Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design

Article Idea:

Aesthetics of User Interfaces

suggested by Gaurav Anand on 2008/08/11

I am a masters student of Human-Computer Interaction and Information Economics at School of Information at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prior to coming to graduate school, I have attained professional experience in the field of UI design. Some of my work samples can be seen at http://www.coroflot.com/gauravanand and http://www.umich.edu/~agaurav.

At school, I am exploring ‘aesthetics [See formal definition below] of user interfaces’ and why it is now a ripe time that industry should start considering explicit aesthetic considerations in the design of interfaces.

I am interested in writing about aesthetics as a source of user motivation/incentives for using information systems: I am interested in writing how aesthetics add value to information products. Or, how should we design sensory experience, pleasure, emotion and visual persuasion that information products deliver apart from pure functionality and utility. This concern has been critically emphasized by Don Norman in Emotional Design. His arguement that ‘Attractive things work better’ has also been backed-up by research. Virginia Postrel has also examined this issue more formally in Marginal Appeal of Aesthetics where she states that ‘Aesthetics offers innovators an advantage; Adding pleasure may be more important than adding performance attributes,’ and further asserts that ‘Microeconomics is a clearer guide for understanding value of aesthetics.’

To explain further: By studying information aesthetics, as one of the various topics, I mean to study ‘How different methods of information presentation (which is an Art) make it possible for users to grasp complex abstractions.’ An example of complex abstactions is e-Communities or online social networks. ‘How could the designers of e-Communities portray abstractions, so that it visually gains the immediacy of a perceivable real-life community?’ A great visual concept that can embody real-life community experience in the virtual environment will surely magnify the usefulness of the e-communities, and hence their success. Here, I feel that the importance of information presentation arts is incalculable, and so is the subject of information aesthetics.

More specifically , I wish to write on two aspects of aesthetics: 1) visual aesthetics, and 2) aesthetics of use or aesthetics of interaction. I have done considerable research in these areas, and now want to put it in formal words. I have some raw writing samples on the topic. Please contact me at agaurav@umich.edu if you would like to discuss this further.

Sincerely

Gaurav Anand
Graduate Student – 2009
School of Information University of Michigan
Tel: 6465102529
Email: agaurav@umich.edu
Web: http://www.umich.edu/~agaurav

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** Fomal definition of information aesthetics on the web also explains this term as follows: “It’s essentially the science (or the art) of visually representing information by understanding the emotional values, responses, and motivations of the individual. It is about information (and human-information interaction) ‘beautification’. Its obvious that beautiful things are more enjoyable to look at, and better to interact with and learn from.”