Tag: case study

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Does practicing a diversity of savoring techniques help enhance happiness?

Click the image to enlarge.
Interaction scenarios for Revealing Moments in which two individuals self-select different positive activities in response to the same ambiguous prompt (i.e., “Bring light”).

Publication

  • Faulk, J., & Yoon, J. (2023). Does practicing a diversity of savoring techniques help enhance happiness? A randomized-controlled trial of design-mediated well-being, Journal of Design Research. (In press – Downloadable upon request)
  • Faulk, J.D., Oluwadairo, O., & Yoon, J. (2022). Secret dance and bring light: Enhancing user autonomy through directional ambiguity in designing positive emotion regulation interventions. Design Research Society (DRS), Bilbao, ES. Download

When we look forward to enjoyable events or share positive experiences with others we can prolong and amplify our positive emotions. These and other savoring techniques can increase our subjective well-being. Yet, it remains unknown whether practicing a variety of savoring techniques adds its own happiness-enhancing effect. In this 1X3 randomized-controlled trial, 71 participants used a novel, interactive poster to facilitate high vs. low savoring diversity over eight days, or they journaled in the control condition. Unlike other positive psychology interventions, the poster was designed to inspire users to self-select their own happiness-enhancing activities. Regression analyses showed that while cognitive well-being increased in the high diversity condition, emotional well-being did not. These results suggested that assigning savoring diversity may have modestly contributed to users’ cognitive well-being. Written responses further pointed to the poster’s potential effectiveness in promoting positive experiences. Implications for design practice and directions for future research are discussed.

A diagram that depicts how practicing diverse savoring techniques may increase participants’ well-being.

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Decision-making experiences of maximizers and satisficers in human-design interactions

Publication

  • Shin, Y., Ranjan, K., Kowalski, M., and Yoon, J. (2023). Investigating the Decision-making Experiences of Maximizers and Satisficers: The Case of Interactions with Conversational Music Recommender Systems. Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2023). ACM. (Under review)

This project investigates a human-centered perspective for creating a recommender system by focusing on users’ different decision-making styles and information processing modes. According to emerging research in behavioral science, people’s decision-making tendencies can be broadly classified into two styles: (1) maximizers, who strive to maximize the expected utility and, (2) satisficers, who want to reach their own sufficiency. When users exert a high level of cognitive elaboration in decision-making, they engage in analytical processing, while imagery processing takes place when cognitive elaboration is low. Utilizing these theoretical distinctions, we developed Arlo Assistant, a conversational user interface that differentiates ways of recommending music. Through an in-lab experiment, we tested the effects of using Arlo Assistant on both maximizers’ and satisficers’ decision-making experiences. The study provides initial evidence that a personalized recommender system tailored to users’ different decision-making styles can facilitate more positive experiences and discusses implications for developing recommender systems.

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Identifying core UX values and design opportunities for mobile experiences

Research conducted in collaboration with Samsung Electronics (Seoul, South Korea)

This project aims to identify the core User eXperience values and design opportunities that can guide the innovation process of developing mobile devices and services (e.g., smartphones, apps, tablets, smart speakers, wearable sensors, etc.). The approach is experience-driven: A set of users’ needs were specified that are relevant to enriching mobile experiences. The set was used as a framework to assess mobile devices and services, generating insights into the areas to improve. In addition, key enablers that are crucial for the implementation of mobile product-service systems were identified that encompassed the areas of artificial intelligence, camera, sensors, etc. Taking the users’ needs and key enablers into account, a series of design opportunities for mobile devices and services were proposed.

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The mood street, creating design interventions that support flight attendants

Research conducted in collaboration with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Publication:

  • Desmet, P. M. A. , Fokkinga, S.F., Ozkaramanli, D., & Yoon, J. (2016). Emotion-driven product design. In: H. L.  Meiselman (Ed.). Emotion measurement (pp. 406-426). New York: Elsevier. Download
  • Yoon, J., Pohlmeyer, A. E., & Desmet, P. M. A. (2014). The mood street: Designing for nuanced positive emotions (pp. 707–716). Presented at the NordiCHI, Helsinki, Finland: ACM. Download

The KLM Royal Dutch Airlines wanted to introduce products and services in the crew center that evoke positive emotions to improve the mood of flight attendants just before boarding the airplane. At the beginning of the project, 10 positive emotions were chosen to design for, which guided the design process: anticipation, confidence, energized, inspiration, joy, kindness, pride, relaxation, respect, and sympathy. For each emotion, several ideas were generated. Because the emotions differ in terms of causes and behavioral effects, with interviews, observations, and creative workshops, the designers explored when and why flight attendants experienced each of the 10 emotions, and how these emotions contributed to their professional activities. The gained insights were translated into a collection of 30 designed interventions, three for each emotion.

Two examples are “Good Night” and “The Curtain”, which were designed to evoke kindness and anticipation, respectively. Good Night is a smartphone application that enables team members to help each other to be on time when they have early flights. The application is aware of the schedule of a flight attendant and automatically sets the desired wake-up time for each team member. At wake-up time, the application gently reminds the team members to check who might still be asleep by showing each member’s state, and, if necessary, signaling to give them a friendly wake-up call. In this way, the flight attendants kindly look after each other and feel connected even before they meet. The Curtain intends to stimulate positive anticipation for the upcoming flight. As the flight attendants walk from the crew center towards the airport gate, the closed curtain slowly opens and lights around the curtain frame glow, one by one. When the lights are on, the curtain is completely open. This moment builds up a feeling of expectancy and signals that they are ready and prepared to go “on-stage.”