Designing for Positive Emotional Responses in Users of Interactive Digital Technologies: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

In this study, 20 papers were reviewed to identify means, methods, techniques, tools or other interventions that practitioners may use to positively influence the affective state of users of digital interactive technologies. A systematic literature review was conducted in order to find such interventions. A literature background covering concepts from the fields of Human-computer interaction, as well as certain concepts from the field of psychology that is relevant to this study is provided. Search criteria were determined and used to identify research papers from various academic resources. Four categories of intervention categories were identified from the papers reviewed, which can be applied to interactive digital technologies by practitioners in order to evoke positive affect on users. These four categories were aesthetics, affective computing, need fulfilment and novel interaction techniques. The identified categories for practitioners were consolidated alongside metadata such as the types of publications of the reviewed papers, the regions the studies were conducted and the growth in the number of studies.Given the effect of positive affect and hedonic qualities on the appeal of a technology to a user, the following research question can be raised: "What practices, techniques or interventions can a practitioner implement to evoke positive affective responses from users of a digital interactive technology?". The aim of this review is to evaluate existing research in the discipline of human-computer interaction (HCI) and user experience to identify the different interventions that have been put forward by researchers specifically intended to improve the emotional responses evoked in users of digital interactive technologies. The focus of this review will not be on the functionality or usability (pragmatic quality) aspects, but instead on the pleasurable and emotional aspects (hedonic quality) of user experiences.This review firstly describes some of the background knowledge on Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Centered Design, User Experience and the Hedonic/Pragmatic model of UX. The literature background also investigates some concepts from psychology, such as the pleasure-arousal-dominance model [5,6], and the ten psychological needs [7]. The selection process of articles used for the review is described in Sect. 3 including search terms, sources, as well as the data extraction process. The extracted research was then reviewed to answer the research question.

The three-step persuasion model on YouTube: A grounded theory study on persuasion in the protein supplements industry

“…In addition, the principle of persuasion named “Liking” can be seen to be connected to the theme of “Engagement” and our two categories of “Humor” and “Personal Relationship” (Cialdini, 2007 ). Lastly, shooting the vlog with a high level of aesthetics increases perceived enjoyment (Makkan et al, 2020 ), which in turn increases motivation (Hattingh et al, 2020 ).…”