Page 118 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014experience of interfaces, classify the various factors to be borne in mind when considering the design of a Web product under five headings: user‐specific factors, social factors, cultural factors, context of use and product‐specific factors.In this graphic can be seen on the left value for users, including emotional factors, as well as other equally important factors, such as social or demographic values. A good website design will emphasise visibility, with the consequent increase in the number of visits, as well as the transmission of the experience it is desired to offer: a book, an opera, an exhibition or a concert. In his book Designing for Emotion8, Aarron Walter very acutely describes, giving several examples, these emotional connections between website and its users or visitors, regardless of what sort of website it is. Clarity, simplicity and ease of use, rather than trends, are universal standards; visual contrasts and a design that plays on cognitive elements helps to deepen the user/interface relationship. Furthermore, surprising elements, out of the ordinary, favour emotional responses that can attract users. This is also asserted by Roz Picard, founder and director of Affective and expert on emotional technology. In his opinion, when someone is showing some sort of content on the Web they can make it boring or funny, that is, provoke some sort of reaction. The activation of the webcam, for example, can read the facial expressions of users, so that designers and content creators know how to improve their site.Since neuroscientists have determined that our brains are designed to follow the emotions rather than the intellect—which means that in reality it is the emotional part of the brain that governs our decision—paying attention to this factor may make an online purchase or search as attractive as it would be face to face, with the appropriate work. Neurodesign enables designers to improve their creative focus and may help to explain why an experience is bad or good, transmit positive or negative emotions. In On the Emotions, by Richard Wollheim9, we read, “Normally, the emotions lead us to form desires, and these desires, together withAC/Ethe appropriate instrumental beliefs, can lead us to action”. A different, attractive interface, with interactive elements, a certain touch of creativity and surprise for the user and related resources (video, audio, derived information) lengthens browsing time and heightens interest in what is being searched for. The time for showcase websites has passed; it is now the time to understand and provoke certain emotions in the user’s search experience.4. MONITORING AND SENSITIVE TECHNOLOGIES: SPACE AND CREATIVITYEmotional or affective technologies are not necessarily restricted to the virtual realm. Some of them, in close relationship with sensitive technologies and monitoring, are used in the pubic space and sometimes are also focussed on improving the visitor’s experience. Monitoring of a person in real time is becoming one of the fundamental tools to analyse the public present in places where some sort of cultural event is going on. For example, in some of the venues where exhibitions takeplace, thePromotion ofArt departmentof the Ministryof Education,Culture andSport is usingdata‐collectiontechnology from the company Eco‐Compteur, which also works with the Louvre and the Orsay museum in Paris. The method uses a mat with sensors that can be placed under a carpet or rug. As people step on it, the system not only counts the numbers entering the exhibition, but can also tell by their weight how many of them are adults and how many are children. This technology is based on a smart counting algorithm with a probable accuracy of over 95%. The results are given as instantaneous attendance statistics renewed every three minutesOrganisations can stimulate the emotional response of users through their Web sites by applying neurodesignWHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 9: THE NEW AFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGIES COME TO THE CULTURAL SECTOR CURRENT PAGE...118