Can we distinguish pragmatic from hedonic user experience qualities with implicit measures?

Abstract

User Experience research mainly makes use of self-reported measures to assess the user’s experience when using a technical product, especially regarding hedonic product qualities. Our study investigates whether pragmatic and hedonic qualities can be distinguished using two types of implicit measure: behavioural and neurophysiological. Participants interacted with two different software tools designed to emphasize hedonic and pragmatic qualities, respectively. Their implicit evaluations of the two prototypes were examined with the Approach Avoidance Task (AAT) and simultaneous electroencephalographic recordings (EEG), using snapshots from the interaction scenarios. While the AAT showed no differences, the analysis of event-related EEG potentials revealed differences around 300 ms after stimulus presentation. Significant higher cortical activity in the frontal cortex was found for approach tendencies towards snapshots taken from the hedonic prototype interaction. Higher potentials in the parietal (motor) cortex were found for avoidance tendencies towards the pragmatic prototype. The findings show that hedonic and pragmatic user experience qualities can be distinguished based on neuroelectrical data.