Arguing for Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction
Noam Tractinsky, Marc Hassenzahl · i-com · 2005
In the 60s and 70s few people were inter-acting with computers and if they did, those interactions were predominantly work-related. It seems quite natural then, that early Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), which emerged at that time, strove to enable people to perform work-related tasks in an efficient and error free way. Du-ring the 1980s, usability engineering emer-ged from this understanding of HCI. It was probably the right concept for that time.But things change. Technology is much more mature, powerful and cheaper now. Consequently, informations technology (IT) is everywhere; people use it for many purposes, beyond accomplishing tasks at work. They surf the web for example – a rich medium in terms of visual design. The merger of the computer with other me-dia, the rise of the computer gaming in-dustry, etc. changed the users’ expectati-ons. Today’s users know that IT can be visually appealing and entertaining. At the same time, the HCI research commu-nity becomes more and more interested in the roles of affect and emotion in addi-tion to the “pure” cognitive processes, which they study traditionally. As a result, the aesthetics of interactive products be-comes more and more important for users and researchers alike.Our view is that – as a community that takes pride in designing