Emotional Design in Web Interfaces

Abstract

In the area of human-computer interaction, over the last decade, there has been a growing interest on emotional factors, valuing above all the user experience. Emotions play a crucial role - in terms of both performance and influence - in areas such as attention, motivation, memory, decision-making and behavior. Therefore, not only emotion influences the interaction with websites but they also trigger emotional responses, and these responses can determine which website users choose. Therefore, were analyzed the emotional responses triggered in the interaction with Duolingo's interface (a learning languages website) taking into account the different components of emotional design, using data gathering instruments such as eye tracking and self-reporting methods. In this way, the present work intended to contribute to the design of interfaces that appeal in a greater extent to the users' emotions, in order to improve their user experience while increasing their level of engagement. Over the years, the focus of research in the field of human-computer interaction has been usability, which traditionally emphasizes the ease of use and functionality based on observed cognitive activity. Only recently, and prompted by Norman (2004), the role of aesthetic and affective aspects of interface design (Dillon, 2002; Norman, 2004) become more prominent leading to a growing interest on emotional factors. Works such as Jordan (2000), Desmet (2002) and Norman (2004) advocate a greater focus on pleasure and emotion in the user experience design of a product. “Emotions play an important role in how the user perceived the product (…) to achieve a meaningful relationship to a product.” (Fossdal & Berg, 2016, p. 95) Furthermore, emotions dominate decision-making process (Baumeister, Dewall, & Zhang, 2007; Polignano, 2015), direct attention and enhance particular memories over others (Reeves & Nass, 1998), being thus closely linked to attitudes, motivations and users' decisions (Koshkaki & Solhi, 2016). Consequently emotions influence all aspects of our interactions with cara membuat website (Forlizzi & Battarbee, 2004) (Emanuel, Rodrigues, & Martins, 2015; Yin, Zhang, & Li, 2014). Moreover, these trigger complex social and emotional responses identical to that emotional responses experienced when interacting with people (Desmet, 2002). In particular, the positive emotions can increase users' motivation and fixation (Isen, 1993). Emotions can be thereby considered in the field of human-computer interaction, as important factors to take into account for the construction of affective, satisfactory and efficient interfaces (Eskimez, Sturge-Apple, Duan, & Heinzelman, 2016).