Hedonic and ergonomic quality aspects determine a software's appeal

  • Authors:

  • Mare Hassenzahl;Axel Platz;Michael Burmester;Katrin Lehner

  • Affiliations:

  • Corporate Technology - User Interface Design, Siemens AG, 81730 Munich, Germany;Corporate Technology - User Interface Design, Siemens AG, 81730 Munich, Germany;Corporate Technology - User Interface Design, Siemens AG, 81730 Munich, Germany;Corporate Technology - User Interface Design, Siemens AG, 81730 Munich, Germany

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

The present study examines the role of subjectively perceived ergonomic quality (e.g. simplicity, controllability) and hedonic quality (e.g. novelty, originality) of a software system in forming a judgement of appeal. A hypothesised research model is presented. The two main research question are: (1) Are ergonomic and hedonic quality subjectively different quality aspects that can be independently perceived by the users? and (2) Is the judgement of appeal formed by combining and weighting ergonomic and hedonic quality and which weights are assigned?The results suggest that both quality aspects can be independently perceived by users. Moreover, they almost equally contributed to the appeal of the tested software prototypes. A simple averaging model implies that both quality aspects will compensate each other.Limitations and practical implication of the results are discussed.