Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 15.1
A General Framework for the Study of Aesthetics in Information Technology
Outcomes:
e.g., Attitudes
Performance
Satisfaction
Enjoyment
Fun
Adoption
Motivation
Aesthetic
Processes:
Perception
Cognition
Affect
IT Design
Factors
Aesthetic
Evaluations
Moderators:
e.g., System Type, Task, Context,
Culture, Individual Differences,
Experience with the System
Note: The dashed box represents low-level processes that are generally not studied by IT researchers.
objective guidelines may run into some harsh realities. Thus far, with very few exceptions, extensive
research has failed to come up with objective laws of aesthetics (Martindale et al., 1990; Boselie,
1992; Swede, 1994). In addition, design guidelines in HCI are notoriously sensitive to contextual
variations. The more specific a guideline, the less generalizable it is; and as guidelines become less
specific they lend themselves to more subjective interpretations. Thus, we might have to settle, at least
in the short run, for identifying more subjective and general aesthetic design characteristics such as
“classical” vs. “expressive” aesthetic dimensions of Web pages (Lavie and Tractinsky, 2004).
Aesthetic Processes
Based on the design characteristics of interactive systems, users perceive and evaluate various attrib-
utes of the system (e.g., ease of use, usefulness), including its aesthetics. As mentioned earlier, some
of these aesthetic evaluations are likely immediate, strong, and may dominate the ensuing inter-
active experience. These perceptions and evaluations are tied to affective and cognitive processes that
are not yet fully understood. While some progress is being made regarding the low-level (i.e., neu-
rophysiological) nature of these processes (e.g., Cela-Conde et al., 2004), the specific details are only
tangential to IT research in the sense that they increase the distance between the IT constructs and
the final outcome variables of interest (Benbasat and Zmud, 2003). They are depicted in the frame-
work, however, for their central role in eventually generating a range of IT-relevant outcomes: They
may form (or change) users' attitudes towards the system; improve (or worsen) their performance;
affect their satisfaction; and influence their willingness to buy or adopt the system. This group of vari-
ables is depicted in Figure 15.1 within a dashed box to indicate their auxiliary role in IS research.
Aesthetic Evaluations of IT
As mentioned above, all three levels of processing in Norman's (2004) model may participate in
the processing of aesthetic information. Still, IT researchers may be interested less in the details
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