Empirical Studies of Aesthetics in Information Technology

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Empirical Studies of Aesthetics in Information
Technology

• Noam Tractinsky
• Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
• Nov 2003

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Contents

• Background
• Description of 4 empirical studies on aesthetics
  and IT
• Discussion

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History Emergence of the HCI Discipline

• Context Emergence of interactive systems
• Roots cognitive science, ergonomics
• Goal efficient interactions
• Criteria time, errors
• Flagship concept Usability
• Aesthetics considered irrelevant if not outright
  harmful

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Future The User Experience?

• Context universal accessibility, Web-based
  applications, customization, personalization, IT
  as consumer commodity
• Goal support the user experience
• Affective Computing
• Aesthetic Computing the theory, practice and
  application of aesthetics in computing.
• Funology From Usability to Enjoyment

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Studies of Aesthetics of Information Technology
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Study 1 ATM Layout Design
Tractinsky, CHI 97

• Trigger Kurosu and Kashimura, 1995
• KKs research goal was to find correlation
  between usability guidelines (inherent
  usability) and apparent usability
• Finding high correlations between perceptions of
  (pre-use) usability and of aesthetics
• Interesting but results are probably tainted by
  Japanese culture

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Study 1 Cross-Cultural Validation

• Repeat the study in Israel
• Improve the methodology three experiments
• Exact replication
• Separate measurement of aesthetic and usability
  responses
• Computerized, complete randomization

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Example 1
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Example 2
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Results Japan vs. Israel
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• Very interesting Beautiful Usable ?

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Study 2 ATM Usage
Tractinsky, Shoval-Katz and Ikar, IwC, 2000

• What happens to the aesthetics-usability relation
  after usage?
• Evaluation of 9 layouts from the previous studies
  (randomly displayed) on three attributes
  usability, aesthetics, amount of information
• Manipulating aesthetics Assign to experimental
  groups first then assign systems based on
  pre-experimental ratings
• Manipulating Usability Introduction of system
  delays and other faulty features
• Participants completed 11 ATM tasks

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Experimental Design and Pre-Experiment Perceptions
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Correlations
p lt .01 level. Table 2 A correlation matrix
of pre-, and post-experimental measures (n
124). The colors separate pre-experimental
correlations between three measures (top-left),
post-experimental correlations (bottom-right),
and correlations between pre-, and
post-experimental measures (top-right).
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Post-experimental perceptions of usability and
aesthetics
Fig. 1. Post-experimental perceptions of
usability and aesthetics (on a 1-10 scale) under
three levels of ATM aesthetics and two levels of
ATM usability.
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MANCOVA
p lt .01 p lt .001. Table 3 Results and
significance levels of univariate and stepdown
F-tests of the effects of the Aesthetics and the
Usability factors on post-experimental measures,
with pre-experimental perceptions of usability as
a covariate.
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Study 3 - Developing a Measurement Instrument for
the Evaluation of Web-site AestheticsLavie and
Tractinsky, IJHCS, in press

• Questionnaire on aesthetics of Web sites
• Four experiments
• Three studies used students as participants
• In the last study users were solicited from
  web-sites
• Method EFA, CFA

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Experiments

• Experiment 1 125 students, http//www.times.com
  
• Experiment 2 212 students, http//www.gap.com ,
  http//www.macys.com
• Experiment 3 - 145 students, http//www.hashulcan.
  co.il
• Experiment 4 - 384 users, various sites

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Aesthetic Dimensions of Web sites (Exp. 4,
cross-validation)
Classical Aesthetics (a.86) Aesthetic
design Pleasant design Clear design Clean
design Symmetric design
.78
Usability (a.95) Convenient use Easy
orientation Easy to use Easy to navigate Clear
design
.63
Expressive Aesthetics (a.86) Creative
design Fascinating design Use of special
effects Original design Sophisticated design
?2 (df158) 259.12 p .000 RMSEA .058 TLI
.955 CFI .962 IFI .963 SRMR .061
.40
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Study 4 - Skin PreferencesTractinsky and Zmiri

• Motivation The phenomenon of application
  personalization
• By 2000, more than 50,000,000 skins had been
  downloaded from the major skin sites
• Emotions towards computer applications are
  affected by three dimensions (after Rafaeli and
  Vilnai-Yavetz)
• Usability
• Aesthetics
• Symbolism

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Application Microsofts Media Player
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Procedure

• Evaluate the default interface 11 skins
• Compare the default MP to two chosen skins rate
  each on 15 items
• Make a final choice state the reasons

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Ratings of the Default and the 2 choices
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Table 1 Rotated factor matrix of responses to
items reflecting usability, aesthetics, and
symbolism.
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p lt .01 Table 2 Alpha reliabilities (on the
diagonal) ,inter-variable correlations, and
number of items for the three skin aspects
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Regression Analysis
p lt .01, plt.001 Table 3 Adjusted R2 and
standardized regression coefficients of the three
skin aspects regressed on satisfying experience
and pleasant experience.
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Open-ended Responses Coded by two independent
judges
Table 4 Number (percentage) of reasons provided
for the general question and for the choice
question, tabulated by skin aspect. Main
considerations in choosing a PC-based
entertainment system Reasons for choosing the
most preferred skin
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Final Choice

• 80 chose an alternative skin

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Vitruvian Principles of Architecture
Firmitas Strength Durability Stability
Utilitas Utility Convenience
Venustas Beauty Grace
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Why aesthetics matters?
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Why aesthetics matters?

• Level of performance exceeds most users needs
• Aesthetically-based valuations are immediate and
  hard to overcome
• Aesthetics satisfies basic human needs.
• Like it or not, its here to stay

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Conclusions

• Relevant research area
• Research is only at the beginning needs
  replication and validation
• Areas of extension
• Multifaceted research needs multiple
  approaches, visions, methodologies
• More food for thought .

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An alternative (tentative) model of IT adoption
Adoption
Emotion
Cognition
Expressive Aesthetics
Classic Aesthetics
Usability (EOU)
Symbolism
Usefulness
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HCI (Nielsen, 1993) Utility whether the
functionality of the system in principle can do
what is needed. Usability a quality attribute
that assesses how easy user interfaces are to
use
MIS (Davis, 1989) Usefulness the extent to
which using the system will enhance job
performance. Ease of use the extent to which
using the system will be free of effort
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Source Norman (1998)
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Stimuli and Measures
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Symbolism
Usability
Aesthetics
Source D. Norman, Emotional Design (2004)
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A Framework for the Study of Aesthetics in
Information Systems?
Methodological IssuesExploring the black box
Relations to Other Variables Perceptions,
Attitudes, Performance, Satisfaction
Aesthetic Processes Cognition, Affect
IT Factors
Moderators System Type, Context, Culture,
Personality