Co-experience: Understanding user experiences in social interaction

Usability still applies a very narrow view of context – most people do not
live or work in a usability laboratory. Although the definition of usability has
evolved since its original conception, the definition of specific tasks, specific
contexts and specific users excludes experiences that relate to aspects such as
non-use and misuse. These might be very relevant to user experience: we might
feel proud to own a product or safer and happier because of a product’s presence,
or adapt the product to other, unintended uses. The emotions that become
relevant in these situations relate partly to a product’s appearance, partly to its
functionality, and in a great part to its meaning. The next section will review
the current situation in studying product-related emotions.
58 2 USER EXPRERIENCE DEMYSTIFIED
2.2.3 HOW TO CAPTURE THE EMOTIONAL
There are many ways to access and measure emotions. Observation and biometric
measures are one way to identify immediate emotional responses. However,
if these emotions are to be verbalised, they need to be interpreted, which is a
context dependent activity. The moods and emotions of others around as well
as social norms can influence how the interpretation of, for example, excitement
is affected.
The way most people first express their emotions, consciously or not, is
through changes in facial expressions, body posture, voice and so forth – this
is called sentic modulation. Many of these are plainly observable. (Picard 1997:
25) Some emotional responses can be extremely fleeting, for example certain
facial expressions may be as short as 125 milliseconds (Hatfield et al. 1994:
19). Expressions may not be plainly visible also because they happen inside
the body and require biometric measurements such as galvanic skin response,
heart rate or blood pressure to be detected. When coupled with observational
data biometric measurements can identify, for example, a frustrating incident
and connect it to a specific situation. The aim of affective computing is
to furnish computers with the ability to recognise and respond appropriately
to emotions. Possible applications for such computers include game controls,
therapeutic feedback tools and jewellery that indicates its wearer’s emotional
state. (Picard 1997, current research projects are also described on the MIT Affective
Computing website)
It is common, also, to ask people to report on their emotions and experiences.
Many tools exist for measuring for example subjective satisfaction using
questionnaires and surveys (Keinonen 1998: 46). Verbal reports and scales have
their challenges, though, as developing a reliable tool is difficult and languagedependent.
Desmet argues that the best way to understand emotions elicited
by a product’s appearance is by non-verbal means, although both verbal and non-