Apperception as a Multisensory Process in Material Experience

Visual perspective has dominated experience research in humantechnology interaction for decades now. The neglect of other sensory modalities is gradually being addressed by scholars and designers, who investigate user experience based on touch, smell, taste, sound and even expressive bodily interactions. In cognitive and affective processes, user experience is always multi-modal, not just regarding perceived multi-sensory information, but also while perceiving through one modality we mentally construct information relevant to the other senses. This article reports the results of an experiment, where participants (N = 52) appraised materials either only by touching them or only by seeing. Th…

Evaluating a Future Remote Control Environment with an Experience-Driven Science Fiction Prototype

The case study presented in this paper aimed at discovering opportunities for ambient intelligence and new interaction methods for a future remote crane-operating environment. The theoretical objective was to carry out an experience-driven research project in an industrial work context, and the practical objective was to create and evaluate a future oriented science fiction prototype. The work was carried out in close co-operation with an industrial partner who was a domain expert in the field of crane industry. The aim was to focus on clearly defined user experience goals to which the industrial partner committed. The consequent immediate objective was to focus on two explicit experiences …

Sensory modalities and mental content in product experience

Contemporary research in human-technology interaction emphasises the need to focus on what people experience when they interact with technological artefacts. Understanding how people experience products requires detailed investigation of how physical design properties are mentally represented, and the theorisation of how people represent information obtained through different modalities still needs work. The objective of this study is to investigate how people experience modality-related affective aspects of products, using the psychological concept of mental content. For this purpose, we adopt the framework of user psychology, which is the sub-area of psychology involved with investigating…

Empiirinen tutkimus brändikokemuksen vaikutuksesta verkkokauppaympäristöjen käyttäjäkokemukseen ja käyttöaikeeseen

Tutkielmassa tarkasteltiin brändikokemuksen vaikutusta verkkokauppaympäristöjen käyttäjäkokemukseen ja käyttöaikeeseen. Brändikokemusta tarkasteltiin kahden ulottuvuuden kautta: brändityytyväisyyden ja brändiluottamuksen. Käyttäjäkokemusta tarkasteltiin käytännöllisten (frustraation, kompetenssin ja hallinnan tunteen) ja esteettisten (kauneuden ja mielikuvituksettomuuden) tunteiden näkökulmista. Brändikokemuksen vaikutusta verkkokauppaympäristöjen käyttäjäkokemukseen ja käyttöaikeeseen tutkittiin kahdessa kokeellisessa tutkimuksessa. Tutkimukset toteutettiin osana Jyväskylän yliopiston käyttäjäpsykologian laboratoriossa tehtyä verkkokauppaympäristöjen käyttäjäkokemusta käsittelevää tutkimus…

What to Expect and What to Focus on in SQL Query Teaching

In the process of learning a new computer language, writing erroneous statements is part of the learning experience. However, some errors persist throughout the query writing process and are never corrected. Structured Query Language (SQL) consists of a number of different concepts such as expressions, joins, grouping and ordering, all of which by nature invite different possible errors in the query writing process. Furthermore, some of these errors are relatively easy for a student to fix when compared to others. Using a data set from three student cohorts with the total of 744 students, we set out to explore which types of errors are persistent, i.e., more likely to be left uncorrected by…

Beyond MAYA for game-changing multisensory design

With information technology becoming ever more embedded in our surrounding everyday things, the nature of interactions and the way we experience digitalization is becoming increasingly embodied. Thus, growing effort is placed on examining the multisensory nature of interaction experience. From a design perspective, increased knowledge of how people experience materials and how to design to encourage varying material experiences opens new opportunities for the generation of rich multisensory user experience, and accomplishing game-changing results. In particular, the innovation space opened up by understanding people's material expectations of designs is significant. An experiment (N = 78) w…

Affective contents of cross-cultural audiovisual experience

Audiovisual presentation of a product has a direct impact on the mental representation of an individual when interacting with a product. Companies produce audiovisual contents that can be used in different cultural environments as a way of having broader impact at a cheaper cost. But do video contents have the same impact in different countries? We addressed this question by using images and videos of Iittala products (Finnish design) with the goal of finding whether participants from two countries, Finland and Spain, appraised the designs similarly. We performed an experiment in which participants interacted with three audiovisual products depicting images/videos of the brand design. Throu…

Quick Affective Judgments: Validation of a Method for Primed Product Comparisons

A method for primed product comparisons was developed, based on the methodological considerations of emotional appraisal process and affective mental contents. The method was implemented as a computer tool, which was utilised in two experiments (N = 18 for both). Ten adjectives served as primes, and five drinking glass pictures as stimuli. Participants' task was to choose a preference between two glasses, given the priming adjective. The results validate the method by providing test-retest reliability measures and showing convergence with questionnaires. Further, different evaluation times between the primes and the stimuli reveal the existence of different mental processes associated with …

User Psychology Lab, University of Jyväskylä