Emotional Interaction and UX
HCI today is only concerned with making systems efficient and effective; how users feel isn't a design concern.
False. HCI moved from usability to user experience, and now also designs systems to make people respond in certain ways (happy, trusting, motivated, learning).
Which Microsoft software, aimed at technophobes, used a 3D living room and pet agents to talk to users?
At Home with Bob, (Microsoft Bob).
Shneiderman's guidelines recommend using strong words like FATAL, INVALID and BAD so users grasp the seriousness of an error. True or False?
False. He says to avoid them.
What does PET stand for in PET design?
Persuasion, Emotion, Trust.
What is gamification?
The use of game design elements in non-game contexts
Name the three levels of Norman's model of emotional design.
Visceral, Behavioral, Reflective.
Dancing butter and animated breakfast cereals in adverts are examples of anthropomorphism. True or False?
True. Anthropomorphism means attributing human-like qualities to inanimate objects. It's well known in advertising and much exploited in HCI.
Name any two causes of frustrating interfaces.
The application doesn't work or crashes
The system doesn't do what the user wants
There isn't enough information to know what to do
Error messages are vague, obtuse or condemning
The appearance is garish, noisy, gimmicky or patronising
Too many steps, only to discover an earlier mistake and have to start over
An Amazon product page shows thousands of customer reviews, star ratings and an "Amazon's Choice" badge. Name the persuasion technique.
Social proof.
The University of Greenwich library has used games, including an escape room and a "defeat the plagiarism monster" adventure, to engage students. True or False?
True
In the Facebook "digital body language" study, the same messages were shown in three formats: Chat, Full conversation and Control. Which format made the sender seem most awkward and desperate.
The Chat format (separate message bubbles). The words were identical, so the interface alone changed how the sender was perceived. The UI acts as "digital body language."
What does "believability" mean for a virtual agent, and which two factors does the lecture call "very important"?
The extent to which users come to believe the agent's intentions and personality. The two factors are appearance and behaviour.
What is a "gimmick" in interface design?
Something amusing to the designer but not to the user. Example: clicking a link only to find the website is still "under construction."
Booking.com shows "Only 1 room left like this on our site" and "Booked 2 times for your dates in the last 6 hours." Name the main persuasion technique and explain why it works psychologically.
Scarcity. Limited availability makes an option feel more valuable and triggers fear of loss and urgency to act now.
What problem did Deloitte's leadership academy have, name one game elements that was added
Low course completion rates. It added points, badges and leaderboards (Badgeville)
A user unboxes a new phone and is instantly drawn to how it looks. A week later they're frustrated by a confusing settings menu. A year later they feel proud to own it because of what it says about them. Match each moment to a level of Norman's model.
Visceral (gut reaction to appearance), then Behavioral (using it: usability and performance), then Reflective (meaning, self-image, memories).
IKEA's chatbot "LATTJO" appears as a small robot character with a name and greeting ("Hej! Thanks for contacting IKEA"), rather than a plain text box saying "Chat support." According to the lecture, what is the single main reason companies use virtual characters like this instead of a generic chat interface?
It provides a persona that is welcoming, has personality, and makes the user feel involved with it, turning a transactional support interaction into one that feels more personal and approachable.
An app shows "FATAL ERROR 0x80070057: INVALID INPUT!" when a user types a date in the wrong format. How would you rewrite it using Shneiderman's guidelines?
Any message that is precise, non-condemning and helpful. For example: "That date isn't in the format DD/MM/YYYY. Please try again, for example 25/12/2026."
An airport etched a small fly into each urinal and cut its cleaning bill by 80%. What concept is this, and why is it a "nudge" rather than a rule or a warning sign?
Nudge theory. A nudge is a subtle cue built into the environment that steers behaviour without banning, forcing or explaining. The fly gives users a target, so behaviour changes by design, and people keep full freedom of choice.
Deloitte didn't make leadership training more useful, easier, or shorter. They just added points, badges, and a leaderboard resulting in a 50% drop in completion time. If the content didn't change, what actually changed?
How motivated people felt to finish it. Gamification doesn't make the task itself different, it makes people want to do it.
A companion robot designed to reduce loneliness in elderly users greets them with a cheerful voice and animation every 20 minutes, all day, whether or not the user responds or wants to talk. What single principle explains why this well-intentioned design is likely to fail and what emotional outcome would you expect instead of reduced loneliness?
It violates the lecture's point that expressive, reassuring feedback is "both informative and fun" but becomes intrusive when overused. Without the user controlling the frequency, the constant check-ins are likely to annoy or even anger the user, the opposite of the comfort the robot was built to provide.
Compare "Now Chris, that's not right. You can do better than that. Try again." with "Incorrect. Try again." Both messages share the exact same flaw according to Shneiderman's guidelines for error messages. What is it?
Neither message is precise, they both tell the user that they got it wrong without saying what was wrong or how to fix it, violating Shneiderman's guideline that messages should be precise rather than vague and should provide context-sensitive help.
A banking app shows a cheerful cartoon mascot that dances and plays a jingle whenever a payment fails. Evaluate this design using one idea from the material discussed.
Expressive feedback can reassure but can also be intrusive, annoying or angering a user already stressed by a failed payment.
Noisy, gimmicky or patronising design is a listed frustration cause. This is a gimmick: amusing to the designer, not the user.
Shneiderman warns against embarrassing audio warnings (a jingle in public).
The message must be precise and offer context-sensitive help. The mascot says nothing about why the payment failed or what to do next.
Trust matters in banking (the "T" in PET), and playfulness can undermine credibility.
A scam email and a real sale both say "Act now, almost gone!" Same words, same trick. What's the one thing that actually makes one a crime and the other just marketing?
Whether it's true.
Both the Deloitte and medication app examples rely on points and rewards. Give one reason such extrinsic rewards might fail or backfire long-term.
Motivation ties to the reward, not the behaviour, so engagement drops when rewards stop or novelty fades.
Leaderboards can demotivate low-ranked users.
Users can game the system (e.g., logging a dose without taking it), so points don't equal real behaviour change.