Interface & Emotions | Flow in HCI
November 10th, 2006 by Kevin Capota
Trevor van Gorp uses the psychological dimension of emotional states from Russell in his master thesis. In this project he uses emotion, arousal, attention and flow chaining emotional states to improve HCI.
Arousal & Performance
Arousal can be defined as the range between anxiety and boredom and is combined with the dimension of value. Positive affect promotes creative thinking and is linked with the tendency to approach. Negative affect promotes more detail-oriented thinking and is linked with the tendency to avoid. Emotions persuade us to direct our attention to one piece of information over another. The intensity level of the emotion often determines the strength and focus of attention.
The Yerkes-Dodson (1908) law describes how arousal levels affect performance. Performance increases with the stress level, until an optimum performance point is reached at a medium level of arousal.
Pleasure & Enjoyment
Van Gorp makes a difference between pleasure and enjoyment in the realm of interface design. Pleasure is derived from sensuous delights, as the tactile feel of the materials that comprise a mobile device, the different type of feedback systems, or the appearance of the object.
Enjoyment results from the focussing of attention on the completion of a challenging task. A sense of accomplishment is experienced when the goal has been reached.
Flow
The concept of flow occurs when a challenge is balanced with a person’s skill or ability to take action.
When one is performing a task (challenge) that is closely matched to his abilities (skills), the task will grab the person’s attention. The person will then get motivated to perform the task. This challenge should not be too difficult as it will become stressful to the person, and it should not be too easy for this will trigger boredom. Note that this concept is closely matched to the previously mentioned ‘optimal performance’ chart of Yerkes-Dodson. During the task the person’s skills are improved and when the task is finished a sense of enjoyment will follow. This will in turn motivate the person to engage in another challenge which matches his now increased skills; resulting in a flow process. This so called ‘state of flow’ results in peak performance and gains in self-confidence. It can even be strong enough to lose perception of time. All of this is the product of a constant sense of accomplishment and enjoyment.
Relating flow and optimal performance to the affect circumplex, a balance between boredom and anxiety leads to a state of optimum performance and increased skills. This results in a flow area in the middle of anxiety and boredom in the affect circumplex.
Negative (unpleasant) stimuli evoke stronger cognitive, physiological and emotional responses than positive stimuli. Thus, negative stimuli arouse more attention but are also able to break the flow more easily. Therefore the flow area is placed from slightly negative to positive in the circumplex.
Flow & HCI
Van Gorp proposes a few suggestions for the creation of a flow experience in interface design. First of all a sense of accomplishment should be provided by guiding the user to complete tasks that lead to the realization of goals. Visual and tactile qualities of the interface influence our interest and attention, while usability influences our enjoyment. An interface keeps our attention by the ability to help accomplish our goals, fulfilling our needs, provoke positive emotions and create positive associations with past experiences
Another way to influence user’s emotions to produce flow by the interface is by addressing the idea of state chaining. This idea is based from the subject of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). State chaining utilizes transition states to transform a problem state in a desired end state in value or arousal levels.
For instance, when one is feeling stressed and frustrated the interface may produce a new element or button to evoke interest. The frustrated user gets curious and decides to click on the button and explore the outcome. The button may link to a funny Youtube movie which cheers the user up.The user feels excited the interface came up with such a good idea to regain his motivation and flow status. Afterwards a feeling of pleasant surprise about the interface’s cooperation remains…
[…] Kevin Capota, a master’s student at Twente University in the Netherlands, has written an article summarizing some of my master’s thesis research in emotions and HCI. The article does a good job of summarizing the connections I made between the idea the Yerkes-Dodson Law, “flow” and the emotion circumplex, including reproductions of some of my thesis diagrams. […]