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Violating aesthetic principles as means to influence usage behaviors

Publication

  • Welgoss, B. & Yoon, J. (2021). It’s ugly. That’s why it works beautifully: An exploratory study using design strategies to violate aesthetic principles as means to influence usage behaviors. Designing Interactive Systems. ACM. Download.

This project explores how aesthetic violation can be used to influence a user’s behavior when interacting with a product. Aesthetic violation occurs when the elements of a design purposely deviate from the aesthetic expectations of the user in order to encourage a behavioral response. This draws from the theory of processing fluency, which suggests that aesthetic perceptions are a function of a perceiver’s processing dynamics—the more fluently a perceiver can process an object, the higher the aesthetic response. In this instance, the desire for fluent processing may incite users to escape, minimize, or counteract the violation. The project offers insights into the benefits and relevance of aesthetic violation, strategy formation, and integration into the design process.