hedonomics

18 February 2009 NEOUPA

An Hedonomic Evaluation of the Effect of Repeated System-Exposure on

Pleasurable Human-System Experience

Lauren L. Murphy, Ph.D. , Ernst & YoungKip Smith, Ph.D. , Linköping University

Peter A. Hancock, Ph.D. , University of Central Florida


EHH Framework


Flow

• Challenging Activity that Requires Skills• Clear Goals and Feedback• Concentration on the Task at Hand• The Transformation of Time• Loss of Self-Consciousness• Loss of Sense of a Self Separate from the

Environment• The Merging of Action and Awareness• Feeling in Control • Autotelic Experience

» (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Jackson and Marsh, 1996)


Overview

• Experiment One

• Experiment Two

• Experiment Three

• Concluding Remarks about the Findings

• Recommendations for the Application of Hedonomics

• Suggestions for Future Research Directions in Hedonomics


Experiment One

• Purpose– The purpose of experiment 1 was to investigate the mere

exposure effect on Flow

• Logic– The logic of the study is that by increasing the exposure to

technology, positive affect (or liking) toward the technology will increase as well.

– Positive affect has been linked strongly to the occurrence of flow, therefore by increasing the exposure to the technology the result should be an increase of positive affect toward the technology and the occurrence of flow.


Research Questions/Hypotheses

• 1) What is the effect of repeated exposure on flow?– Flow State Scale

» Jackson and Marsh, 1996

• Flow was expected to increase linearly with each exposure.

» Bossard, 1932; Dion, 1972; Zajonc, 1980; Bornstein, 1989


Method

• Repeated Measures Design

• 32 Participants

• Exposed to eight 20-min sessions– four per day for two days

• Their task was to control a forest fire using C3Fire

• After each exposure they took the:– FSS: Jackson and Marsh, 1996

C3fire Interface• The domain of

fire fighting is of subsidiary interest and was chosen because the task itself incorporates the essential ‘ingredients’ believed to be conducive to the experience of flow.

(Granlund, 2002)

Repeated Measures ANOVAFlow per Exposure

• Day 1, exposures:– 1 < 2* and 3*– 4 > 1*, 2* and 3*– 2=3

• Day 2, exposures:– 5 < 6* and 7*– 8 > 5*, 6* and 7*– 6 = 7

• * p=.01

Experiment Two• Purpose:• To determine if the nature of flow is linear or cyclic by extending the number

of exposure. – RQ: Will the same trend occur for flow and exposure as seen in results

from experiment one?

• Method

– 5 Participants

– Exposed to 10-min sessions of Frogger 3D• four per day for a four days, 16 exposures

– Their task was to get the frog safely across the street and river

– After each exposure they took the Flow State Scale» (Jackson and Marsh, 1996)


Repeated Measures ANOVAFlow per Exposure

• Day 1,Exposures:– 1 < 2*, 3* and 4*– 4 > 1* and 2*– 2=3, 3=4

• Day 2, Exposures:– 5 < 6*, 7* and 8*– 6=7=8

• Day 3,– 9 < Day 4*

• * p=.01


Mean Flow per Day


Slope of Flow per Day

• Slopes from the four means of flow from the four exposures were calculated for each day.

• Notice the decrease of slope over the four days reveals an habituation effect for flow.


EHH Framework


Experiment Three

• Purpose:– To investigate the 4th level of the HH of N called ‘pleasurable

experience.’ – To use the Kansei Engineering Method to examine user needs

and aesthetics.

• Logic– By taking two versions of a video game that are identical in all

other aspects expect for the Hedonomic aspects:• aesthetics, graphics, and perspective

– it was possible to observe the effect on the users caused by the changes in the Hedonomic aspects of the system.


Research Questions/Hypotheses

• 1) Are user needs (Kansei word ratings) affected by aesthetics?

• User needs as defined by the Kansei words were expected to be rated higher, and more positively in the high aesthetic condition compared to the low aesthetic condition.

» (Schutte, Eklund, Axelsson, & Nagamachi, 2004; Schutte, Schutte, & Eklund, 2005)


Step one: Word Collection– These words were collected

from different sources such as:

• advertisements, web sites, customers in arcade rooms, game chat rooms, customers in game stores, and ‘gamers’ in order to achieve the most complete semantic description possible.

– Video games were described in short phrases or one-word adjectives.

– Over 60 semantic descriptions were collected


Step Two: Reduction of the Number of Words.

• Using an affinity diagram:– The semantic descriptions

were grouped according to their affinity (Bergman and Klefsjo, 1994)

– This was done by a panel of four expert gamers that were graduate students in Human Factors, Simulation and Training, and Computer Science at University of Central Florida


Affinity Diagram of Kansei Words

• The affinity diagram conveyed groups of words belonging together in several aspects. From this, representative words were chosen and are called Kansei words.


Collection and Reduction of Kansei Words

• The final set resulted in a total of 12 Kansei words for video games

• Each Kansei word was rated on a Likert scale.

• Innovative• Engaging• Challenging• Control• Story• Social Interaction• Strategic• Immersive• Rejuvenate• Intuitive• Depth• Balance


Identification of Product Properties

Frogger Graphics Perspective

Old 6 colors Low Detail

2D Entire-World

New 32 colors High

Detail

3D Partial-

World


Frogger Original 1981


Frogger 3D 1991


Method

• Pilot– Collection and reduction of semantic

descriptions resulting in 12 Kansei words.– Indentifying the product properties.

• Experiment– 58 Participants (30 F, 28 M)– Participants played both versions of the game

counterbalanced• FSS (Jackson and Marsh, 1996)• Rated the Kansei Words using a Likert scale


Discussion

• Findings from experiment three revealed that:– The incorporation of three-dimensional

graphics, increased color variety, and partial-world perspective increased user’s feelings of ‘depth,’ ‘immersion,’ ‘challenge,’ and ‘engagement’ during video game play.


Implications

• The habituation effect can be used as an indicator of (or criteria to distinguish between) good and poor design.– A poor design reveals an habituation of flow– A good design reveals a minimum habituation,

indicating a relatively linear increase of flow over time


Implications

• Designers should use data from Kansei Engineering to inform them on how different product properties elicit certain feelings in the users.

• During the ‘collection of Kansei words’ stage, designers should:

• Collect the descriptors only from users that fit the user profile, in order to better gage the needs of the users.

• Survey the profile users by asking them to provide descriptors on what their needs are for the product and using these as kansei words.


– Principle of Aesthetic Longevity » Hancock et al, 2005

– Individuation» (Cziksentmihalyi, 1997; Hancock, 2003; Hancock et

al, 2005; Jordan, 2000)

– Seamless Interaction» Hancock, 2003; Hancock et al, 2005

Design principles


• Future research should focus on:– Ways of mitigating the effect of habituation of

flow.– The effect of repeated exposure on flow,

when the technology is disliked and/or unpleasant to use.

– Improving the Kansei Engineering method

Future research


Making Hedonomics a Reality

• It must be demonstrated numerically that by incorporating these guidelines and principles at the early stages of design that it will:– Ensure a pleasurable experience with our

work applications– Increase the well-being of our workers– Ensure financial returns for our companies.


Thank You

hedonomics

Design

exposure day

experience of flow

flow logic

slope of flow

occurrence of flow

nature of flow

means of flow

mean flow