Assessing the Utility of an Interaction Qualities Framework in Systematizing the Evaluation of User Control

Authors Aletta Smits, Chris Detweiler, Ester Bartels, Katja Pott, Esther van der Stappen, Suzanne van Rossen, Karine Cardona, Shakila Shayan, Jürgen Ziegler, Koen van Turnhout
Published in Design for Equality and Justice: INTERACT 2023 IFIP TC 13 Workshops, York, UK, August 28 – September 1, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II
Publication date 2024
Research groups Human Experience & Media Design
Type Lecture

Summary

The user’s experience with a recommender system is significantly shaped by the dynamics of user-algorithm interactions. These interactions are often evaluated using interaction qualities, such as controllability, trust, and autonomy, to gauge their impact. As part of our effort to systematically categorize these evaluations, we explored the suitability of the interaction qualities framework as proposed by Lenz, Dieffenbach and Hassenzahl. During this examination, we uncovered four challenges within the framework itself, and an additional external challenge. In studies examining the interaction between user control options and interaction qualities, interdependencies between concepts, inconsistent terminology, and the entity perspective (is it a user’s trust or a system’s trustworthiness) often hinder a systematic inventory of the findings. Additionally, our discussion underscored the crucial role of the decision context in evaluating the relation of algorithmic affordances and interaction qualities. We propose dimensions of decision contexts (such as ‘reversibility of the decision’, or ‘time pressure’). They could aid in establishing a systematic three-way relationship between context attributes, attributes of user control mechanisms, and experiential goals, and as such they warrant further research. In sum, while the interaction qualities framework serves as a foundational structure for organizing research on evaluating the impact of algorithmic affordances, challenges related to interdependencies and context-specific influences remain. These challenges necessitate further investigation and subsequent refinement and expansion of the framework.

On this publication contributed

  • Shakila Shayan
    Shakila Shayan
    • Teacher-researcher
    • Research group: Human Experience & Media Design
  • Koen van Turnhout
    Koen van Turnhout
    • Lector
    • Research group: Human Experience & Media Design

Language Engels
Published in Design for Equality and Justice: INTERACT 2023 IFIP TC 13 Workshops, York, UK, August 28 – September 1, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II
Key words user control
Digital Object Identifier 10.1007/978-3-031-61698-3_17
Page range 185-195

Aletta Smits

Human Experience & Media Design