Beauty matters! Symposium on Usability and Aesthetics
Event: ID Symposium
Date: Thursday, 27-11-2008
Location: Media University, Stuttgart
Organized by: Prof. Dr. Michael Burmester, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Marc Hassenzahl,
Franz Koller
Whether it is a mobile phone, a website or a blood sugar meter – interactive products are omnipresent. But are these products also beautiful? Is it fun to use them? How can attractiveness be measured? These questions will be answered on the 7th Information Design Symposium on 27 November, 2008, at the Media University at Stuttgart.
Manufacturers of interactive products attach great importance to a simple and clear design of interactions. Moreover, the attractiveness and the hedonic quality are decisive for success. New, exciting mobile phones are not only bought to make phone calls. Cars are not only desirable because they carry people. Besides their pragmatic objectives, products always fulfill other needs as well: they express a social status or signalize affiliation and competence.
Is it possible to systematically design beauty?
Central questions of the research of attractiveness are in the focus of the symposium: Is beauty only in the eye of the beholder or can it be measured objectively? What human needs are satisfied by beauty? Is it possible to systematically design beauty? How much do consumers pay for beauty? Usability and beauty – the 7th international Information Design Symposium will answer these questions in lectures and discussions. Under the motto "Beauty matters", experts will discuss and inform about the interplay of usability and beauty.