The Diversity of Non-instrumental Qualities in Human-Technology Interaction

Quality aspects that go beyond the instrumental value of an interactive system are one area of research in the field of user experience. In this paper we describe an approach to the measurement of non-instrumental qualities that defines aesthetic and symbolic aspects as main sub-categories and discuss further relevant sub-dimensions. An exemplary study on three mobile phones is presented that used the discussed assumptions as theoretical basis and applied various questionnaire dimensions from the literature. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the approach and show that a consideration of diverse aspects of non-instrumental qualities makes it possible to better explain users’ overall judgments. Implications for the evaluation and design of interactive systems and ideas for future work are discussed.