After having done some surface-level research about visual web aesthetics and the connection between them and usability, it is necessary to do a deep dive into the underlying processes. Before beginning with experimentation, I will have to wrap my head around what influences our perception of aesthetics and if there is one universal aesthetic we all find beautiful or if aesthetic experiences differ.
For answering those questions, I found an interesting journal article by Brielmann and Pelli (2018) called “Aesthetics”. But beforehand, we must get our terminology straight and make a distinction between aesthetics and beauty. The former is an “inherent property of a visual stimulus” while the latter can be described as “the subjective experience elicited by an artwork, or to the neural processing in the brain relating to that experience” (Redies, 2015). According to Brielmann & Pelli (2018, p. 859), the word “aesthetics” was first used by the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten and encompasses (as of today’s understanding) “the perception, production, and response to art, as well as interactions with objects and scenes that evoke an intense feeling, often of pleasure”.
Regarding theories surrounding aesthetics, the discourse only developed in recent years with a multitude of models being developed in the early 2000s. However, those theories still remain under scrutiny and there is a certain lack of consensus (Brielmann & Pelli, 2018, p. 860). Brielmann & Pelli (2018, p. 860-861) describe, that those theories can be categorized into stimulus-focused research on the one hand that “aims to identify a set of object properties in the (usually) visual domain that contribute to aesthetic pleasure” and response-focused research on the other hand that “investigates the mechanisms, including their neural processes, that underlie aesthetic judgments”. For my own research, I will only focus on the former category since it is the one relevant for the design of visual interfaces.
Generally, certain determinants of the aesthetic experience are considered as proven. Brielmann & Pelli (2018, p. 861) note the preference for symmetry over something asymmetrical and “averageness in the sense of conformity with a category prototype is usually preferred over more-deviant exemplars”. In addition to this, curvature is preferred over angularity, the Golden Ratio is regarded as “beautiful” and color-wise “blue-green cold hue, relatively high saturation, and lightness” is preferred in Western culture (Brielmann & Pelli, 2018, p. 861).
Concerning the universality of those determinants the authors write that some aesthetic components like curvature and symmetry are actually universal while others like color and ratios depend more on the context and individual preferences. This universality can be traced back to evolution: Many attractive face attributes, like averageness, symmetry, and a reddish skin color, may indicate health and thus higher mate quality for producing children. […]. Similarly, preference for landscapes that include water, forest, and signs of animal life has been explained as attraction to human-friendly habitats” (Brielmann & Pelli, 2018, p. 861).
However, one always has to be cautious because those rules are only true for an average response. How an individual perceives aesthetics depends on “the triad of perception, cognition and emotion” (Redies, 2015) and can differ considerably.
References
- Brielmann, A. A., & Pelli, D. G. (2018). Aesthetics. Current Biology, 28, 859–863. Redies, C. (2015). Combining universal beauty and cultural context in a unifying model of visual aesthetic experience. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 09.
