After treating the instrumental qualites from Mahlke’s model, it is time to describe the non-instrumental qualites. Mahlke describes these qualities as ‘the quality aspects of an interactive system that address user needs that go beyond tasks, goals and their efficient achievement’. Over the past few years, various dimensions of non-instrumental qualities were discussed. Four of them are presented below.

Pat Jordan makes a distinction in the levels of pleasure a product evokes. According to Jordan pleasure in the context of products can be defined as the emotional, hedonic and practical benefits associated with products. It is one step further in the hierarchy of needs (functionality – usability – pleasure). Jordan suggests four different kinds of pleasure: physiological, social, psychological and ideological pleasure. These pleasures are the result of the relationships and interactions between a person and a product.Physiological pleasures are derived from sensory organs. They are connected with touch, taste and smell as well as feelings of sexual and sensual pleasure.
Social pleasure is derived from social interaction, such as the status a product implies or its role within social interaction. A product can facilitate talk between people and indicate a belonging to a social group.
Psychological pleasure is gained through cognitive and emotional reactions. It is gained from accomplishing a task and relates to the extent to which an object can help accomplishing a task.
Ideological pleasures concerns with people’s values and may relate to a product’s aesthetics or values it embodies.

Anat Rafaeli presented a model that suggests artefacts need to be analysed according to three aspects: instrumentality, aesthetics and symbolism.
Instrumentality is the extent to which the artefact contributes to the performance or to promoting goals. An instrumental quality thus. Negative emotions are evoked in situations where people’s performance goals are not met by the artefact. The main goal is to produce neutral emotions.
Aesthetics and symbolism represent the two categories of non-instrumental qualities.
Aesthetics is the dimension that regards the sensory experience an artefact elicits, and the extent to which this experience fits individual goals and spirits.
Symbolism refers to the meanings and associations that are caused by the products.

Lavie and Tractinsky examined users’ perceptions of website aesthetics. They found two main dimensions of aesthetics: The classical aesthetics dimension emphasizing orderly and clear design and the expressive aesthetics dimension reflecting ‘the designer’s creativity and originality’. It is believed that good design should strive to balance the two dimensions to the given design context. As Arnheim said: ‘Complexity without order produces confusion; order without complexity produces boredom’. The research further showed correlations of both aesthetic dimensions with pleasure and perceived usability. The classical aesthetic dimension was correlated substantially higher in relation to pleasure and perceived usability than expressive aesthetics.

Hassenzahl identified two kinds of hedonic attributes as presented in an earlier post. These attributes are related to the user’s self and can be subdivided into identification and stimulation. Stimulation (and novelty and challenge) is a basic human need in the personal development process. The need for something new, to explore. A user’s identification with a product is a way to express one’s important personal values. It is a social characteristic, because individuals want to be seen in specific ways by relevant others.

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