• Q1) Aesthetics is variously defined as beauty in appearance (Lavie & Tractinsky 2004), visual appeal (Lindgaard & Dudek 2003), and experience (Ramachandran & Blakeslee 1998) an attitude (Cupchik 1993), a property of objects (Porteios 1996), a response or a judgment ( Hassenzahl 2004a;2004b), and a process (Langer 1967).
  • Experimental results have shown that people maybe more satisfied with a beautiful product that performs ordinary than with a more usable but less appealing product. The fact that colour can effect our emotions suggests that by researching an audience we can use this infromation to persuede the optimal sales of any particular product.
  • It is also stated that if we strive to create aesthetic pleasing designs then they are more likely to be understood as eaiser to use, more welcomed and used more over time. With this I have also learnt that the more aesthetic the design the more people are tolerant of problems with the design. We can use the mobile phone for an example, as the makers suggest that if the design is pleasing meaning the colours are cool, the shape is sleek the buttons easy to use and the phone is easy to opperate then the user is more likely to be more accepting of issues that occur with phones such as signal loss or interference, constantly having to re-charge just to name a few.
  • Personaly I don’t think that by keeping this concept in mind is morraly fair, I beleive in that if the product doesn’t do the job it is suppose to and we aware of it, then it would be in our best interest to work on those solutions first and be honest. I have covered these issues with my current phone and would certainly not stay with the company or keep the phone purely becasue it looked good, the only reason I have had to keep my phone is because I am locked into a contract, and was not aware of this previously. As a visual artist in the future when creating I will certainly be taking the two things into consideration, aesthentic’s and the concept of the product doing it’s job as it promises to do, and maybe even making the public aware of this concept so they do not get trapped.
  • Q2) THREE EXAMPLES OF EVERYDAY SURROUNDINGS THAT MEET THE AESTHETIC-USABILITY EFFECT
  • We can see here first left with the ‘Steudebaker’ portable stereo that the design has been made to look funky and sleek, but we know that the actual quality of the sound that comes from the machine may not be to that of the quality of a home surround sound system but we compromise on the that for the look and the portability.
  • Secondly we can see with the apple ‘iPod Touch’ the new aesthetic features are the touch screens, more room to store information and a larger 2.5-inch LCD screen to make watching vieos easier and in widescreen format. 

Studebaker Portable Stereo

ipod-touch phone-sony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Finaly we can look at the Sony Erricson 5.0 megapixel phone camera that has been marketed along the line and style that compared to ‘James Bond’ clever little tricks to cover for the possible situations of signal loss and or having to recharge frequently as mentioned above and in addtion possible more to wards a male market.
  • REFERENCES

Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2007, pp:1-14

Cupchik, G.C. ((1993) Component and relational processing in aesthetics’ Poetics, 22, 171-183.

Hassenzahl, M. (2004a) The interplay of beauty, goodness, and usability in interactive products.  Human-Computer Interattion, 19(4), pp. 319-349.

Hassenzahl, M. (2004b) Beautiful objects as an extension of the self: A reply Human-Computer Interaction, 19(4), pp. 377-386.

Langer, S. (1967) Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling Vol. 1. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore.

Lavie, T. & Tractinsky, N. (2004) Assessing dimensions of perceived viusal aesthetics of web sites. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 6, pp. 269-298.

Lidwell, W., Holden, J. (2003). Aesthetic-Usability Effect.  In Universal Principles of Design (pp. 18-19). Massachusetts: Rockport.

Lindgaard, G. & Dudek, C. (2002) User satisfaction, aesthetics and usability: Beyond reductionism in Hammond, J.,Gross, T. & Wesson, J. (eds) Usability Gaining a Competiteve Edge Proceedings IFIP 17th World Computer Congress, Montreal, Canada.

Photos:

iPod-Touch, Retreived  11 June 2009 from:iPod-Touch Retreived  11 June from: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/ipod-touch.htm

Sony Ericsson Phone, Retrieved 11 June 2009 from: us&ei=YsAzSoy0JouCkQW17vH2CQ&resnum=0&q=sony%20ericsson%20latest%20phone&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=w

Studebaker Portable Stereo, Retreived 11 June 2009 from: http://www.oneinhundred.com/Wholesale-China/various-CD-Players/Studebaker—Portable-stereo-boombox-with-cassette-and-drawer-type-CD-player

Porteous, J.D. (1996) Environmental Aesthetics: Ideas, Politics and Planning Routledge, London.

Ramachandran, V.S. & Blakeslee, S. (1998) Phantoms in the Brain WIlliam Morrow & Co, New York.

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