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The effects of olfactory cues as Interface notifications on a mobile phone

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Abstract

Olfaction is one of the most important human senses that can help assist human perceptions, and the function of smell is also one of the most important ways that can help human interacting with the environment. Hence, the olfactory cues might become an important design tool to facilitate human-mobile phone interaction. This study therefore adopted olfactory cues as mobile phone prompts to help explore how they affect users’ interactive experience. The experiment of this study implemented a 2 (visual layout) × 3 (olfactory cue) between-subjects design by developing shopping application (app) prototypes. The independent variable of visual layout had two levels, i.e., list layout (LL) and square layout (SL). In addition, the experiment adopted an external device to emit odor to simulate different olfactory cues. The independent variable of olfactory cue had three levels, namely, matched olfactory cue (MOC), mismatched olfactory cue (MMOC), and no olfactory cue (NOC). A total of 72 participants were invited to take part in the experiment via the purposive sampling method. The generated results revealed that: (1) The increase in olfactory cues brought better operational pleasure to the participants; (2) Matching olfactory cues of recommended products (MOC) showed the best interface usability and enhanced the overall operating experience; (3) The user interface of the list layout showed better task operation efficiency than the square layout; (4) An increase in olfactory cues may lower the participants' task efficiency, while no odor cue (NOC) showed the fastest task completion time; and (5) The olfactory cues of rose odor significantly increased the participants’ selection rate for the corresponding product. The olfactory cues have been confirmed in the study to be an important notification to help induce shopping behavior. It may also make online virtual shopping behavior more similar to actual shopping behavior, and improve the overall user experience as well.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hubei University of Technology, No.28, Nanli Rd., Hong-Shan Dist., Wuhan City, 430068, Hubei Province, China

    Miao Huang

  2. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No.43, Keelung Rd., Sec.4, Da’an Dist., Taipei City, 10607, Taiwan

    Chien-Hsiung Chen

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  1. Miao Huang
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Correspondence to Chien-Hsiung Chen.

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Appendix

Appendix

Interview Guidelines

  1. 1.

    Describe how you felt as you operated the task, and if there were any changes (provide pen and paper for participants to take notes). Can you describe/explain what you wrote?

  2. 2.

    Please describe your thoughts and suggestions after completing the task (provide pen and paper). Can you describe/explain what you wrote?

  3. 3.

    Did you notice scent cues? Do you feel the presence of scent cues is positive or negative, and can you explain why?

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Huang, M., Chen, CH. The effects of olfactory cues as Interface notifications on a mobile phone. J Multimodal User Interfaces 17, 21–32 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12193-022-00399-x

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