Neuroanatomical correlates of perceived usability

Chi Thanh Vi, Kasper Hornbæk, Sriram Subramanian

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Usability has a distinct subjective component, yet surprisingly little is known about its neural basis and relation to the neuroanatomy of aesthetics. To begin closing this gap, we conducted two functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in which participants were shown static webpages (in the first study) and videos of interaction with webpages (in the second study). The webpages were controlled so as to exhibit high and low levels of perceived usability and perceived aesthetics. Our results show unique links between perceived usability and brain areas involved in functions such as emotional processing (left fusiform gyrus, superior frontal gyrus), anticipation of physical interaction (precentral gyrus), task intention (anterior cingulate cortex), and linguistic processing (medial and bilateral superior frontal gyri). We use these findings to discuss the brain correlates of perceived usability and the use of fMRI for usability evaluation and for generating new user experiences.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUIST 2017 - Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
Number of pages14
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Publication date20 Oct 2017
Pages519-532
ISBN (Electronic)9781450349819
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Oct 2017
Event30th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, UIST 2017 - Quebec City, Canada
Duration: 22 Oct 201725 Oct 2017

Conference

Conference30th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, UIST 2017
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityQuebec City
Period22/10/201725/10/2017
SponsorACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH), ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI), Autodesk Inc, Disney Research, et al, Jeff Han

Keywords

  • Aesthetics
  • FMRI
  • Usability
  • User experience

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