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Color influence on the use satisfaction of kitchen utensils: An ergonomic and perceptual study
Abstract
Different areas of science that study visual perception suggest the influence of color on human behavior and well-being. However, we know very little about the chromatic effect on satisfaction. The study aimed to assess color influence associated with individuals' age on the product's satisfaction of use. A total of 120 female participants (18–29 and 30–55 years old) evaluated a garlic peeler (Experiment I) and a potato masher (Experiment II) in green, red, and gray/silver colors. The methodology used the System Usability Scale Questionnaire, Emotional responses - FaceReader™ software, and a Preference Scale. We noticed no significant difference between age groups regarding the SUS scores in both experiments. However, the gray product received a higher SUS score (p < 0.05) than the other colors, and the Preference Scale rated gray as the worst. On the other hand, in Experiment I, the emotional responses showed that the main variable was the color, and in Experiment II, it was the participants' age (p < 0.05). Based on the present study, we suggest that color is an important variable on the satisfaction of use. The present research presented laboratory experiments that shed light on the importance of color and age variables on the satisfaction of use with kitchen utensils.
Relevance to industry: Color and age driven-knowledge can change how professionals and project teams create their products and user interaction, breaking superficial preconceptions. The present study is part of a research project contributing to the Color and Ergonomics in the Design Industrial field.
... As a visual interaction variable for Design and Ergonomics, color can influence the perception of a product's attributes (shape, size, texture) (Abegaz et al., 2015;Ding et al., 2021a), the performance and human behavior during human-product interaction (Giorgio et al., 2018;Ding et al., 2021b) and subjective judgments as well (Prado-Léon, 2015;Won & Westland, 2018;Liu et al., 2021;Buchmüller et al., 2022). In task ergonomic evaluations, age is considered another relevant variable because it influences biomechanics (Teixeira, 2006;Barbieri et al., 2014), neurological processing (West et al., 2012), aesthetic preferences, and emotional arouse (Sonderegger et al., 2016;Alves et al., 2022). Although this is referential literature, there is a lack of research adopting color as an independent variable in usability studies in which subjective and efficiency aspects work together. ...
... Following the recommendations of Sonderegger (2010) and Giorgio et al. (2018), we set up the temperature (24 o C), light temperature (6000 K), luminance (290 cd/m2), noise (50dB), and visual cues (white color of the walls and ceiling). More details about the environmental setup and the usability tests' procedures can be seen in a related previous publication (Alves et al., 2022). ...
... The color scheme applied to products is several times a project decision based on market trends; despite the body of knowledge concerning user perception (Abegaz et al., 2015;Prado-Léon, 2015;Ng & Chan, 2018;Won & Westland, 2018;Ding et al., 2021a;Liu et al., 2021;Alves et al., 2022;Buchmüller et al., 2022) and the behavior outlined (Giorgio et al., 2018;Ding et al., 2021b;Alves et al., 2022) by scientific research worldwide. The current study adopted an ergonomic design approach to discover how color and age could influence the usability (efficacy, efficiency, and satisfaction) of two kitchen utensils; a garlic peeler and a potato masher. ...
Color can influence human perception and behavior during interaction with a product. However, it is still unclear how color could interfere in instrumental activities of daily living, such as human-kitchenware interaction. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate the color effect on the usability of two sorts of kitchen utensils. As a secondary aim, age was also considered in the statistical analysis as it is a recognized variable on usability tests. A total of 120 female participants (18-29 and 30-55 years old) evaluated a garlic peeler (Experiment I) and a potato masher (Experiment II) in green, red, and gray colors. The usability was measured by a SUS questionnaire (satisfaction), task precision (efficacy), and activity time (efficiency). In both experiments, the results indicated a color effect on satisfaction (p ≤ .05), and age majorly influenced efficiency (p ≤ .05). The industrial application of these findings may contribute to the product's development and tests to create user and color-driven designs. Besides, this study may contribute to other research.
... The user's emotional state depends on several aspects of human-product interaction, such as personal values, product meaning, usage context, product properties [14], and previous experiences [5]. In these multiple conditions, color can play a role as a significant visual variable and emotional stimulus, exciting cognition and affecting the user's behavior [15,16]. The chromatic visual system is responsible for extracting information from what is seen to guarantee the human visual perceptual experience [17]. ...
... The study of Mizutanil et al. [29] contributed to color project guidelines for UI designers and other practitioners but has limitations not indicated by the authors. The experiment recruited only university students from Japan and so, it is possible that there was other two variables in the results: age [2,16,30] and culture [19,20]. And in the field of emotion, motivation could be explored strongly by measuring it with emotional tools during (e.g., pupil dilation -Eye Tracker, event-related potentials -EEG) [15] or at the end of the test with a subjective evaluation (e.g., satisfaction scale) [16]. ...
... The experiment recruited only university students from Japan and so, it is possible that there was other two variables in the results: age [2,16,30] and culture [19,20]. And in the field of emotion, motivation could be explored strongly by measuring it with emotional tools during (e.g., pupil dilation -Eye Tracker, event-related potentials -EEG) [15] or at the end of the test with a subjective evaluation (e.g., satisfaction scale) [16]. These data could complement the analysis of pressed rates and enrich the discussion of results on motivation. ...
The tactile or visual interaction with a product can evoke different emotional experiences in a person. In this context, contemporary research in color attributes this variable a relevant role in human factors and in emotion-driven design. Related to this, this study provides a critical review of the scientific production of Design, Emotion, and Color, in the International Color Association (AIC) proceedings. Therefore, the proceedings of all AIC conferences were checked (n = 66), since the first conference in 1969. The data underwent a bibliometric analysis to understand the general characteristics of scientific production and next, a qualitative synthesis of the selected full papers. A total of one hundred and forty-four (n = 144) full papers were assessed for eligibility criteria and only eight (n = 8) studies were included in the final analysis. The results indicated a growth in the number of full papers concerning Design, Emotion, and Color, as well as a diversity of methods and research scopes. The body of knowledge found in this study can contribute to the theoretical investigation and arouse the interest of designers and practitioners for new advances on the topic investigated.KeywordsColorEmotionSemanticsHuman factorsDesignInternational Color Association
... Therefore, colour can interfere with the perception of product composition elements, such as volume, weight, size, temperature, texture and others, which results in different emotional responses (Csillag, 2015). In general, the theoretical understanding of how the colour of a product influences emotion has already been discussed by Na & Suk (2014), Ding et al. (2021) and Alves et al. (2022); and also in the usability domain by Sonderegger & Sauer (2010) and Bonfim et al. (2023). On the other hand, there are still few empirical studies that analyze the influence of colours on product design, from the point of view of emotional responses and perceived usability. ...
... This helps explain the better perceived usability results of a product of a specific colour, as opposed to the same product of a different colour. Regarding emotional reactions, Alves et al. (2022) evaluated different kitchen utensils (garlic peeler) in red, green and grey colours, using physiological protocols (FaceReaderTM) and self-report (SUS and preference scale), with middle-aged women (30-55 years). In this last protocol (preference scale), the grey product was worse evaluated (p ≤ 0.01), when compared to the products in red and green colours. ...
Colour is an important component of product design and can influence usage interaction. This study aimed to study the influence of the colour of everyday products on the emotional response and perceived usability of senior adult females. Thirty women between 60 and 80 years old participated , who evaluated clay sausage roaster in three different colours, based on two protocols: Emotional Response Cards (ERC) and Perceived Usability Cards (PUC). The product in the "Ter-racotta" colour was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) better evaluated (emotional response and perceived usability) than the products in the other colours ("green" and "grey"). The colour "Terracotta" was decisive in confirming that the memory factor of long-term experiences contributed to the results achieved. The application of colours in the design ofproducts aimed at older users must consider long-termexperiences and be treated as an inclusivity factor.
... Therefore, the visual sense is considered to be the most direct way for people to obtain their perceptual information. However, many studies have shown that the human's color perception is more sensitive than shape [1,8,9,54]. For example, it is pointed out that amount of information content is based on color, which accounting for 80% of the visual communication between user and product in the ergonomicsresearch, whiletheattention ofshapetakingupfor 20% [21].The othercase isthe"7- ...
... Users' demand measured data When cars hit the market, the sales data was counted by the manufacturer at every stage, which could be used to verify the users' preferences for color and to exploit the users' potential emotional needs. Therefore, we obtained the time series X 1 of (32) classic (40) avant-garde (8) warm (22) essential (7) joyful (11) simple (39) neoteric (5) erogenous (14) created (10) attractive (25) international (18) bardian (4) sportive (14) steady (5) graceful (25) commercial (16) prospective (4) sweet (4) mature (4) … classical (13) merchant (2) plain (4) specific (3) fond (7) typical (7) lightsome (4) dynamic (3) exquisite (17) technological (5) airy (4) micromesh (2) temperamental (4) novel (3) flavoured (3) gentle (1) convivial (3) regular (2) implicit (1) elegant (6) soft (1) active (1) each color through the market research of a company as well as the statistics reference of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (www.caam.org.cn) from 2015 to 2018(see in Table 3). ...
Chaos means innovation in the field of design. Meanwhile, the product image system is not only a quantified ‘formula’ between product and psychological cognitive semantics, but also a nonlinear “system”. Therefore, the chaotic study of product color image system was carried out to grasp the users’ color sensibility demands in their complex and nonlinear perceptual cognitive processes accurately, which could help the developers to keep up with market trends and reduce the blindness of design. In this study, the Chaos Theory combine with the Kansei Engineering were applied to obtain the color brand image, collect the time series and analyze the chaos of product color image system. The results showed that product color image system has a chaotic characteristic. Furthermore, the chaotic phenomenon in the color image system of the available products was analyzed to show that the product color trends could be quantitatively predicted. At last, a product color image perception chaotic box was proposed to conceive based on the result of this study, which provides new ideas and theoretical support for the in-depth exploration of complex systems of color images. This is a new attempt to apply the Chaos Theory to the color image cognition process.
... Wang Huanhuan et al. [18] proposed using facial expressions as indicators in usability research, offering a basis for assessing users' subjective satisfaction. Ana Laura Alves et al. [19] applied questionnaires, scales, and FaceReader 9.1 software to explore how age-related colors affect product satisfaction. With the progression of usability research methods, the measurement and analysis of expressions are garnering increased attention. ...
User satisfaction serves as a crucial reference for iteratively optimizing software interface designs. This paper introduces a comprehensive measurement model of user satisfaction, employing Notability and Goodnotes for case studies. The proposed model incorporates facial recognition technology to gauge the intensity of users’ facial expressions while interacting with various functions of the target interface. Additionally, an experimental observation method is employed to gather objective data, including task completion time, task success rates, and operational procedures, alongside users’ subjective evaluations. Leveraging objective data as input and subjective ratings as output, a user satisfaction prediction model based on a PSO-BP neural network has been devised. The results demonstrate an impressive accuracy rate of 86.26%, indicating a high accuracy in subjective perception prediction. This model has proven to be effective for measuring user satisfaction and evaluating software interface usability. Moreover, this research contributes to expanding the repertoire of user interface satisfaction evaluation methods, enhancing the objectivity of measurements and surpassing the efficiency of conventional experimental evaluation techniques. The proposed model holds practical significance for software interface usability assessment and optimization design.
Products can generate constraints when their design does not meet the principles of usability (US) or user experience (UX). Among the design attributes that can interfere with these variables, colour stands out. The objective of the present study was to analyse the influence of colour on US and UX, during interaction with a product in different colours. The methodological procedures were characterized as inductive, empirical and exploratory. Thirty Portuguese women participated, aged between 60 and 80 years. Three identical clay sausage roasters, presented in different colours: terracotta, green and grey, were evaluated with Emotional Response Cards (ERC), a non-verbal self-report instrument; and Perceived Usability Cards (PUC), a verbal and emoji self-report instrument. The results point to an association between product colour, emotional valences and ERC cards with usability. Thus, US and UX can be applied in combination to improve the quality of products' design.
A Realidade Virtual (VR) vem se tornando uma ferramenta cada vez mais presente no design, visando a inovação dos produtos e satisfação dos usuários. Sua aplicação na Experiência do Usuário (UX) apresenta grande potencial, mas ainda há lacunas metodológicas a serem esclarecidas. O presente estudo objetivou verificar se as respostas às métricas de UX, que avaliam dimensões semânticas (DS), de usabilidade aparente (SUS) e resposta emocional (GEW), não apresentam diferenças entre Atividade Laboratorial Real (ALR) e Atividade Laboratorial em Realidade Virtual (ALVR). O experimento envolveu a participação de 60 jovens-adultos (ALR=30 - ALVR=30), os quais avaliaram nove artefatos de uso cotidiano, com o uso de protocolos DS, SUS e GEW. Os principais resultados indicam que não foram encontradas diferenças significativas(p0,05) na maioria dos protocolos empregados (principalmente DS e SUS). Os resultados do GEW, apesar de expressivos, indicam que a VR pode ser um fator de influência na avaliação da resposta emocional. A VR se apresenta como instrumento robusto em avaliações de UX, contribuindo expressivamente para os métodos de design de produto.
Color is a powerful communication tool that may be used from an early age to convey activity, modify emotion, and even influence psychological responses. Colors are efficient in evoking various emotions and capturing their attention. Color also has an important effect on the cognitive development of young students, and it influences intentions, performance, and emotional processes. Therefore, colors are used as an important medium to aid teaching. In HCI, digital content consists of colored texts, colored images, and other visual elements that serve as a platform for interaction. Previous studies have demonstrated indisputably the association between positive/negative perception and color, but a significant area that has not yet been investigated is how children associate color with emotions in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). In order to get an understanding of how children perceive color in the context of emotions in a collaborative setting, the researchers in this study invited students to use an online platform to a pool of 60 students from different schools that allowed them to create color and emotion-based digital content. The results showed that students used a monochromatic color scheme primarily to establish their emotions.KeywordsChromatic perceptioncomputer supported collaborative learningHuman computer Interaction
Nas últimas décadas a emoção ascendeu a objeto de estudo em distintas disciplinas, incluindo o Design. Criada em 1999 na Holanda, a Design & Emotion Society tornou-se o fórum para o debate sobre design e emoção, até sua dissolução em 2016. Dentre as iniciativas para a continuidade do intercâmbio e construção de conhecimento sobre o tema, nove investigadores do Brasil e de Portugal passaram a realizar encontros, constituindo a Rede de Estudos Avançados em Design e Emoção – READE. Esta Conversação objetivou ampliar o espaço de colaboração e diálogo sobre a relação entre design e emoção, debatendo suas variadas temáticas, abordagens, conceitos e interdisciplinaridade. Inicialmente, a rede foi apresentada. Posteriormente, foram discutidas questões sobre Ausências e Presenças no Design por meio do diálogo aberto entre os participantes, distribuídos em três grupos temáticos. Como resultado, foram geradas ideias sobre o tema, apresentada proposta para a realização de evento futuro e disseminação de conhecimento por via de publicações.
It is the key to accurately obtain participants' emotional responses to product color for the product color emotional design. However, traditional research rarely studies participant's internal emotion cognition and changing mechanism. In this article, a color emotional design method based on eye movements and event‐related potentials is proposed. Participative behavior experiment, eye movement, and event‐related potentials were carried out. Participants evaluated the electric iron pictures with different color layout and color number to obtain participants' participative feelings before eye movement and ERPs experiment. The results showed that three‐color samples were more popular than two‐color samples, and the participants' emotions were more positive when the color blocks were evenly distributed. The larger the pupil diameter in the eye movement data, the more positive the participants felt. Participants responded quickly to positive and negative stimuli when shown the two‐color samples, and the average amplitude of the early components P1 and N2 exhibited significant changes. For the three‐color samples, the average amplitude changes of positive and neutral states of participants mainly occurred in N2 and P3 components. However, there were no significant changes in the negative state. The combination of participative and objective methods is expected to offer an important basis for the research of color emotional design method based on color layout and color number, and to provide reliable indicators for the future analysis of physiological data and product color evaluation models.
Calculating the sample size in scientific studies is one of the critical issues as regards the scientific contribution of the study. The sample size critically affects the hypothesis and the study design, and there is no straightforward way of calculating the effective sample size for reaching an accurate conclusion. Use of a statistically incorrect sample size may lead to inadequate results in both clinical and laboratory studies as well as resulting in time loss, cost, and ethical problems. This review holds two main aims. The first aim is to explain the importance of sample size and its relationship to effect size (ES) and statistical significance. The second aim is to assist researchers planning to perform sample size estimations by suggesting and elucidating available alternative software, guidelines and references that will serve different scientific purposes.
The purpose of this research was to assess how the motor learning skills in 7-years old soccer players can be improved by preventing an internal focus of attention via the use coloured shoes. We painted the classic black soccer shoes in six areas corresponding to six regions of the foot with which it is possible to interact with the ball. Thirty-four 7-years-old soccer players were randomized to two groups (Coloured n = 17 and Black, n = 17) to perform four basic football manoeuvres/tasks: reception (RECP), passing (PASS), ball management (MAGT), and shooting (SHOT). We found highly significant differences (P<0.001) in all four performance tests: mean(sd) RECP: 0.82(0.07) vs. 0.45(0.12); PASS: 0.85(0.07) vs. 0.47(0.09); MAGT: 0.91(0.09); SHOT: 1.00(1.00) vs. 0.44(0.16). Colored shoes appear to draw children’s attention away from body centered cues without explicit verbal communications. We propose that this cognitive adaptation enhanced the technical gesture by preventing the negative processes associated with action constraining when adopting an internal focus attention (perhaps by allowing the foot to adapt to surfaces and movements more naturally than conditions that promote a focus on the body movement). Consequently, this type of coloured footwear could be used during childhood to allow children to enhance the performance of basic football exercises through preventing action constraining and promoting intuitive (non-body centered) action knowledge.
Two models of brain asymmetry in emotional processing were reviewed: the right hemisphere and the valence hypotheses. The first states a dominant role for the right hemisphere in emotional processing, whereas the second assumes that the left hemisphere is dominant for positive emotions and the right hemisphere for negative ones. Different methods, such as the divided visual field technique, have supported both hypotheses. The amygdala and the prefrontal cortex are presented as important structures involved on brain asymmetry in emotional processing. The paper ends pointing out new perspectives for the study of the neural subtrates of different components of emotions.
Products reinforcing positive consumer emotions can promote purchasing desire. The following emotional effects also can influence consumers’ recognition and feelings. In design field, understanding consumer emotions and the reasons behind can help designers establish emotional communication between consumer and product, and create consumer demands. This study elaborated various relations between emotion and graphic style. We conducted an emotion recognition experiment to understand participants’ emotional reactions toward graphics with four levels of stylization. FaceReader, an automatic facial expression recognition software, was used to recognize 120 participants’ emotions by one-way repeated measures ANOVA. Meanwhile, emotional adjectives and self-reports from participants were compared with those aroused emotions from viewing stylized graphics. The results indicated (1) participants showed significant emotional differences in happiness, anger, surprise and disgust toward different levels of stylized graphics. (2) Graphics with a simple element and sharp edge could attract participants’ attention. (3) Realistic graphics could inspire more associate ideas from participants. (4) Participants had higher positive evaluations on colorful graphics, and graphics with single color can attract their attention. Furthermore, we generalized limitations and precautions in applying FaceReader: (1) interpreting participants’ emotions toward static images might result in lower statistical values of negative emotions. (2) When participants concentrated on the images, their facial expressions could be interpreted as angry emotion. (3) The neutral facial expression could be interpreted as sad emotion. (4) Participants’ self-reports were supplementary to explain the plausibility of generated emotions from FaceReader. This research has demonstrated practical implications of graphic style. FaceReader could be an effective tool to evaluate consumer emotion in the field of design research. Furthermore, the importance and practicality of using facial expression recognition to evaluate participants’ emotions in response to different graphic styles have been confirmed. This approach provides a preferable basis in relevant fields of design practice and marketing.
“Soft” ergonomics includes emotional needs and other qualitative aspects which affect the relationship of the user to the product. [1] Within this field fall likes or dislikes of a product as far as its color is concerned. This study included 52 volunteers unaffected by color blindness, 28 female and 24 male, ranging in age from 18 to 53, with an average age of 22.9 years. The experimental stimuli (nine chromatic and three achromatic) were applied to six different appliances. All of them were presented on a computer screen, one at a time, in random order. A continuous scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 100 (very much) indicated to what extent the viewer liked the image. In general, for all the electric appliances, a greater preference was found for achromatic colors, especially white (77.2) and black (73.7), with similar scores. Even gray (58.5) surpassed the most preferred chromatic color, which was blue, with a score of 46.9. These findings suggest the need to obtain data about color preferences for specific products in order to satisfy the requirements of pleasurable design.
The interactive structure of software applications involves multiple facets of graphic design and information architecture. A user's affective reaction can be influenced while interacting with these applications. From a user's experience (UX) point of view, the affective reaction generated from users in some cases can be considered of an equal or even higher importance than the design and architecture of a software application. When describing affective reaction within the context of user experience, a change in the users’ attitude could also influence a change in their behavior while interacting with certain applications. More importantly, this behavior change could impact the users’ quality of decision-making during interaction. Affective reactions can be invoked and influenced through the incorporation of visual emotional stimuli. Example visual emotional stimuli include colors, facial expressions, movie scenes, and shapes of objects. Amongst these particular stimuli, colors and shapes can be considered of a lower level design than facial expressions and movie scenes. Previous studies have provided mixed findings regarding an individual's affective reaction when exposed to colors and shapes. However, this article investigates the potential of employing such elements as viable alternatives to higher level stimuli such as facial expression and movie scenes. A study was conducted to explore affective reaction using colors, shapes, and their combinations to serve as visual emotional stimuli. The objective was to understand the possibility of using lower level design alternatives for manipulating users’ affective reactions by comparing colors and shapes in the form of textual properties, abstract polygonal shapes, and the combination of both respectively. The study consisted of thirteen participants who were exposed to these design elements in their variety while interacting with a simple computer application. For measurement and analysis, one-way repeated measure ANOVAs were employed to determine the effectiveness of these design elements and their mood induction capabilities during user interaction. The results from this study indicated that the presence of colors, shapes, and their combinations were able to invoke certain affective reactions without the participants even noticing their presence. More specifically, this study revealed that certain colors and shapes generated a more positive affective reaction while others induced either a more neutral or less positive emotion from the participants. This study also demonstrated that these particular design elements have high visceral effects that could be used as potential alternatives to more traditional and higher level visual emotional stimuli in order to influence a user's affective reaction.
The effects of age in usability testing were examined in an experiment. Sixty users from two age groups (M = 23.0 yrs, M = 58.1 yrs) operated two technical devices (keyboard-based and touchscreen-based smartphones). In addition to various performance measures (e.g. task completion time, task completion rate), several subjective measures were taken (e.g. perceived usability, affect, and workload). The results showed better performance scores for younger adults than older adults for task completion time. For older adult users there was a mismatch between usability ratings and task completion time but not between usability ratings and task completion rate. Age-related differences in the importance of speed and accuracy in task completion point to the need to consider more strongly the factor user age in usability research and practice.
This study aims to investigate the emotional characteristics of various shades of white. The study involved three experiments: Prior to the main experiments, the emotional characteristics of 13 basic colors were evaluated from which four factors, flamboyant, elegant, clear, and soft were extracted to facilitate the evaluation of white in the subsequent experiments. In Experiment I, white was identified to be dominantly more elegant in comparison to the other colors; in Experiment II, the emotional characteristics of 25 shades of white were assessed to derive an equation for predicting the emotional quality based on the color attributes of different shades of white; lastly in Experiment III, 1:1 scale mock-ups of mobile phones, coated with various shades of white as well as different levels of gloss and texture, were employed for further emotional assessment of white products in real-life situations. Consistent tendencies were observed in Experiment II and Experiment III, confirming the validity of the results. In addition, although color was the most dominant element that decided product emotion, gloss and texture were also found to influence the emotional characteristics of products. In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence on the emotional responses of different shades of white, and supports designers to find an appropriate color for designing white based products.
Decline of motor performance characteristically observed in the aging process has been proposed to be caused by a single factor: deterioration of the central information processing capacity. If so, motor performance in different tasks should decline in a similar way as an individual gets older. In order to test this hypothesis, motor performance of 19- to 73-years-old physical active individuals was studied in eight motor tasks: reaction time, movement time in aiming, handgrip strength, anticipatory timing, force control, repetitive tapping, sequential drawing and sequential fingers movements. The analysis indicated a diversity of performance profiles between tasks across ages, with motor decline at a moderate rate between 20 and 60 years for reaction time, larger performance decline in the transitions between 20 and 40 years in tasks requiring movement speed in simple movements or temporal accuracy, larger decline in the transition between 60 and 70 years for maximum manual strength and graphic skill, and stable performance across ages for manual force control. Therefore, these results are contradictory to the single factor hypothesis, offering support for the alternative hypothesis of task-specific decline of sensorimotor performance as a function of aging.
This study examined consumers’ facial reactions elicited by the flavor of orange juice products using an implicit and an explicit measurement approach. The aims of this work were (a) to examine whether facial expressions measured with the Noldus FaceReader technology are a sufficiently accurate measure for differentiating between more or less differing orange juice samples, (b) to elucidate the relation between implicit and explicit facial reactions elicited by orange juices, and (c) to investigate whether implicit and/or explicit facial reactions were able to explain introspective liking ratings on hedonic scales.
Precise optical characterization of e-paper electrophoretic display is made using Fourier optics multispectral instrument. Reflection coefficients are measured versus angles and wavelength using both full diffused and collimated illumination. The capacity to illuminate and detect the light at the same angular location is used to separate the front and intrinsic reflection contributions. Diffused behavior is explained by a strong specular component and a small lambertian component on white state
Emotions are very important during learning and self-assessment procedures. Measuring emotions is a very demanding task. Several tools have been developed and used for this purpose. In this paper we evaluate the efficiency of the FaceReader during a self - assessment test. We compared instant measurements of the FaceReader with the researchers' estimations regarding students' emotions. The observations took place in a properly designed room in real time. Statistical analysis showed that there are some differences between FaceReader's and researchers' estimations regarding Disgusted and Angry emotions. Generally, results showed that FaceReader is capable of measuring emotions with an efficacy of over 87% during a self-assessment test, and that it could be successfully integrated into a computer-aided learning system for the purpose of affect recognition. Moreover, this study provides useful results for the emotional states of students during self-assessment tests and learning procedures.
In aging societies, the age-related decline in visual ability is a particularly important problem. To identify problems in daily living caused by this decline in visual ability, we simulated vision in the elderly using yellowed lenses. A questionnaire study was then conducted to investigate the population and age group that has visual deficits about issues identified in the optical study. Subjective responses related to yellowing in vision became prominent in people over 75 years old. A color judgment experiment was carried out using subjects aged 80 or older. Confusing color combinations are; yellow/white, blue/green, dark blue/black and purple/dark red. Based on this color confusion data, we used computer graphics to simulate vision in the elderly. Simulated views of public signs are shown.
Purpose
Service quality and customer satisfaction have traditionally been conceptualised and measured using cognitive indicators. This paper aims to build on the body of literature that recognises the role of emotions in determining customer satisfaction and future behavioural intention.
Design/methodology/approach
The focus for this study was a football stadium in which respondents' evaluation of “off pitch” service quality was investigated in the context of emotions aroused by “on pitch” activities. A time‐elapsed three‐stage survey was used to evaluate the respondents and any changes over time.
Findings
In a survey of 407 match attendees, emotionally‐based satisfaction was found to be a better predictor of future behavioural intention than cognitive measures of satisfaction.
Originality/value
The paper establishes the need to use both emotional and cognitive measures of satisfaction when evaluating overall customer satisfaction and future behavioural intention. It also highlights the unique nature of customer satisfaction in a sporting events venue.
This paper introduces a theoretical basis for the process that underlies emotional responses to consumer products. Five distinct classes of product-evoked emotions are discussed, each of which are the outcome of a unique pattern of eliciting conditions. The framework for these patterns was drawn from a model that reveals the cognitive basis of product emotions. The main proposition of this model is that emotional reactions result from an appraisal process in which the individual appraises a product as (potentially) harming, or favouring one or several of their concerns. In this perspective the concern and the appraisal are considered key parameters that determine if a product evokes an emotion and if so what emotion is evoked. Because each of the five classes of product emotions (i.e. instrumental, aesthetic, social, surprise, and interest emotions) is discussed in terms of these key parameters, it can be used to explain the complex and often personal nature of product emotions, and support designers in their efforts to design for emotion.
Scheduling activities are carried out in the domains of industry (production scheduling), personnel (nurse scheduling) and transportation (train scheduling). Nevertheless, there is little available knowledge on how operators schedule. In general, laboratory studies have been found to be not entirely representative of real situations (i.e. there are problems of ecological validity). Furthermore, it is difficult to make generalizations because field studies are usually conducted with just one scheduler. To overcome these two issues, this paper suggests bringing laboratory and field studies closer together using a cognitive typology. First, typologies that do not explicitly refer to a cognitive point of view are discussed. Second, the properties of a cognitive typology are detailed. A cognitive typology specific to scheduling situations is presented. This typology associates seven dimensions with their related human strategies: complexity; uncertainty; time pressure; cycle synchronicity; process steadiness; process continuity; multiple and contradictory objectives. For each dimension, the theoretical, methodological and practical implications are detailed.
Five questionnaires for assessing the usability of a website were compared in a study with 123 participants. The questionnaires studied were SUS, QUIS, CSUQ, a variant of Microsoft's Product Reaction Cards, and one that we have used in our Usability Lab for several years. Each participant performed two tasks on each of two websites: finance.yahoo.com and kiplinger.com. All five questionnaires revealed that one site was significantly preferred over the other. The data were analyzed to determine what the results would have been at different sample sizes from 6 to 14. At a sample size of 6, only 30-40% of the samples would have identified that one of the sites was significantly preferred. Most of the data reach an apparent asymptote at a sample size of 12, where two of the questionnaires (SUS and CSUQ) yielded the same conclusion as the full dataset at least 90% of the time.
BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: An emotion recognition task that morphs emotional facial expressions from an initial neutral expression to distinct increments of the full emotional expression was administered to 482 individuals, 20 to 89 years of age.
Participants assessed six basic emotions at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the full facial expression.
Participants in the three oldest age groups (60s, 70s, and 80s) demonstrated decreased performance for the recognition of the fear, anger, and sad emotions. Increased age was associated with increased recognition rates for the disgust expression, whereas no age effect was detected for the happy and surprise expressions. Covariate analyses revealed age effects were reduced by processing speed, but were unaffected by decision-making ability. The effects of age on individual emotions and levels of presentation are discussed.
These findings suggest that age has the greatest impact on the recognition of the sad emotion and the greatest age effect at the 50% level of presentation across the adult life span.
Two models of brain asymmetry in emotional processing were reviewed: the right hemisphere and the valence hypotheses. The first states a dominant role for the right hemisphere in emotional processing, whereas the second assumes that the left hemisphere is dominant
for positive emotions and the right hemisphere for negative ones. Different methods, such as the divided visual field technique, have
supported both hypotheses. The amygdala and the prefrontal cortex are presented as important structures involved on brain asymmetry
in emotional processing. The paper ends pointing out new perspectives for the study of the neural subtrates of different components of emotions. Keywords: brain asymmetry, right hemisphere hypothesis, valence hypothesis.
This article examined the effects of product aesthetics on several outcome variables in usability tests. Employing a computer simulation of a mobile phone, 60 adolescents (14-17 yrs) were asked to complete a number of typical tasks of mobile phone users. Two functionally identical mobile phones were manipulated with regard to their visual appearance (highly appealing vs not appealing) to determine the influence of appearance on perceived usability, performance measures and perceived attractiveness. The results showed that participants using the highly appealing phone rated their appliance as being more usable than participants operating the unappealing model. Furthermore, the visual appearance of the phone had a positive effect on performance, leading to reduced task completion times for the attractive model. The study discusses the implications for the use of adolescents in ergonomic research.
This paper proposed a systematic approach for exploring the interactions of aesthetic properties and design variables, by integrating knowledge from other fields such as philosophy, psychology and arts. Commonly-accepted aesthetic properties and language terms used for evaluation and criticism are first discussed and a common set of nine principles for achieving aesthetic products in a number of creative disciplines is identified. We then analyse the way these principles influence product characteristics and extract concrete and computable properties of products that may be varied to induce different aesthetic judgements and responses.
In natural situations, unpredictable events processing often interacts with the ongoing cognitive activities. In a similar manner, the insertion of deviant unpredictable stimuli into a classical oddball task evokes both the P3a and P3b event-related potentials (ERPs) components that are, respectively, thought to index reallocation of attentional resources or inhibitory process and memory updating mechanism. This study aims at characterising the influence of the emotional arousal and valence of a deviant and unpredictable non-target stimulus on these components. ERPs were recorded from 28 sites during a visual three-stimulus oddball paradigm. Unpleasant, neutral and pleasant pictures served as non-target unpredictable items and subjects were asked to realize a perceptually difficult standard/target discrimination task. A temporal principal component analysis (PCA) allowed us to show that non-target pictures elicited both a P3a and a P3b. Moreover, the P3b component was modulated by the emotional arousal and the valence of the pictures. Thus, the memory updating process may be modulated by the affective arousal and valence of unpredictable disturbing stimuli, even if the task does not require any explicit emotional categorization.
This paper describes a machine learning approach for visual object detection which is capable of processing images extremely rapidly and achieving high detection rates. This work is distinguished by three key contributions. The first is the introduction of a new image representation called the "integral image" which allows the features used by our detector to be computed very quickly. The second is a learning algorithm, based on AdaBoost, which selects a small number of critical visual features from a larger set and yields extremely efficient classifiers. The third contribution is a method for combining increasingly more complex classifiers in a "cascade" which allows background regions of the image to be quickly discarded while spending more computation on promising object-like regions. The cascade can be viewed as an object specific focus-of-attention mechanism which unlike previous approaches provides statistical guarantees that discarded regions are unlikely to contain the object of interest. In the domain of face detection the system yields detection rates comparable to the best previous systems. Used in real-time applications, the detector runs at 15 frames per second without resorting to image differencing or skin color detection.
This study investigates the links among color, price, and patronage intention on the Internet. With regard to the effects of a store website's background colors and product prices, the interactions of background colors and price levels may influence online patronage intention via perceptions of quality, sacrifice, and value. The results reveal that online consumers’ reactions to online merchandise prices vary according to website background colors. Participants who view blue or low-brightness backgrounds have high patronage intentions regardless of whether prices are high or low. Participants who view red or high-brightness backgrounds are sensitive to merchandise prices and react significantly negatively to high prices. Further mediation analyses indicate that website background colors can influence how consumers interpret price levels: Blue backgrounds make consumers use high price as a sign of high quality rather than monetary sacrifice, but red or high-brightness backgrounds make consumers use high price as a sign of high monetary sacrifice rather than product quality.
The effectiveness of wait indicator design is heavily influenced by users' underlying perceptions. The purpose of this study was to explore users’ visual imagery and speed perceptions of wait indicators on a mobile application interface, and to propose a new research model that might be effective when considering the evaluation of other interface design projects. The multiple research methods used in this study include multidimensional scaling, factor analysis, the general linear model, and fuzzy logic theory. The results showed that there were significant differences in users' evaluations of visual imagery for different wait indicators. The triangulation fuzzy results divided the wait indicators into three groups, and found that they were designed in a form consistent with the users' visual imagery evaluation. Besides, some evaluations might make users perceive the wait to be short, such as the visual imagery of “vivid and unique.” When users perceived that wait indicators were quick, their positive imagery evaluation was also high. Therefore, interface designers need to consider the substitutability of wait indicator design. These results can be used as a practical design guide in perceptual research to help interface designers efficiently design wait indicators that match users' potential feelings.
Chemical household products are found in most households. If consumers are to safely handle such products, they need to be aware of the risks posed by the particular product they are using. Although most countries require that chemical household products feature warning labels (e.g. the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals), consumers appear to also use other cues to determine the risks associated with a specific product. Thus, we studied the influence of packaging on consumers' risk perception of chemical household products. More specifically, we examined the effect of the colour of the packaging (black or pink packaging versus the original packaging) as well as the presence of images of flowers or food-imitating elements on the packaging. Significant differences with regard to consumer's risk perception were found in terms of all four studied manipulations. Therefore, we conclude that consumers' risk perception can be influenced by the packaging design. In particular, if elements that lower consumer's risk perception (e.g. featuring flowers on the label and food-imitating elements on the packaging) are omitted from the packaging, consumers might be able to more accurately judge the risks associated with a product and so take appropriate safety precautions.
Icon color and icon border shape are two key factors that affect search efficiency and user experience but have previously been studied separately. This study aimed to ascertain their separate and combined effects on smartphone interfaces. We conducted an experiment using eye tracking in addition to performance and experience measures to understand the effects of app icon color and border shape on visual efficiency and user experience. The results identified both features as essential attributes with interactive effects in the process of searching app icons on a smartphone interface. The study confirmed that varied colors across icons and a rounded square border shape helped to improve search efficiency, decrease cognitive effort, and lead to a more positive user experience.
Relevance to industry
Users of smartphones are often confronted with the problem of selecting a single app from a great number of apps. Visual design of app icons plays a key role in influencing visual search efficiency and user experience. The results of this study have implications for designing app icons on the interface of smartphones to improve search efficiency and elicit positive user experience.
Due to the growing trend of social manufacturing, product design has focused on meeting the emotional needs of users. As a product attribute, color plays an important role in meeting these needs. Therefore, product color emotional design has attracted the attention of researchers. However, a user's perception of the emotional image of product color is highly complex, and it is difficult to define this perception accurately. To this end, based on the theoretical framework of Kansei engineering, this study proposes a product color emotional design method based on a convolutional neural network and a search neural network. First, we implement a semantic differential experiment to ascertain the user's color image. Then we use a convolutional neural network to establish a complex association model between the product color and the user's emotional imagery. Based on this model, the search neural network is used to search and generate the product color design scheme that meets the target image. Finally, a product color design system applicable to practical design problems is developed. An example of the design of a home service robot demonstrates that the proposed method and system provides accurate product color design solutions that meet the needs of the user's emotional image and can be used to develop practical large‐scale applications of product color emotional design theory and methods.
With the progress of science and technology, computer peripheral products are constantly evolving. The use of touch rather than mouse operation in mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones has gained popularity because of its convenience for browsing the Internet and using apps or communication software. However, the mouse remains an essential piece of equipment for using computer software to design products and playing computer games. Wireless mice were the subject of this study, which investigated the optimal size, color, and packaging style for various mouse products. First, this study involved assessment and comparison of the sizes of commercially available wireless mice. Five sizes of mouse were selected. We then designed experiments, and participants performed tasks and completed questionnaires. The results were collected and analyzed to select the optimum product size for users. The study examined the user's psychological and emotional responses to mouse color. By conducting semantic differential analysis, 16 colors were selected for psychological testing, and the results were analyzed to identify the most suitable color. Finally, we investigated the optimal packaging styles for mouse products. In the experiment, eight styles were combined with 10 colors to produce 80 packaging styles. We use the Likert scale to collect data. The results show that the black mouse and the size of 64.5 × 95 × 35 mm3 are the most popular.
We are exposed to various aesthetic experiences everyday. Important variables involved in aesthetics are preference and harmony. Preference for color schemes can be predicted by combining preferences for the basic colors and ratings of color harmony. We use FHSI color model, in which color channels distributions are expressed with fuzzy membership functions. Such phenomena, as preference and harmony, are usually approximate and thus categorizing and ordering them is a challenge. Using fuzzy linguistic variables and hedges, we offer a human-consistent classification of aesthetic judgements. The main output of the model is aesthetic judgement on a harmony and personal preference level, e.g. very high preference. For example, in the context of apparel coordination, it allows predicting a preference for a look based on clothing colors. According to experiments, the model results in useful predictions of ratings of aesthetic pleasantness. Aesthetic preference prediction has potential in a wide range of domains, including e-commerce, design, marketing, and art.
Color has been scientifically investigated by linking color appearance to colorimetric measurements of the light that enters the eye. However, the main purpose of color perception is not to determine the properties of incident light, but to aid the visual perception of objects and materials in our environment. We review the state of the art on object colors, color constancy, and color categories to gain insight into the functional aspects of color perception. The common ground between these areas of research is that color appearance is tightly linked to the identification of objects and materials and the communication across observers. In conclusion, we argue that research should focus on how color processing is adapted to the surface properties of objects in the natural environment in order to bridge the gap between the known early stages of color perception and the subjective appearance of color. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science Volume 4 is September 15, 2018. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
This study examined color-concept associations among designers and non-designers with commonly used warning and operation concepts. This study required 199 designers and 175 non-designers to indicate their choice among nine colors to associate with each of the 38 concepts in a color-concept table. The results showed that the designers and non-designers had the same color associations and similar strengths of stereotypes for 17 concepts. The strongest color-concept stereotypes for both groups were red-danger, red-fire, and red-hot. However, the designers and non-designers had different color associations for the concepts of escape (green, red), increase (green, red), potential hazard (red, orange), fatal (black, red), and normal (white, green), while the strengths of the 16 remaining associations for both groups were not at equivalent levels. These findings provide ergonomists and design practitioners with a better understanding of population stereotypes for color coding, and consequently to effectively use colors in their user-centered designs.
The food industry is seeking ways to understand consumer emotions, using implicit measurements, to differentiate acceptability of products in the marketplace. Automated facial expression analysis (AFEA) is a prospective analysis for product acceptability. This study used aqueous bitter solutions to determine and validate AFEA as an analysis supplement to product liking. Participants (n = 46) evaluated a control (distilled water) and three bitter (caffeine) solutions: low (0.05% w/v); medium (0.08% w/v); and high (0.15% w/v). Individual participant sessions were video-recorded and analyzed (5 s; α = 0.20) for each sample in the default and continuous analysis setting. Participants rated liking and bitter intensity on a 9-point scale. An inverse relationship existed between liking and bitter intensity (rs = −0.90; p < 0.0001). In continuous setting for AFEA analysis of mean emotion intensity, analyzed by ANOVA, only the medium bitter treatment elicited a higher disgust response control (p < 0.20) and no differences were found between treatments in disgust (p > 0.20) evaluations using program default settings. For time series analysis with both the continuous and default settings, disgust was a predominant emotion in the medium and high bitter solutions as well as happy in the high (p < 0.025). Using time series analysis, continuous and default results had similar patterns over 5 s, but continuous data was more intermittent. Time series analysis is a promising tool for interpreting emotional results of a population and is more sensitive to emotional changes than mean comparisons. Future studies should continue to improve the characterization and sensitivity of emotions to food acceptability using AFEA.
Deciding a colour for a product is a significant task for designers to attract consumer attention and communicate brand messages. It requires an initial analysis that explores consumer expectations within the sector, and this information is then used to inform development of a product design. This article discusses the application of the product colour development process during the initial phase of product design. Using a case study approach, one particular product category—a dishwashing liquid product was selected based on the suggestion from a leading U.K. consumer goods manufacturing company that colour is a major design factor for this product category. In the first phase of the study, interviews and an online survey were carried out with consumers (to explore what elements are important when they purchase a washing-up liquid product). In the second phase of the study, a colour meaning experiment was conducted to explore possible colours for dishwashing liquid packaging using a semantic differential method. The results show that yellowish and bluish green colours evoke positive responses while saturated and dark green colours are perceived more negatively.
This research examined the male and female novice designers toward color associations for the concepts used for ‘warnings’, ‘action required’, and ‘signs and equipment status’ through a questionnaire-based study. A total of 178 Hong Kong Chinese final year undergraduate design students (89 males and 89 females) participated in the study. The test used required the participants to indicate their choice of one of nine colors to associations with each of 38 concepts in a color-concept table, so that any one color could be associated with any one of the concepts. For both male and female groups of novice designers, chi-square tests revealed a strong color association for each concept tested in this study (P < .05). The results showed males and females agreed on some color-concept association stereotypes which were therefore gender neutral. The male and female novice designers had the same color associations and similar levels of stereotype strengths for 21 concepts. The nine strongest and therefore most useful color-concept association stereotypes for both male and female novice designers were: red-danger, red-fire, red-hot, red-stop, red-emergency, red-error, blue-cold, blue-male, and green-exit. However, the male and female novice designers had different color association stereotypes for the standby (green vs. yellow), emergency exit (green vs. red), and toxic (purple vs. black) concepts, and the strengths of the 14 remaining associations for both groups were not at equivalent levels. Overall, it is anticipated that the findings of this study will act as a useful reference for novice designers and other design practitioners to optimize color coding in the design of ‘warnings’, ‘action required’, and ‘signs and equipment status’ messages.
We demonstrate a method for capturing emotional response to beverages and liquefied foods in a sensory evaluation laboratory using automated facial expression analysis (AFEA) software. Additionally, we demonstrate a method for extracting relevant emotional data output and plotting the emotional response of a population over a specified time frame. By time pairing each participant's treatment response to a control stimulus (baseline), the overall emotional response over time and across multiple participants can be quantified. AFEA is a prospective analytical tool for assessing unbiased response to food and beverages. At present, most research has mainly focused on beverages. Methodologies and analyses have not yet been standardized for the application of AFEA to beverages and foods; however, a consistent standard methodology is needed. Optimizing video capture procedures and resulting video quality aids in a successful collection of emotional response to foods. Furthermore, the methodology of data analysis is novel for extracting the pertinent data relevant to the emotional response. The combinations of video capture optimization and data analysis will aid in standardizing the protocol for automated facial expression analysis and interpretation of emotional response data.
Child-Resistant Packagings (CRPs) are important because they prevent children accessing potentially harmful products. However, the locking mechanism located on the caps still presents usability problems, especially for elderly users. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of packaging design, gripping technique and age in the transmission of torque when opening packages with squeeze-and-turn closures. Three different packages of mouthwashes (squeeze-and-turn type) were analyzed and two gripping techniques were used: tridigital and bidigital. The sample comprised one hundred subjects across five age groups equal in size (3–5 years; 8–12 years; 13–17 years; 30–59 years; over 60 years). For maximum torque measurement, the packages were adapted to receive a torquimeter internally installed and connected to the cap. The results show that packaging design, gripping technique and age are factors that influence the transmission of torque when opening squeeze-and-turn packages. In terms of the packaging design, the cap with the largest diameter allowed the application of higher torques. The opening process using the tridigital gripping presented higher values than the bidigital. In terms of the relative strength of grip across the age groups, children from 3 to 5 years presented the lowest torque values. However, the torque transmission with tridigital grip for children under 5 years old was higher when compared to the bidigital grip for all groups and packagings. The current findings provide biomechanical data on opening squeeze-and-turn packages, contributing to the design of packages that best balance safety and usability.
Web surveys are rapidly becoming standard issue in many researchers' toolkits; however, measurement error has been shown to affect web surveys to a greater extent than paper-and-pencil surveys (Couper, 2000; Manfreda & Vehovar, 2002). Principles of aesthetic design and social presence have been applied to web surveys to reduce the prevalence of such error with promising results, which were further investigated in this research. A sample of 181 first-year psychology undergraduate students participated in this study. Participants were randomly allocated to view one of eight web survey interfaces, which varied by aesthetic quality and social presence. Exploratory structural equation modeling using the partial least squares method revealed that classical aesthetic quality and social presence were both positively related to perceived ease of use of the web survey interface and positive state affect; social presence and perceived ease of use were positively related to trust in the web survey researcher; classical aesthetic quality was negatively related to negative state affect; and, expressive aesthetic quality was negatively related to perceived ease of use and positively related to positive state affect. Interestingly, expressive aesthetic quality was also positively related to negative state affect. These relationships between aesthetic quality and social presence should inform best practice web survey design recommendations, and future empirical work should extend and test the generalizability of these findings.
Older adults commonly report muscle fatigue, which may be associated with reduced walking ability. Elderly may have insufficient awareness of the balance threat caused by muscle fatigue. The aim of this study was to analyze the interaction effects of aging and leg muscle fatigue on gait parameters in walking and obstacle crossing. One hundred and twenty men, who were divided in six groups according to their age (20-29 years, 30-39 years, 40-49 years, 50-59 years, 60-69 years, above 70 years), participated in this study. Participants performed three trials of unobstructed level ground walking and obstacle crossing during walking before and after quadriceps muscle fatigue. To induce fatigue, participants performed a repeated sit-to-stand task from a chair with arms across the chest to a pre-determined cadence (30cycles/min) using a metronome. Spatial-temporal gait parameters (stride length, duration, and speed, step width, and trailing and leading heel-clearance) were analyzed, and compared by two-way ANOVA (group and fatigue). The results confirmed our hypothesis, showing age-related effects of leg muscles fatigue in both gait conditions. From 40 years old, participants modulated spatial-temporal and vertical impulses in both tasks more in response to fatigue than younger participants, apparently to improve balance and safety. Leg muscle fatigue caused age-dependent changes in both unobstructed level ground walking and obstacle crossing during walking, which appeared to reflect an attempt to maintain balance and safety, probably to counteract adverse fatigue effects.
Measuring the User Experience was the first book that focused on how to quantify the user experience. Now in the second edition, the authors include new material on how recent technologies have made it easier and more effective to collect a broader range of data about the user experience. As more UX and web professionals need to justify their design decisions with solid, reliable data, Measuring the User Experience provides the quantitative analysis training that these professionals need. The second edition presents new metrics such as emotional engagement, personas, keystroke analysis, and net promoter score. It also examines how new technologies coming from neuro-marketing and online market research can refine user experience measurement, helping usability and user experience practitioners make business cases to stakeholders. The book also contains new research and updated examples, including tips on writing online survey questions, six new case studies, and examples using the most recent version of Excel.
This paper analyzes the relation between usability and aesthetics. In a laboratory study, 80 participants used one of four different versions of the same online shop, differing in interface-aesthetics (low vs. high) and interface-usability (low vs. high). Participants had to find specific items and rate the shop before and after usage on perceived aesthetics and perceived usability, which were assessed using four validated instruments. Results show that aesthetics does not affect perceived usability. In contrast, usability has an effect on post-use perceived aesthetics. Our findings show that the “what is beautiful is usable” notion, which assumes that aesthetics enhances the perception of usability can be reversed under certain conditions (here: strong usability manipulation combined with a medium to large aesthetics manipulation). Furthermore, our results indicate that the user’s affective experience with the usability of the shop might serve as a mediator variable within the aesthetics–usability relation: The frustration of poor usability lowers ratings on perceived aesthetics. The significance of the results is discussed in context of the existing research on the relation between aesthetics and usability.
An experiment was conducted to test the relationships between users' perceptions of a computerized system's beauty and usability.
The experiment used a computerized application as a surrogate for an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Perceptions were elicited
before and after the participants used the system. Pre-experimental measures indicate strong correlations between system's
perceived aesthetics and perceived usability. Post-experimental measures indicated that the strong correlation remained intact.
A multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that the degree of system's aesthetics affected the post-use perceptions of
both aesthetics and usability, whereas the degree of actual usability had no such effect. The results resemble those found
by social psychologists regarding the effect of physical attractiveness on the valuation of other personality attributes.
The findings stress the importance of studying the aesthetic aspect of human–computer interaction (HCI) design and its relationships
to other design dimensions.
Please do not request a full text copy of this book, I find such requests very disrespectful. Thanks for your understanding. I have a lot of free material on my website and youTube channel.
This article presents nearly 10 year's worth of System Usability Scale (SUS) data collected on numerous products in all phases of the development lifecycle. The SUS, developed by Brooke (1996)2.
Brooke , J. 1996. “SUS: A “quick and dirty” usability scale”. In Usability evaluation in industry, Edited by:
Jordan , P. W. ,
Thomas , B. A. Weerdmeester and
McClelland , I. L. 189–194. London: Taylor & Francis. View all references, reflected a strong need in the usability community for a tool that could quickly and easily collect a user's subjective rating of a product's usability. The data in this study indicate that the SUS fulfills that need. Results from the analysis of this large number of SUS scores show that the SUS is a highly robust and versatile tool for usability professionals. The article presents these results and discusses their implications, describes nontraditional uses of the SUS, explains a proposed modification to the SUS to provide an adjective rating that correlates with a given score, and provides details of what constitutes an acceptable SUS score.
In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to evaluate the contribution of surface color and color knowledge information in object identification. We constructed two color-object verification tasks - a surface and a knowledge verification task - using high color diagnostic objects; both typical and atypical color versions of the same object were presented. Continuous electroencephalogram was recorded from 26 subjects. A cluster randomization procedure was used to explore the differences between typical and atypical color objects in each task. In the color knowledge task, we found two significant clusters that were consistent with the N350 and late positive complex (LPC) effects. Atypical color objects elicited more negative ERPs compared to typical color objects. The color effect found in the N350 time window suggests that surface color is an important cue that facilitates the selection of a stored object representation from long-term memory. Moreover, the observed LPC effect suggests that surface color activates associated semantic knowledge about the object, including color knowledge representations. We did not find any significant differences between typical and atypical color objects in the surface color verification task, which indicates that there is little contribution of color knowledge to resolve the surface color verification. Our main results suggest that surface color is an important visual cue that triggers color knowledge, thereby facilitating object identification.
Adults' facial reactions in response to tastes and odors were investigated in order to determine whether differential facial displays observed in newborns remain stable in adults who exhibit a greater voluntary facial control. Twenty-eight healthy nonsmokers (14 females) tasted solutions of PROP (bitter), NaCl (salty), citric acid (sour), sucrose (sweet), and glutamate (umami) differing in concentration (low, medium, and high) and smelled different odors (banana, cinnamon, clove, coffee, fish, and garlic). Their facial reactions were video recorded and analyzed using the Facial Action Coding System. Adults' facial reactions discriminated between stimuli with opponent valences. Unpleasant tastes and odors elicited negative displays (brow lower, upper lip raise, and lip corner depress). The pleasant sweet taste elicited positive displays (lip suck), whereas the pleasant odors did not. Unlike newborns, adults smiled with higher concentrations of some unpleasant tastes that can be regarded as serving communicative functions. Moreover, adults expressed negative displays with higher sweetness. Except for the "social" smile in response to unpleasant tastes, adults' facial reactions elicited by tastes and odors mostly correspond to those found in newborns. In conclusion, adults' facial reactions to tastes and odors appear to remain stable in their basic displays; however, some additional reactions might reflect socialization influences.