Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Conclusions
The focus of Human-Computer Interaction has evolved from the study of the us-
ability of interactive products towards a more holistic understanding of the psycho-
logical and social impact of products in people's lives. Firstly, this has resulted in a
wealth of new concepts such as pleasure (Jordan, 2000), fun (Blythe et al., 2003),
aesthetics (Tractinsky et al., 2000), and hedonic qualities in the use of personal
interactive products (Hassenzahl, 2004), but also aspects of trust in online transac-
tions (Egger, 2003), and the increased social connectedness that awareness systems
bring among family members (IJsselsteijn et al., 2009; Markopoulos et al., 2004;
Van Bel et al., 2008). Secondly, it has lead to an increased emphasis on methods
for assessing the subjective quality and psychological consequences of product use.
While a wealth of methods and techniques are available for assessing the usability
of interactive products, research on methods for the subjective assessment of users'
experiences is only at its infancy (e.g. Van Schaik and Ling, 2007; Fenko et al.,
2009; Ben-Bassat et al., 2006; Zimmerman et al., 2009; Vaananen-Vainio-Mattila
et al., 2008).
7.1
Contributions of This Work
In this work we identified the notion of diversity in subjective judgments of the
quality of interactive products. We identified two distinct schools of thought in the
field of user experience and highlighted the methodological issues they pose when
one is concerned about capturing the diversity in users' responses to interactive
products. More specifically, the focus of our work has been threefold:
to conceptualize the notion of diversity in subjective judgments of users' experi-
ences with interactive products
to establish empirical evidence for the prevalence of diversity, and
to provide a number of methodological tools for the study of diversity in the
context of product development.
 
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