Neuroanatomical correlates of perceived usability

Usability has a distinct subjective component, yet surprisingly little is known about its neural basis and relation to the neuroanatomy of aesthetics. To begin closing this gap, we conducted two functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in which participants were shown static webpages (in the first study) and videos of interaction with webpages (in the second study). The webpages were controlled so as to exhibit high and low levels of perceived usability and perceived aesthetics. Our results show unique links between perceived usability and brain areas involved in functions such as emotional processing (left fusiform gyrus, superior frontal gyrus), anticipation of physical interaction (precentral gyrus), task intention (anterior cingulate cortex), and linguistic processing (medial and bilateral superior frontal gyri). We use these findings to discuss the brain correlates of perceived usability and the use of fMRI for usability evaluation and for generating new user experiences

Incorporating Cognitive Neuroscience Techniques to Enhance User Experience Research Practices

User Experience (UX) involves every interaction that customers have with products, and it plays a crucial role in determining the success of a product in the market. While there are numerous methods available in literature for assessing UX, they often overlook the emotional aspect of the user\u27s experience. As a result, cognitive neuroscience methods are gaining popularity, but they have certain limitations such as difficulty in collecting neurophysiological data, potential for errors, and lengthy procedures. This article aims to examine the most effective research practices using cognitive neuroscience techniques and develop a standardized procedure for conducting UX research. To achieve this objective, the study conducts a comprehensive review of UX research that employs cognitive neuroscience methods published between 2017 and 2022

My Freedom: Assessing Reactance in a High Freedom Persuasive Website

The freedom concept has been an important one, to daily engagement in activities and everything that becomes so close to people. One of them is computing systems that we use every day and they serve several purposes in moulding human lives. An important aspect of this is behaviour change as many have been successful while others have failed because they are too restrictive for use. However, the presence of freedom does not guarantee the success of many systems. Therefore, this work focuses on how reactance can still be experienced in a persuasive website that ensures freedom and non-forced compliance. Specifically, the work studied anger, compliance and perceived usability of a persuasive website that was developed to provide intervention for users in the area of healthy meal planning through manipulation of freedom levels. Results indicated that participants exposed to high freedom text had lower anger, higher perceived usability and higher compliance than participants exposed to low freedom text and social high freedom message. This led to the conclusion that users’ freedom feeling during a persuasive attempt can be boosted with the inclusion of high freedom message design and that the integration of social agents for persuasion enhancement must be done with great care.Keywords: Psychological Reactance, Freedom, Behaviour change, Social Influence, compliance, persuasion, computing device