More predictability in creating aesthetically appealing websites can be obtained using universal design principles, such as MAYA (Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable). The MAYA principle highlights the importance of both novelty and typicality in aesthetic appeal. While its effect has been empirically demonstrated in various contexts, it has not been examined for websites. Survey participants (N = 108) evaluated novelty, typicality, and aesthetic appeal across six commercial and six service websites. The results of a linear mixed-effects model indicate that both novelty and typicality predict website aesthetic appeal, supporting the MAYA principle. However, the connection between novelty and aesthetic appeal is stronger than between typicality and aesthetic appeal. Higher novelty predicts higher aesthetic appeal, particularly for service websites, whereas typicality has a stronger effect on commercial websites. These results explain how the MAYA principle applies to website design and help designers enhance the predictability of creating aesthetically appealing websites.

• 120 icons’ semantic distance (SD) and aesthetic appeal (AA) were assessed. • Strongest predictors were concreteness for SD and icon style familiarity for AA. • SD and AA have only a tiny inverse association when controlling for other factors. • The aesthetic-usability effect seems to be very weak in icons. • Familiarity might be the strongest factor for aesthetic-usability effect in icons. The aesthetic-usability effect asserts a positive relationship between icons’ aesthetic appeal and usability, but the strength and direction of the effect are still under debate. In user interfaces, icons are key components for fluent HCI, with their usability depending on semantic distance. Although previous studies have investigated factors influencing icon cognition, the relationship between aesthetic appeal and perceived usability remains unclear, especially when controlling icon concreteness and other influencing factors. Here, we study the relationship of aesthetic appeal (AA) of icons to their semantic distance (SD), with a particular focus on icons varying in concreteness. We also investigate how strong this effect is compared to other factors, such as familiarity. We conducted a behavioral experiment ( N = 46) to assess AA of icons while measuring their SD as response times in icon-function semantic matching task. We employed generalized linear mixed-effects models to analyze the relationships between the variables. Our findings indicate that icon concreteness was the strongest predictor of SD (weak effect), whereas familiarity with the icon style was the strongest predictor of AA (moderate effect). This suggests that the aesthetic-usability effect is weak for icons when controlling for other factors. While aesthetics can influence usability and vice versa, other confounding variables such as familiarity and concreteness appear to play a greater role. Particularly, familiarity with icon style may be the strongest explanatory factor for the apparent aesthetic-usability effect in icons. Our study provides insights into how inter-individual and contextual factors shape the complex relationship between icon aesthetics and usability.

We are witnessing a novel era of creativity where anyone can create digital content via prompt-based learning (known as prompt engineering). This article investigates prompt engineering as a novel creative skill for creating AI art with text-to-image generation. In three consecutive studies, we explore whether crowdsourced participants can (1) discern prompt quality, (2) write prompts, and (3) refine prompts. We find that participants could evaluate prompt quality and crafted descriptive prompts, but they lacked style-specific vocabulary necessary for effective prompting. This is in line with our hypothesis that prompt engineering is a new type of skill that is non-intuitive and must first be acquired (e.g., through means of practice and learning) before it can be used at a level of high quality. Our studies deepen our understanding of prompt engineering and chart future research directions. We conclude by envisioning four potential futures for prompt engineering.

Image generation using generative artificial intelligence has become a popular activity. However, text-to-image generation—where images are produced from typed prompts—can be less engaging in public settings since the act of typing tends to limit interactive audience participation, thereby reducing its suitability for designing dynamic public installations. In this article, we explore body prompting as input modality for image generation in the context of public event settings. Body prompting extends interaction with generative AI beyond textual inputs to reconnect the creative act of image generation with the physical act of creating artworks. We implement this concept in an interactive art installation, Artworks Reimagined , designed to transform existing artworks via body prompting. We deployed the installation at an event with hundreds of visitors in a public and private setting. Our semi-structured interviews with a sample of visitors ( N = 79) show that body prompting was well-received and provides an engaging and fun experience. We present insights into participants’ experience of body prompting and AI co-creation and identify three distinct strategies of embodied interaction focused on re-creating, reimagining, or casual interaction. We provide valuable recommendations for practitioners seeking to design interactive generative AI experiences in museums, galleries, and public event spaces.

Driver distraction by smartphone use is a major contributor in traffic accidents. Context-sensitive driver (in)attention monitoring and warning systems might mitigate the associated risks. However, few naturalistic studies are yet available on the effects of such systems. In this paper, utility of context-sensitivity in inattention monitoring was studied by a smartphone-based context-sensitive distraction warning system. The warnings were based on driver's phone use and the attentional demands of the upcoming traffic environment. The system's effects on 26 heavy smartphone users’ phone usage and acceptance were analyzed after a within-subject naturalistic study with 12 weeks of control (warnings off) and 12 weeks of interventions (warnings on). The system decreased odds that the drivers would touch their smartphones in reminder areas that were defined a priori as high demanding for attention. Against expectations, the system had no effect in urban road environments. The drivers reported that they had paid more attention to traffic because of the system and that the warnings were acceptable and useful, even if annoying. Similar systems’ safety effects should be further studied. No eye-tracking or driving performance measures were collected and thereby it is questionable if there was a true positive effect on participants’ attention. However, the findings suggest that (in)attention warning systems might benefit from adaptation of the warnings to the upcoming driving demands. The findings can be utilized for the development of proactive and context-sensitive (in)attention monitoring and distraction mitigation systems.

The authentication process is the first line of defence against potential impostors, and therefore is an important concern when protecting personal and organisational data. Although there are many options to authenticate digital users, passwords remain the most common authentication mechanism. However, with password numbers increasing, many users struggle with remembering multiple passwords, which affects their security behaviour. Previous researchers and practitioners have attempted to suggest ways to improve password memorability and security simultaneously. We introduce novel approach that utilises colour as a memory cue to increase password memorability and security. A longitudinal study examined in total over 3000 passwords that were created, learnt and recalled (password process) over a period of five-weeks. By adding colour to the password process, our results suggest that password memorability and security can be increased simultaneously. Through giving the user the option of choosing the colours (compared with colours being preselected), encourages users to create more personal and meaningful memory cues when creating their passwords. Additionally, colour also provided another security parameter by increasing password entropy. These unique results have practical implications for researchers and practitioners that could positively impact password security, and the financial losses suffered due to password security breaches.

This article examines the cognitive process of visually experiencing user interfaces. It contributes to a theory- and methodology-grounded understanding of how UIs are experienced with regard to various aesthetic criteria. This aids in considering the targeted experience goals in relation to visual design choices—a problem that designers usually have to tackle intuitively. The issue in explicitly relating designs to experiences stems from the complexity of the process in which visual stimuli are processed and turned into experiences. The authors present a cognitive top-down approach to this process, rooted in the appraisal theory and the theory of the predictive brain. Several predictions are derived via this approach, and an eye-tracking experiment with Web sites is presented that provides evidence of them. The experience goals and repeated exposure to stimuli are shown to affect appraisal times and visual scanpaths in Web pages’ evaluation; this supports the top-down approach described. Researchers can use the findings to inform their theoretical and empirical pursuits as they strive to understand what makes design artefacts emotionally evocative, and the methodology outlined can assist designers in locating the visual regions and elements relevant for experiential design goals.

Technological artefacts express time periods in their visual design. Due time, visual culture changes and thus affects the design of pictorial representations in technological products, such as icons in user interfaces. Previous research of temporal aspects in human-computer interaction has been focusing on particular interaction situations, but not on the effects of design eras on user experience. The influence of icon design styles of different eras on aesthetic and usability experiences was studied with the method of primed product comparisons. Affective preferences and their processing times were analysed in order to examine visual usability in terms of semantic distance and aesthetic appeal of icons from different design eras. Aesthetic and usability preferences of icons from different eras varied, which allowed the investigation of the process in which users experience icons. This examination results in elaborating the process, for example the relationship between cognitive processing fluency, familiarity, and beauty.

A method for primed product comparisons was developed, based on the methodological considerations of emotional appraisal process and affective mental contents. The method was implemented as a computer tool, which was utilised in two experiments (N = 18 for both). Ten adjectives served as primes, and five drinking glass pictures as stimuli. Participants' task was to choose a preference between two glasses, given the priming adjective. The results validate the method by providing test-retest reliability measures and showing convergence with questionnaires. Further, different evaluation times between the primes and the stimuli reveal the existence of different mental processes associated with various aspects of product experience, as predicted by appraisal theory. The results have various implications for experience research and development in HCI, as they demonstrate how the method can be used for product evaluation and the analysis of the mental processes, which users use to evaluate the products.

Distraction effects of in-car tasks with a touch screen based navigation system user interface were studied in a driving simulator experiment with eye tracking. The focus was to examine which particular in-car task components visually distract drivers the most. The results indicate that all of the visual-manual in-car tasks led to increased levels of experienced demands and to lower driving speeds. The most significant finding was that text entry and kinetic scrolling of lists were the main sources of visual distraction whereas simple selection tasks with familiar target locations led to least severe distraction effects.