Don Rickert Design

Appeal

Common to both the Value and the Quality perspectives is the notion of Desirability or Attractiveness. If not exactly one in the same, these are both highly related to the construct of Appeal, the overall attribution of goodness that a person associates with a product.

Appeal, as defined by Hassenzahl (2004), is the combined effect of usefulness and usability, plus attractive qualities such as novelty, surprise, fun, visual attractiveness, perceived high ratings on adoption factors.

Adjectives that describe an appealing product are:

• Pleasant
• Pleasant
• Good
• Inviting
• Attractive
• Motivating
• Desirable

   

This is very important, as appeal is emerging as one of the top known reasons for why people decide to buy or adopt new products. Appeal is usually more important than usability and is sometimes more important than usefulness. Indeed, one of the primary problems with physical products, web sites and online applications is that their ‘look' is either outdated or just plain ugly and unappealing.      

Most people think of appeal as something that is totally subjective and cannot be measured. This was true until fairly recently. There are methods, adopted from the worlds of academic research and urban design, have been shown to reliably measure product appeal.   

Enragers: It only takes one! 

Just as important as appeal as a product attribute is its opposite—disgust or even rage. Bad experiences with a product chase people away permanently. It only takes one thing about your product that fails to meet customer expectations to the degree that they are angered. Once that happens, you've lost them forever.

The Dimensions of Appeal

Marc Hassenzahl and his colleagues are the undisputed leaders in the measurement of Appeal. Appeal is divided into ‘Pragmatic Quality’, which is roughly equivalent to what we think of as Usability, and ‘Hedonic Quality.’ Hedonic refers to factors that are appealing for their own sake, not for any practical reason. Hedonic Qualities include attractiveness, fun, emotion, and so forth. Hassenzahl and others caution that, for any given product, a balance between Pragmatic Quality and Hedonic Quality must be achieved.

Pragmatic Quality Scales (roughly equivalent to Usability)

    

• Technical – Human
• Complicated – Simple
• Impractical – Practical
• Cumbersome – Direct
• Unpredictable – Predictable
• Confusing – Clear
• Unruly – Manageable

Hedonic Quality – Identification Scales

    

• Isolating – Integrating
• Amateurish – Professional
• Gaudy – Classy
• Cheap – Valuable
• Non-Inclusive – Inclusive
• Takes me distant from people – Brings me closer to people

Hedonic Quality – Stimulation Scale

    

• Typical – Original
• Standard – Creative
• Cautious – Courageous
• Conservative – Innovative
• Lame – Exciting
• Easy – Challenging
• Commonplace – New Commonplace – New

Overall Appeal Scales

• Ugly – Beautiful
• Bad – Good

Hassenzahl, M. (2000). Hedonic and Ergonomic Quality Aspects Determine a Software’s Appeal. Presented at ACM CHI conference, April 2000.

Hassenzahl, M. (2004). The Interplay of Beauty, Goodness and Usability in Interactive Products. Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 19, pp. 319- 349.

   

Appeal Assessment

Whereas Depth Interviews are a qualitative method for ensuring that a prototype or product is perceived as valuable and appealing (i.e. useful, usable and desirable) to customers, Appeal Assessment is a quantitative method for doing the same thing. It is important, whenever possible, to use both qualitative and quantitative methods to converge on the truth.

Appeal, as defined by Hassenzahl (2004), is the combined effect of usefulness and usability, plus attractive qualities such as novelty, surprise, fun, visual attractiveness, perceived high ratings on adoption factors.

Adjectives that describe an appealing product are:

• Pleasant
• Pleasant
• Good
• Inviting
• Attractive
• Motivating
• Desirable

Appeal is very important, as it is emerging as one of the top known reasons for why people decide to buy or adopt new products. Appeal is usually more important than usability and is sometimes more important than usefulness. Indeed, one of the primary problems with physical products, web sites and online applications is that their ‘look' is either outdated or just plain ugly and unappealing.

Most people think of appeal as something that is totally subjective and cannot be measured. This was true until fairly recently. There are methods, adopted from the worlds of academic research and urban design, have been shown to reliably measure product appeal.