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Dysfunctional User States in Interface Use and Their Dependency on Work Environment and Task Complexity

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Social Computing and Social Media (HCII 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14025))

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Abstract

Usability testing today comprises quantitative and qualitative approaches. Within the former, factors that shape test results include four major ones put together within the ‘contextual fidelity’ model. These factors include product features, task complexity, user traits (including cultural belonging and gender), and experiment settings. However, most usability tests only consider one or two, not four of them. Our earlier research [1] has shown that, when four factors are assessed in parallel, cumulative impact of all of them makes test results highly diverge. Our current study complements this research by showing how usability tests diverge when task complexity varies highly. Another gap in usability research is that they miss the point in their final target, as they measure relative efficiency of interfaces for various groups of users but do not study formation of dysfunctional psychological states that critically prevent efficient Internet use and task performance. This happens despite the growing evidence of mental harm brought by interfaces to, e.g., youngsters’ health or office workers. By testing 60 assessors in either groups or individually on tasks that induce dysfunctional states, namely monotony and anxiety, and introducing tasks of varying complexity, we show that excessive cognitive load leads to rapid rise of user dysfunctionality. Our results suggest that anxiety reduction in real-world tasks may not be reached by reducing task complexity. We recommend group performance on monotonous tasks and individual performance on anxiety-inducing tasks. By that, we illustrate our doubt of the possibility to reach any ‘objective’ results of usability tests; the latter need to be treated as fundamentally conditioned by the contextual fidelity factors. This has two consequences: First, usability testing needs to be conducted in accordance with prospective goals of interface use; second, multi-functional interfaces of general use need to pass through multiple usability tests that would combine contextual fidelity factors in various ways.

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Acknowledgements

. This research has been supported in full by the project ‘Center for International Media Research’ of St. Petersburg State University, year 3, #94033584.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, 199004, Russia

    Alexandr V. Yakunin & Svetlana S. Bodrunova

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  1. Alexandr V. Yakunin
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  2. Svetlana S. Bodrunova
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Correspondence to Alexandr V. Yakunin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Adela Coman

  2. University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Simona Vasilache

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Yakunin, A.V., Bodrunova, S.S. (2023). Dysfunctional User States in Interface Use and Their Dependency on Work Environment and Task Complexity. In: Coman, A., Vasilache, S. (eds) Social Computing and Social Media. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14025. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35915-6_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35915-6_34

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