Abstract
Although the concept of user experience includes two key aspects, experience of meaning (usability) and experience of emotion (affect), the empirical work that measures both the usability and affective aspects of user experience is currently limited. This is particularly important considering that affect could significantly influence a user's perception of usability. This paper uses image schemas to quantitatively and systematically evaluate both these aspects. It proposes a method for evaluating user experience that is based on using image schemas, sentiment analysis, and computational semantics. The aim is to link the sentiments expressed by users during their interactions with a product to the specific image schemas used in the designs. The method involves semantic and sentiment analysis of the verbal responses of the users to identify (i) task-related words linked to the task for which a certain image schema has been used and (ii) affect-related words associated with the image schema employed in the interaction. The main contribution is in linking image schemas with interaction and affect. The originality of the method is twofold. First, it uses a domain-specific ontology of image schemas specifically developed for the needs of this study. Second, it employs a novel ontology-based algorithm that extracts the image schemas employed by the user to complete a specific task and identifies and links the sentiments expressed by the user with the specific image schemas used in the task. The proposed method is evaluated using a case study involving 40 participants who completed a set task with two different products. The results show that the method successfully links the users’ experiences to the specific image schemas employed to complete the task. This method facilitates significant improvements in product design practices and usability studies in particular, as it allows qualitative and quantitative evaluation of designs by identifying specific image schemas and product design features that have been positively or negatively received by the users. This allows user experience to be assessed in a systematic way, which leads to a better understanding of the value associated with particular design features.
Highlights
USER experience is a multi-faceted concept that refers to the experiential and affective aspects of using a particular product, system, or service
While the functional needs refer to the usability of the product, the affective aspect is concerned with the emotion that occurs as a result of the interaction with a product
This is the first study that experimentally investigates the link between image schemas and affect
Summary
USER experience is a multi-faceted concept that refers to the experiential and affective aspects of using a particular product, system, or service. The concept of user experience encompasses both the functional (cognitive) and perceptual/emotional (affective) needs of the users [2] It is about the relationship between the objective and the subjective, the internal and the external aspects constituting human–product interactions [14]. The affective aspects of user experience are less well studied than the functional needs of users, as indicated by Hassenzahl and Tractinsky [2] who suggest that the emotional needs of the user must be better understood, defined, and operationalized This duality between reason and emotion has been studied by several prominent scholars, including Damasio [15] and Minsky [16]. The most comprehensive among them is the multi-component model for measuring affect, which accommodates five dimensions of affective measurement—cognitive appraisal, subjective feeling, physiological measurement, motor expression, and behavioral tendencies [18]
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