Extending Kansei Engineering for requirements consideration in web interaction design

Abstract

In our paper we consider how the eminent Kansei Engineering (KE) method can be applied in computer-aided development of websites. Although principally used for exploring emotional dimension of users’ experience with products, KE can be extended to incorporate other types of software requirements. In conjunction with AI Neural Networks (Kansei Type II), it then becomes possible to automate, up to a certain degree, evaluation of website quality in terms of functionality, usability, and appeal. We provide an overview of existing works related to KE application in web design, and note its certain gap with systematic Web Engineering. Then we summarize approaches for auto-validation of different types of requirements, with particular focus on computer-aided usability evaluation. Finally, we describe the ongoing experimental study we undertook with 82 participants, in which a Kansei-based survey with 21 university websites was performed, and outline preliminary results and prospects.