See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221248258 Personality preferences in graphical interface design Conference Paper · October 2002 DOI: 10.1145/572020.572049 · Source: DBLP CITATIONS READS 41 2,105 1 author: Arvid Karsvall Linnaeus University 4 PUBLICATIONS 44 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Service- and interaction-based innovation View project ABA- User-driven Decision Automation View project All content following this page was uploaded by Arvid Karsvall on 11 November 2015. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Personality Preferences in Graphical Interface Design Arvid Karsvall Department of Computer and Information Science Linköping University SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden +46 13 28 27 84 arvka@ida.liu.se ABSTRACT BACKGROUND THEORY The paper presents and discusses the graphical interface design of three interactive television prototypes. These were manipulated in colour and shape in order to display different degrees of extrovert character. The manipulation was based on colour and psychology theory that connects personality traits with visual aesthetics. The first-time impressions of the prototypes were later evaluated in reference to the users’ measured personality traits; this since previous work on postures and voice has shown that personality factors influence the users’ interface design preferences. The user test concludes that the users do recognise the intended extrovert and introvert features of the prototypes. Colour has always been associated with social attributes, and as a result, there have been several attempts to formulate general theories that will explain or categorise its psychological impact. A modern example is the research behind the NCS colour system, where colour attributes are associated with semantic meaning [8]. A well-investigated personality trait, on the other hand, is extroversion. The extroversion domain is basically a scale from an outgoing manner to an introvert manner [2], and research in both psychology and aesthetics has connected extroversion to visual design attributes [6]. In the literature, high extroversion is foremost associated with high colour contrasts, saturated hues, and bold or sharp-edged shapes. Whereas introversion is related to de-saturated colours, green hues, and thin or round shapes. Keywords User Interface Design, representativeness-bias. personality, user-studies, INTRODUCTION The importance of social responses to media and computerbased interfaces has become more and more into focus in the HCI community, following the pioneering work of Reeves and Nass [7]. A wide range of factors studied within social psychology and related disciplines have been shown to influence human-computer interaction in the same way they influence interaction between people. As humans we e.g. prefer to interact with personalities that resemble our own [1], and it is demonstrated that users prefer to interact with media interfaces that manifest signs consistent with their own personality [5]. These studies have however primarily concerned variations in language or bodily postures of characters. This paper presents a resent design study that applied the model of similarity attraction to the graphical design of an interactive television-channel (SVT Mälarkanalen)[4]. INTERFACE DESIGN Based on the original in-house prototype, three design alternatives were developed; with neutral, extrovert, and introvert design. The neutral design is equivalent to the original prototype. Consequently it was not meant to be objectively neutrovert, but rather in-between when compared to the other two designs. The character of the neutral design can be described as ambiguous in colour and shape. It displays variations of saturated hues in greens, blues, reds, black, and white, and uses both rounded and squared shapes. The manipulated prototypes were therefore designed to be characterised more easily, this by firstly reducing the number of hues and increasing brightness levels. The extrovert prototype was moreover designed with higher contrasts between interactive elements and even more saturated red, yellow, and blue hues. The background was turned from blue-green hues to red-orange, and windows were given bolder lines and all squared shapes. Some relations between interactive elements were also changed in order to actively direct the user; e.g. by darken inactive areas. The introvert design was accordingly given lower contrasts and de-saturated colours in white, green and grey hues. It was designed with a white-green background and thinner rounded frames, and directed the user to lesser extent through the use of fewer and subtler visual keys. THE INTERFACES Screenshots of the three prototypes are seen in Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3. Each design is shown in two interactive modes: the Start Mode, where both text and video are presented (the latter in the right cornered window); and the Read Mode, where a text window is displayed instead of the video. The design manipulations are, of course, not properly displayed in black and white, so it is recommended to visit the following web page address where hues and colour contrasts can be observed. (To experience the full visual impression it is necessary to use the actual prototypes in a natural setting for watching television.) http://www.ida.liu.se/~arvka/personality/ Figure 1: The Neutral Interface disagreement between those who prefer the extrovert design and the users who prefer the introvert design is also apparent. The extrovert design is either seen as distinct, or as annoying; whereas the introvert design is seen as comfortable, or as insecure. Similarity attraction between user personality traits and design preference can however not be supported in the user test. One side effect is a highly skewed participant distribution on the extroversion scale. According to the trait test in use (NEO PI-r), only one test participant is ranked as introvert, but as many as 14 (15 when including the pilot test) is ranked as extroverts. [3, 4] DISCUSSION While it is not possible to perform a strict analysis of similarity attraction in this case, the users did recognise the intended visual characteristics of the manipulation. Hence, the design study suggests that it is possible to design extroverted and introverted graphical interfaces with relatively small means. The present paper also supports previous research on the importance of personality factors in interface design and HCI in general. In this case extroversion appears to be an important factor for the first time impression of graphical interfaces. Designers should consequently not treat their own personalised design preference as a reflection of the general opinion. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The co-workers at Sveriges Television (SVT), and Nils Dahlbäck (IDA, Linköping University). REFERENCES 1. Byrne, D & Nelson, D. Attraction as a linear function Figure 2: The Extrovert Interface Figure 3: The Introvert Interface USER TEST The three prototypes were presented in balanced order for 24 volunteer participants. Based on the their first-time impression, all three prototypes can be treated as credible design alternatives. 11 participants prefer the neutral design, 8 the extrovert, and 5 the introvert. An important View publication stats of proportion of positive reinforcements, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4, 240243. 1965. 2 . Costa, P., T., & McCrae, R., R. Personality In Adulthood. The Guilford Press, New York, 1990. 3 . Dahlbäck, N., & Karsvall, A. Personality Bias in Volunteer Based User Studies? Proceedings of HCI2000, vol 2, Sunderland, Great Britain, September 2001. 4. Karsvall, A. Design and Evaluation of a Personality Inspired Digital TV Interface. Master Thesis, Linköping University, 2000. 5 . Nass, C., & Lee, K-M. Does Computer-Generated Speech Manifest Personality. Proc. CHI2000, 2000. 6. Pickford, R., W. Psychology and visual aesthetics, Hutchinson Educational, London, 1972. 7 . Reeves, B., & Nass, C. The Media Equation Cambridge University Press, New York, 1996. 8. Taft, C. Generality Aspects of Color Naming and Color Meaning Department of Psychology, Gothenburg University, Sweden, 1995.
