The aesthetic turn: unravelling recent aesthetic approaches to human-computer interaction

Abstract

With the rapid penetration of digital interfaces into all aspects of everyday life, the need for understanding the aesthetic aspects of interaction between humans and computers has come into focus. Various positions suggest that aesthetics offers IT design and research an enhanced analytical foundation going beyond the traditional use-oriented principles of HCI and usability. However, this new body of literature employs different notions of aesthetics, resulting in a blurred picture. This article reviews the contributions of aesthetics to IT design and research, which we refer to as the aesthetic turn. Based on a thorough literature review, we propose a division of the field into four overall approaches: the cultural. the functionalistic, the experience-based and the techno-futuristic. Finally we discuss the prospects and pitfalls of approaching research and design of digital interfaces from aesthetic stances.

Quantifying Aesthetics of Visual Design Applied to Automatic Design

“…This decision is very important: any change in a design may lead to a whole new design [2]. That is part of the reason that we do not allow the user to apply any modification to our design.…”

“…Udsen et al [2] articulate that we are witnessing the "aesthetics turn" and delineates four major contributions of aesthetics in Information Technology and design of Human Computer Interaction: cultural, functionalist, experience-based, and techno-futurist. On the cultural level, we are witnessing that the computer is serving as a medium engaging us in experiencing digital media and art in our daily life.…”

“…As Bodker [1] argues, we are witnessing the so called third wave of Human Computer Interaction -HCI-in the information era, where conceptually and theoretically, aesthetics, as well as cognitive and emotional experience are an inevitable part of cultural levels. With the advances in ubiquitous computing and access to computers and social networks from anywhere at anytime, from home and via mobile devices, digital media has been adopted by art and culture in our everyday life [2].…”

“…Because of the popularity of word clouds in visualizing categories and the fact that words are randomly scattered over a layout, we use this technique in our summative user study. Using wordle 2 , we generated black and white word clouds to avoid introducing any color bias. …”

The effects of interaction sequencing on user experience and preference

“…Studies of subjective user experience in HCI have focused on several different aspects of interaction, including: methods for measuring user satisfaction (Chin et al, 1988;Hornbaek, 2006), the role of interaction aesthetics (Hassenzahl, 2004;Porat and Tractinsky, 2012;Tractinsky et al, 2000;Udsen and Jørgensen, 2005), improving engagement through gamification (Deterding et al, 2011), and interaction features that delight users (Levesque et al, 2011;Shneiderman, 1987;Zhang and von Dran, 2001).…”