Obtrusive Subtleness and Why We Should Focus on Meaning, not Form, in Social Acceptability Studies

TL;DR

This study challenges the common emphasis on subtlety in social acceptability of interactive tech, showing that context matters and that meaning should guide design choices rather than form alone.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the effectiveness of interaction styles depends on social context, emphasizing the importance of meaning over form in social acceptability.

Findings

Subtle interactions can negatively impact observer experience in face-to-face settings.

Suspenseful interactions may be perceived more positively than subtle ones in certain social contexts.

Interaction style influences perceptions of user extraversion and product perception.

Abstract

Nowadays, interactive technologies are used almost everywhere. As a result, designers need to increasingly make them "socially acceptable". Previous work recommends "subtle" forms of interaction to increase social acceptability and avoid negative experiences. Although often appropriate, such uniform recommendations neglect the variety of social situations. We demonstrate this limitation in an experiment (N=35), by comparing the observer experience of different forms of interaction in "face-to-face conversations", a social situation rarely studied. Here, the typically recommended form of interaction ("subtle") led to a more negative observer experience than the usually deprecated form ("suspenseful"), in terms of affective experience and product perception. It also made the user appear less extraverted. We conclude by positioning interactions with technology not as separate from the social situation in which they are performed, but as a constitutive part of it that meaningfully relates to other situated activities.