to remind of software objects as algorithmic signs. These are signs that allow for, and require two interpretants: the intentional and the causal interpretant. Algorithmic signs are perceivable (by us) and computable (by the computer). They connect the aesthetic with the algorithmic domain. They have, metaphorically speaking, a surface and a subface. As a radically agnostic position, I view the world as the world and nothing else. It is the whole that some call "god". We can have it in parts only. From a particular (sic!) perspective, the aesthetic perspective, e.g., the world appears as aesthetic signs, aesthetic processes, and aesthetic judgments. Since the aesthetic perspective is the perspective of perception, HCI has no choice but turn to aesthetics in its attempt to better understand certain processes. HCI, in my view, is the weak coupling of two semiotic processes, one of them a full-fledged sign process (on behalf of the human), the other one reduced to a signal process (on behalf of the computer). Therefore, the (visual) aesthetics of HCI is the aesthetics of algorithmic signs as they appear in environments of interaction. Questions of HCI must be tackled from here, i.e. from the dialectics of the newly discovered sign class, the algorithmic sign. The designer can manipulate the subface of the algorithmic sign. He has no influence on the surface except for the most trivial projection to the display screen. He can, however, make great use of the algorithmic side of the algorithmic sign. This new challenge for aesthetics is what HCI is about. It may be the case that my plea for a radical aesthetic turn in HCI is off the main orientation of experimental psychology as a kind of normal science (Thomas Kuhn) exploring quantitatively what aesthetics may have to offer. In that case I apologize for an intervention whose basis is design more than analysis.

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Frieder Nake. On the impossibility of avoiding aesthetics in human-computer interaction. In The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 8292, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2008)

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@InProceedings{nake:DagSemProc.08292.5,
  author =	{Nake, Frieder},
  title =	{{On the impossibility of avoiding aesthetics  in human-computer interaction}},
  booktitle =	{The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2008},
  volume =	{8292},
  editor =	{Marc Hassenzahl and Gitte Lindgaard and Axel Platz and Noam Tractinsky},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-16254},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: }
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.6

The Beauty Dilemma

Authors: Sarah Diefenbach and Marc Hassenzahl

Abstract

Many researchers and practitioners of Human-Computer interaction (HCI) acknowledge the idea that it needs more than usability and usefulness to design truly pleasurable experiences with products. Certainly, usability is needed, but the users’ desires go beyond the prevention of the negative, such as problems and failures – they seek for the positive, pleasurable, stimulating and inspiring experience. This calls for a shift from the mere task accomplishment to the users’ needs and aspirations, their Self. Especially the role of beauty gains more and more interest as its importance for the users’ product valuation has been recognized. Unfortunately, it is not that easy to accomplish the enrichment of the users’ experience by adding beauty: although beauty is appreciated while product use, it often is disregarded while product choice. The present paper's objective is to point out the dilemma that arises when beauty meets technology in a choice situation.

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Sarah Diefenbach and Marc Hassenzahl. The Beauty Dilemma. In The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 8292, pp. 1-5, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2008)

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@InProceedings{diefenbach_et_al:DagSemProc.08292.6,
  author =	{Diefenbach, Sarah and Hassenzahl, Marc},
  title =	{{The Beauty Dilemma}},
  booktitle =	{The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction},
  pages =	{1--5},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2008},
  volume =	{8292},
  editor =	{Marc Hassenzahl and Gitte Lindgaard and Axel Platz and Noam Tractinsky},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-16224},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: Beauty Dilemma, Lay Rationalism, Justification}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.7

Visual aesthetics and the user experience

Authors: Sascha Mahlke

Abstract

User experience is conceptualized as a phenomenon consisting of instrumental and non-instrumental quality perceptions as well as emotional user reactions. Visual aesthetics is defined as one non-instrumental quality and available methods are applied to measure the perception of visual aesthetics of interactive systems. Selected results of two studies are reported that addressed the influence of perceived usability and visual aesthetics on emotional user reactions and consequences of user experience and studied the effect of user characteristics and contextual parameters on these relations. The results show that usability and visual aesthetics can be perceived independently. Furthermore, the relevance of perceived visual aesthetics for emotional user reactions and consequences of user experience is demonstrated. However, the results reveal that the importance depends on user characteristics, e.g. the centrality of visual product aesthetics, and context parameters, e.g. the goaldirectedness of the interaction.

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Sascha Mahlke. Visual aesthetics and the user experience. In The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 8292, pp. 1-5, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2008)

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@InProceedings{mahlke:DagSemProc.08292.7,
  author =	{Mahlke, Sascha},
  title =	{{Visual aesthetics and the user experience}},
  booktitle =	{The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction},
  pages =	{1--5},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2008},
  volume =	{8292},
  editor =	{Marc Hassenzahl and Gitte Lindgaard and Axel Platz and Noam Tractinsky},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-16240},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.08292.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: User experience, non-instrumental qualities, visual aesthetics, emotional user reactions}
}

Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 8292

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08292 Abstracts Collection – The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction

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08292 Executive Summary – The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction

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Aesthetics of Mundane Interactions

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Five things I believe about the aesthetics of interaction design

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On the impossibility of avoiding aesthetics in human-computer interaction

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The Beauty Dilemma

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Visual aesthetics and the user experience

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