Understanding the Visual Aesthetics of Mobile Apps in Everyday Life: The Influence Cute Aesthetics

This paper investigates visual aesthetics (VA) of mobile apps’ in everyday life by examining the effects of affect and cute aesthetics. We analyzed two theoretical dimensions of affect, positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), and provided an analysis of the relevance of PA and NA by relating them to VA of three interface designs (ID) with varying levels of cute aesthetics (i.e. low, mid and high). Data was collected using a survey. Regression results from 166 participants suggest that cute aesthetics invoke PA (i.e., interested, excited, enthusiastic) and that it is a strong positive predictor for VA across all three IDs. This study contributes to a better understanding of the relevance of positive affect and cute aesthetics on visual aesthetics of mobile apps in everyday life

Impacts of Multimodal Displays with Small Mobile Viewscapes on Operators in Safety-Critical Systems

Real-time information is essential for effective operator decision making and performance in safety-critical systems, as operators must make crucial decisions quickly, utilizing relevant information to monitor, assess and respond. Research examining the impact of ultimodal displays with augmented reality (AR) on operators performing safety-critical work has shown improved operator situation awareness, but mixed results with respect to performance and workload. Multiple-resource theory (MRT) posits that individuals will experience different performance impacts when information is received using different modalities, compared to when the information is communicated using a single modality. Earlier work provides a theoretical basis for expectations about the impacts of multimodal displays, but does not address the costs or impacts of digital layers of AR imagery in multimodal displays with small viewscapes, a gap our research addresses in safety-critical systems such as Arctic search and rescue and maritime navigation

Users’ Cognitive and Emotional Costs of Rebuilding Habits: The Case of Mobile Banking

Users’ constant interaction with digital interfaces and applications facilitates the development of habits in a given context. An interface redesign can disrupt a person’s established use pattern. As companies frequently update and redesign their digital applications, it is crucial to uncover the impact of interface re-adaptation on their clients’ attitudes and user experience. A within-subjects laboratory experiment was conducted with current users of an existing mobile banking application. Participants performed a series of tasks during consecutive visits to the current and updated versions of the application. Psychophysiological, perceptual, and behavioral data were collected via measurement of cognitive load, emotional experience, subjective attitude, and objective performance. Results suggest interface changes that disrupt users\u27 cognitive scripts impair re-adaptation; this entails greater cognitive load, perceived effort, and task completion times, as well as worsened perceptions of navigability during the completion of familiar tasks on the new interface. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.\u2

A Critique of Personas as representations of "the other" in Cross-Cultural Technology Design

A literature review on cross-cultural personas reveals both, a trend in projects lacking accomplishment and personas reinforcing previous biases. We first suggest why failures or incompleteness may have ensued, while then we entice a thoughtful alteration of the design process by creating and validating personas together with those that they embody. Personas created in people's own terms support the design of technologies by truly satisfying users' needs and drives. Examining the experiences of those working "out there", and our practises, we conclude persona is a vital designerly artefact to empowering people in representing themselves. A persona-based study on User-Created Persona in Namibia contrasts the current persona status-quo via an ongoing co-design effort with urban and rural non-designers. However we argue persona as a design device must ease its implicit colonial tendency to and impulses in depicting "the other". Instead we endorse serenity, mindfulness and local enabling in design at large and in the African context in particular

Enhancing the Museum Experience of an Augmented Reality (AR) Art Exhibition Through Digital Exhibit Labels and Gamification

Due to emerging and disruptive technologies, museums are searching for ways to enhance their visitors’ experience. This paper investigates aspects of an Augmented Reality (AR) art exhibition for their potential effects on a visitor’s museum experience and engagement. Through a mixed experimental design we tested the effects of two factors, namely the exhibit label’s Channel (print vs. digital) and the presence of Gamification (none vs. quiz game). Forty seven participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, each with two treatments: (1) Print No Gamification and With Gamification (n = 24), (2) Digital No Gamification and With Gamification (n = 23). Results revealed that displaying exhibit labels for AR artworks in digital rather than print form resulted in a significantly higher level of Cognitive Absorption among participants. This, in turn, had a positive impact on visitors’ aesthetics, education, entertainment and escapism (4Es), and ultimately both engagement and behavioural intentions

Studying self-care with generative AI tools:Lessons for design

The rise of generative AI presents new opportunities for the understanding and practice of self-care through its capability to generate varied content, including self-care suggestions via text and images, and engage in dialogue with users over time. However, there are also concerns about accuracy and trustworthiness of self-care advice provided via AI. This paper reports our findings from workshops, diaries, and interviews with five researchers and 24 participants to explore their experiences and use of generative AI for self-care. We analyze our findings to present a framework for the use of generative AI to support five types of self-care, – advice seeking, mentorship, resource creation, social simulation, and therapeutic self-expression – mapped across two dimensions – expertise and modality. We discuss how these practices shift the role of technologies for self-care from merely offering information to offering personalized advice and supporting creativity for reflection, and we offer suggestions for using the framework to investigate new self-care designs