Aesthetic and Symbolic Qualities as Antecedents of Overall Judgements of Interactive Products

Quality aspects of an interactive system that address user needs that go beyond users’ instrumental needs are one important area for user experience research. Two categories of non-instrumental qualities seem to be important: aesthetic and symbolic aspects. In an explorative study the role of different dimensions of non-instrumental quality and their influence on overall judgements, like beauty or goodness of an interactive product, were studied. Four digital audio players were used to get information on users’ perception of instrumental and non-instrumental quality perceptions as well as overall judgements. The results show the importance of various non-instrumental quality aspects and point out the need for further research.

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