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Considering the Aesthetics of Ubiquitous Displays

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Ubiquitous Display Environments

Part of the book series: Cognitive Technologies ((COGTECH))

Abstract

We call attention to the important role that aesthetics, or visual beauty, can and should play in the deployment of ubiquitous displays. Following a short survey of the emergence of visual aesthetics in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), we suggest that the importance of aesthetics stem from three main perspectives. The design perspective suggests that beauty is a cornerstone of any design discipline and that it is often positively related to other practices of good HCI design, such as usability. From a psychological perspective we argue that aesthetics induces pleasure and satisfies human needs; and that it is influential in how people form first impressions and subsequent attitudes. Finally, we argue that aesthetics has an important practical role as a differentiating factor between interactive products. Even more importantly, it is already woven into the socio-technical web of our time. We discuss the implications of this position for the design of ubiquitous displays.

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  1. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 84105, Israel

    Noam Tractinsky & Eleanor Eytam

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  1. Noam Tractinsky
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  2. Eleanor Eytam
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Correspondence to Noam Tractinsky .

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  1. German Research Center for Artificial In, Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3, Saarbrücken, 66123, Germany

    Antonio Krüger

  2. Mount Carmel, Haifa, 31905, Israel

    Tsvi Kuflik

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Tractinsky, N., Eytam, E. (2012). Considering the Aesthetics of Ubiquitous Displays. In: Krüger, A., Kuflik, T. (eds) Ubiquitous Display Environments. Cognitive Technologies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27663-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27663-7_6

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