Delightful Interactive Systems: A Rhetorical Examination

Abstract

Delight is present in several types of experiences, including those involving the use of interactive systems. To a great extent, we notice when certain design features of such systems provoke our delight. Such a feeling is crucial since it influences our perspective towards the system’s performance, functionality, or relevance to our everyday lives. In this sense, delight appears as a persuasive dimension of the user experience. Hence it is reasonable to ask if rhetoric can help us study the relationship between delight and a system’s design features. In this dissertation, I have taken a set of concepts from rhetoric as lenses to examine the design of interactive artifacts, including static and dynamic interface components and interactions. Specifically, I tested the following rhetorical concepts: the function of an image, enthymeme, mode of appeal, trope and scheme, and metaphorical tension. Through my examinations, I illustrate one way to bring rhetoric into interaction design and show its potential for framing delight in interactive artifacts. As a result, I have formulated the concept of interaction delight and other constructs which together work as a preliminary theory of delight in interactive systems. Finally, I propose an interpretive examination method whose purpose is the articulation of compositional and experiential qualities of interactive systems regarding the functions of rhetoric: to persuade, to identify, to invite to understanding, to help in self-knowledge and self-discovery, and to shape reality. This method is intended to help an interaction design researcher account for how the system argues during the user experience.