Summary of all articles in the Human Media Interaction Theory course, for the first block of the year . It is a comprehensive summary per article, where the important parts contain a different colour for extra overview.
Ingekorte samenvatting Human Media Interaction Theory
Week 1
Hoorcollege 1: User engagement
Clicking, assessing, immersing, and sharing: An empirical model of user engagement with
interactive media
Oh, Bellur, & Sundar (2018)
In the current media environment, user engagement has become an essential outcome of active
user-system interaction afforded by unique technological features such as interactivity. Such
interaction-based engagement is said to critically influence the perception of content offered by the
medium. Thus, the current focus with user engagement is toward more active outcomes.
Explicating user engagement
The term engagement, as defined in dictionaries, seems to have two common factors: to enter into a
contact and to occupy attention or involve effort for a long period of time.
→ Thus, user engagement includes both the first encounter with the message or the medium as well
as a sustained period of involvement with media content that can be affected by the initial
interaction with the message or medium.
→ Engagement comprises cognitive, affective, and behavioral components.
We propose a user engagement continuum that begins with users’ preliminary assessment of, and
interaction with, interactive media interfaces, followed by deeper absorption with media content
and behavioral outcomes.
User engagement as a psychological experience: absorption and interface assessment
Mostly, engagement, absorption, and transportation refer to the same phenomenon—the degree to
which a message recipient is cognitively and affectively involved in the vicarious experience of media
interaction.
With interactive media, users are likely to encounter the interface of the system before they evaluate
the content. Thus, user engagement with interactive media should include users’ preliminary
appraisal of interface quality, which is likely to shape their absorption in the content delivered by the
interface.
In sum, previous literature suggests that a conceptual model of user engagement with interactive
media should include both users’ attraction or interest toward the medium—which we term
interface assessment—as well as subsequent absorption with content.
Formally, we propose the following hypothesis for study:
Hypothesis 1 (H1): User engagement as a psychological experience comprises users’ (H1a)
assessment of interface, and further (H1b) absorption with the content, which may be shaped by
interface assessment.
User engagement as a behavioral experience: physical interaction and digital outreach
An important facet of user engagement as a behavioral experience includes the many tangible ways
in which users voluntarily interact with an interface: physical interaction. → this is especially true for
newer forms of media where users control the flow and the content of incoming information by
physical interacting with the medium (clicking, scrolling, sliding, etc.)
,Finally, the most important aspect of user engagement is social outreach that extends their
experience with media into the offline realm. In this case, user engagement refers to the behavior of
sharing and exchanging one’s experience with the product or service with other like-minded users,
which contributes to making a message or product go “viral.” This social outreach behavior of users,
contributing to the rapid and widespread distribution of positive or negative messages, is a critical
form of user engagement in the current online media landscape.
Thus, we propose that user engagement as a behavioral experience includes both physical
interaction with interface as well as taking further actions on the content such as managing and
sharing it, which we term digital outreach:
Hypothesis 2 (H2): User engagement as a behavioral experience comprises physi- cal interaction with
interface (H2a) and digital outreach (H2b), including social distribution and management of online
media content.
Therefore, our new definition of user engagement is a form of user experience which includes both
(1) a psychological state where the user appraises the quality of media and becomes absorbed in
media content and (2) a behavioral experience in which the user physically interacts with the
interface and also socially distributes and manages the content.
We propose a new conceptual model of user engagement with four critical components—physical
interaction, interface assessment, absorption, and digital outreach—and specify the relationships
among the four factors of user engagement and their operational definitions.
Conceptual model of user engagement
1. Physical interaction
The first step toward engagement is to involve all our physical actions in a specific task or interaction
context. Operationally, physical interaction can be defined as the amount of observable activity of
users with the interface. This can be measured for example with click-through rates, number of clicks
(do not show whether users actually paid attention), average reading time, eye-tracking.
2. Interface assessment
Interface assessment is defined as users’ initial evaluation of the interface.
Three criteria for evaluating the interface can dominate the user’s preliminary perceptual
assessment of the interface:
(1) natural mapping ability = “the ability of a system to map its controls to changes in the
mediated environment in a natural and predictable manner”.
(2) intuitiveness = the extent to which it allows the user to unconsciously utilize stored
experiential knowledge that can lead to effective interaction.
, (3) ease of use = a system that requires little physical or mental effort.
Thus, interface assessment, as a preliminary stage of user engagement, can be operationalized as the
extent to which the user perceives the interface as natural, intuitive, and easy to use, which would
lead to further psychological involvement with media content.
3. Absorption
Whereas interface assessment and physical interaction are the starting points of information
processing (wherein users may not be immersed in the content while activating their sensory
mechanisms), absorption signals deeper involvement with the content. The individual is consciously
involved in an interaction, and more specifically with the content of the interaction, with almost
complete attentional focus on the mediated environment.
4. Digital outreach
We conceptualize digital outreach as a heightened phase of engagement which is marked by several
behavioral (action-filled) indicators, for example, sharing content with other individuals in one’s
personal and social networks, bookmarking the website for future use, and so on.
→ In sum, the four components proposed thus far could fall along an engagement continuum,
ranging from the starting point of engagement (physical interaction and interface assessment) to
subsequent stages of engagement (absorption and digital outreach).
Hypothesis 3 (H3): Interface assessment and physical interaction act conjointly in influencing the rest
of the engagement process, leading to absorption and digital outreach.
Attitude and cognitive outcomes
Finally, it is important to distinguish user engagement from its consequences, such as evaluations
(e.g., attitudes toward the interface) or cognitive outcomes (e.g., learning).
The experiment showed → Interface assessment, absorption, and digital outreach predicted
attitudes toward the website and/or content, whereas physical interaction predicted recall memory.
Discussion
Four-factor model of user engagement
The four factors that we have identified are indeed critical to defining user engagement, in that they
capture different aspects of the concept. Consistent with our conceptual model, our data show that
both the psychological dimension and the behavioral dimension are necessary to comprehensively
define user engagement in the context of interactive media.
A process model of user engagement:
user engagement continuum
Apart from proposing four critical factors,
the continuum of user engagement, as
seen in Figure 3, also allows us to
decompose the process of engagement
with the interface (system) and
engagement with the content as two
cumulative stages of user experience
with any form of media. Our findings
highlight the need to distinguish between
interface-level engagement (physical
interactions and interface assessment) and content-level engagement (absorption and digital
, outreach).
→ Extending this previous work, our model adds nuance and clarity by formally distinguishing
between two different loci of engagement and the distinct user response associated with each.
The placement of physical interaction at the beginning of the user engagement continuum is a
unique contribution of this study.
The main argument of this study is that user engagement with peripheral cues belonging to the
media system or interfaces, could trigger more systematic user engagement with content. Interactive
websites can encourage users to actively explore the interface, leading to positive preliminary
assessment of the interface, which can further enhance their absorption and behavioral intention to
share the content with others.
Predictive potential of user engagement
According to the predictive validity test, each aspect of engagement has its own value: Absorption
can significantly enhance attitudes toward website, interface assessment and outreach aspects of
user engagement can enhance attitudes toward the whole website as well as attitudes toward
content, whereas physical interaction with the website leads to better recall of content.
Among the four factors, absorption measures most directly address the degree to which participants
pay attention to media content. When participants feel absorbed and immersed during browsing,
they appreciate the entire website as more comfortable, organized, useful, sophisticated, user
friendly, and so on.
It should be noted that interface assessment directly predicts attitudes toward the website and
content without going through further examination of the website or the content. The face value of
an interface, such as its naturalness, intuitiveness, and ease of use, can be so strong that it can
determine users’ evaluation of the whole website and the quality of content delivered by the
website.
Hoorcollege 2: Guest lecture Accessibility
Digital accessibility & visual impairment (online course)
‘Digital accessibility means that websites, software, other media and applications can be used
by everyone, including people with disabilities regardless of the user’s hardware, software, language,
location or capabilities.’
As regards websites, software, other media, and applications, you should not only think of websites
and mobile apps, but also of things like the control panel of your microwave or the NS ticket
machine.
People with a visual impairment can therefore not see (everything) displayed on a screen. They
usually do not use a mouse or touchpad. Someone with a visual impairment therefore makes greater
use of keyboard shortcuts and tabs to navigate. This in combination with speech software.
Tools that are used for people who are permanent impaired:
- Braille display
- Screen enlargement
- Screen readers (reads out loud what is on the screen)
- Mobile telephones (iPhone and Android offer a lot of options for disabled people)
- Alternative keyboards
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