by Kris Van Hout -

Blog #2 – Skip or view it

What is the best way to engage consumers with videos? What is the role of video storytelling in social media. And what is the goal you want to achieve?

Why video?
“If text was the medium of the analog era, video is definitely the medium of the digital age” (Berthon, Pitt & DesAutels, 2011, p. 1047). It has the ability to grab our attention, stimulate our imagination and gives us possibility to share our own story to the world around us. Video has credited with being a quick attention grabber in digital marketing (Lessard, 2014).
A big challenge for brands is holding consumers attention long enough so that they actually tune in to the video on social media.

In this research paper there are two execution styles being tested: the straight-sell style and the storytelling style. However, the straight-sell style is very popular, social media is known as a tool where brands can share their story.
Storytelling helps us sharing messages and wisdom to navigate and explain the world around us. Story ads place the brand within “narrative elements (e.g., goals, actions, outcomes) it creates empathy. For a brand, storytelling works to help build awareness, empathy, recognition and recall.
Stories can be used to enter the consumer’s thought processes and to bring meaning to everyday objects. (Twitchell, 2004). Consumers tend to think in narrative terms rather than in argumentative terms. (Woodside et al., 2008).
Stories help consumers focus on story elements and allow consumers to be immersed in the story, rather than directing their attention to brand characteristics. People connect those stories to their lives; they compare the story to their lives and match their personal experience.

The positive effects of storytelling can propose that storytelling may increase the consumer engagement with video on social media. Which will lead to positive word of mouth, sharing, promoting and skipping vs viewing behavior. The emotional link between the audience of an ad and the brand is strengthened because stories are memorable and easily absorbed.

Video ads with a storytelling style the consumer will be less likely to believe that the ad is trying to persuade them to do something. It is most likely that storytelling style result in a more favorable change in attitude towards the brand than the straight-sell style. Consumer engagement is more than the purchase, it’s more participatory and involved interactions with the brand on social media.

There is also a finding that the storytelling style is more successful at creating a stronger affective response ore emotional connection with the brand. And created a shareability factor and higher intention to promote the brand.

It would be easier to build a community and enhance brand meaning, while proving their consumers that their product will add value to their life (Hirschman, 2010) This approach has the potential to be effective in a social community where consumers are connected with opportunities to be brand influencers, sharing brand messages with others. Which will lead to more positive publicity.
A video with a storytelling style is more likely to be viewed. This is important because there is no reason for marketeers to invest in expensive content when consumers are going to skip it.

There is a little correlation between social media use and purchase intention. Heavy and light users alike react similarly to the ads with a straight-sell style. While storytelling ads produce a stronger reaction from heavy social media users and react positively. In that case you really have to know your target group.

But the most important question is what is the goal of the video and what goals has more effect in the long run. So, storytelling creates a better brand community but if people don’t know your product in the first place the straight-sell style would be a better match.
The example in this research:
Brands like Coca-Cola may have started with straight-sell styles earlier in the brand’s life to introduce product. However, as the brand and product became more well-known overtime, the brand may have moved on to the storytelling approach in marketing communications.
Thus, if the brand wishes to use a straight-sell and storytelling execution style for its videos on social media, then it would be wise to start with the straight-sell approach and follow up with the storytelling approach, in that order.

Source: Coker, K. K., Flight, R., & Baima, D. M. (2017). Skip it or View it: The Role of Video Storytelling in Social Media Marketing. Researchgate.

by nagyija.bogas -

Impulse #3: Master Thesis

Last week we had a chance to go through some master theses and had a task to choose one and analyse it. My choice was “Ethics of Interaction Design: A Comprehensive Research On How Interaction Designers Can and Should Be More Ethical” by Güney Güner. I chose this thesis because it is related and helpful to the topic of digital well-being.

This master thesis used the method of epistemological study and focused on acquiring as much knowledge as possible. The main goal of the thesis is close to mine because it is about raising awareness, as the topic of ethics in interaction design is often disregarded. I liked that the author of this thesis had a clear goal and structure, it was easy for me to find information and understand what they were writing about.

The result of the author’s research was the creation of a guideline and eight principle for designers to use when working on a certain product.

To my mind, it is important to think about ethics in interaction design because with all the technologies and products we have now, often ethics is neglected, which puts the user’s well-being not on first place in the UX field. Additionally what was interesting to read were the examples of immoral use of interaction design in the industry (The author used Twitter, Youtube, Google, etc for those examples). This thesis can serve as a guide or reminder while doing my research/creating certain products. The author specifically stated that further research and interview conductions can be made. Moreover, the code of ethics that was created can be turned into a visual aid (website, app, print) to increase the reach, which I think is also inspiring.

by nagyija.bogas -

Impulse #2: Problematic Attachment to Social Media: Lived Experience and Behavioural Archetypes.

Research by Majid Altuwairiqi

For my second Impulse, I chose the research from Bournemouth University by Majid Altuwairiqi. Since I want to dive more into user emotions, and well-being while using devices, and social media, this research is a perfect way to start gaining more information about it.

Numerous studies revealed that social media addiction mirrors the symptoms of the usual addiction and contains the same elements: salience, tolerance, conflict, withdrawal, relapse, and mood modification. Additionally, this results in negative psychological experiences, such as anxiety, stress, etc.

When thinking about the usual addiction withdrawals, it is often something that we perceive as not that close to us (if we/our close circle don’t have the experience with it). Still, when we think about those from social media usage we can recognize not only someone close to us but also ourselves.

The author also states that when people are asked to spend less time on social media or online interactions, they start feeling more anxious even if they don’t have any clear purpose for that interaction. This is what I was already researching a little bit because to my mind, trying to avoid, spending less time by locking apps won’t solve the problem but will put the user into an anxious mode.

This research gave me more insights into studies and experiments, which were made for this topic as well as literature that I can use for my own research in the future. I also think that I would use this same research for my other blog post for my topic but will use it for a deeper understanding of psychological factors happening to the user while interacting with social media.

Sources:

by laura.siller -

Plan für das Semester

Im vorherigen Semester habe ich mich intensiv mit Buchbindearten beschäftigt, die das Augenmerk auf die Handarbeit und die Bindung selbst legen. Obwohl ich das Thema persönlich weiterhin sehr spannend finde, bin ich nicht davon überzeugt, dass es genug Interessantes hergibt, um als Masterarbeit zu funktionieren.

Ich bin daher momentan auf der Suche nach meinem Masterarbeitsthema, da ich dieses Semester schon sinnvoll nutzen möchte, um mich möglichst gut auf die Masterarbeit vorzubereiten und bereits erste Recherchen zu machen. Handwerk und analoges Arbeiten finde ich nach wie vor sehr spannend, also möchte ich versuchen dies in irgendeiner Art und Weise in meine Masterarbeit zu integrieren – hier muss ich noch herausfinden, wie ich den Faden zu Kommunikationsdesign spannen kann.

by tina.bergmann -

Plan für dieses Semester

Dieses Semester habe ich vor, bei meinem Research-Thema Storytelling bzw. Visual Storytelling zu bleiben und es als Masterarbeitsthema auszubauen, zu fokussieren und Forschungsfragen zu bilden. Ursprünglich hat sich mein Thema stark auf Visual Storytelling in Illustrationen, speziell auf Comics und die Formensprache in Illustrationen, bezogen. Im zweiten Semester bin ich langsam eher auf Visual Storytelling im Editorial Design übergegangen, was mir als Masterarbeitsthema besser gefällt. Jedoch bin ich mir noch nicht sicher, auf welchen Bereich ich mich genau fokussieren möchte und wie eingeschränkt dieser Fokus sein wird, damit das Themengebiet nicht zu groß wird und sich gut als Masterarbeit behandeln lässt, ohne wichtige Teile davon weglassen zu müssen. Außerdem möchte ich nicht nur eine Theoriearbeit schreiben, sondern auch ein sinnvolles Werkstück gestalten für das ich die Theorie umsetzen kann, wofür ich aber noch keine wirklich gute Idee habe.

by hannah.kremer -

Semesterstart: Werde ich das derzeitige Thema behalten?

Die Reise in das Reich der erweiterten Realität (AR) in der Kunst war eine aufregende und zugleich herausfordernde Erfahrung. Die Erkundung des Potenzials von AR im künstlerischen Ausdruck war ein faszinierendes Unterfangen, aber es ist wichtig, die Rückschläge und Herausforderungen, die auf dem Weg aufgetreten sind, anzuerkennen.

Kürzlich, während eines Universitätsposterprojekts, funktionierte die AR-Ebene, die ich eingebaut hatte, nicht wie erwartet. Die Enttäuschung und Frustration waren deutlich spürbar. Ich fragte mich, ob ich diesen Weg angesichts der technischen Hürden weitergehen sollte.

Solche Rückschläge können entmutigend sein, aber sie bieten auch wertvolle Lektionen. Sie regen zum Nachdenken über die Feinheiten der Technologieintegration in der Kunst an und zeigen, wie wichtig es ist, technische Pannen zu vermeiden. Trotz dieses Rückschlags denke ich über die nächsten Schritte auf meiner AR-Forschungsreise nach – und wäge ab, ob ich dieses Thema weiterführen möchte.

by nadine.lowden -

Impulse #2_”Money Talk” by Ines Mahmoud_Master’s Thesis Review

In preparation for writing the master’s thesis next semester, we were asked to review a completed thesis from a past year. I took a look at Money Talk by Ines Mahmoud, and found a lot of inspiration for my own work in the content, structure, and heart of the thesis.

Money Talk analyzes the issue of the financial knowledge disparity between men and women and proposes an intervention in the form of an app. The thesis is broken down into 5 parts, plus the conclusion and reference list. The introduction includes the relevance of research, problem statement, state of research, goal & hypothesis, and approach. The main body of research is titled “Money, Money, Money”, and highlights various belief systems around money, money as a taboo topic, psychological phenomena such as human-money interaction, mental accounting, and materiality of money, and finally the relationship between women, finances, and money, including topics such as pensions, part-time and care work.

The third section is dedicated to expert interviews. The author first interviews Nicole Katsioulis, a political foundation employee and founder of blog “Geldmarie”, which empowers women to understand finances and become financially independent, sustainable investors. Nina von Gayl, the third interviewee, is the curator for Erste Group’s Financial Life Park, and the third interviewee, Maria Mann, is the CEO of a Munich-based start-up called Financery, a “pragmatic tool for women to invest and grow their wealth”.

Following the interviews, the author titles the fourth section “Auto-Ethnographic Observations”, where she dives into her own thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and histories around money and financial management. I found this section particularly interesting because of the method’s inherent bias, which the author addresses on the first page with the following quotes: “Authoethnography is a set of research that seeks to describe and systematically analyse (grafie) personal experience (auto) in order to understand cultural experience (ethno)” (Ellis 2004; Holman Jones 2005). “It challenges canonical practices of conducting and presenting research (Spry 2001) and treats research as a political and social act” (Adams & Holman Jones 2008). I am interested in looking further into this unfamiliar and seemingly unorthodox research method, as I greatly admire the “human-ness” it brings to the work.

The fifth section of the thesis is dedicated to the practical work, where Mahmoud details her process designing the app, Money Talk, and presents the outcome in a creative and engaging format, utilizing cutouts to showcase the screen design. In this section, Mahmoud details each step of the design process, and walks the reader through every consideration of the screen designs, resulting in a complete and comprehensive analysis.

I really enjoyed sifting through Money Talk. I found myself greatly inspired by the content, structure, and heart of this thesis, and already plan to reference it later on as I continue developing my own thesis. I found Mahmoud’s approach extremely well-organized and thoughtful. Stylistically, the work was beautifully presented, readable but also fun and engaging. The inclusion of research, expert interviews, and practical components was a winning combination in my view, and a format I would consider emulating, or being inspired by, for my own work.

by nagyija.bogas -

Impulse #1: Measuring the Emotional User Experience. WUC

During World Usability Congress 2023, I attended the talk by Bill Albert “Measuring the Emotional User Experience”, who is the SVP and Global Head of Customer Experience at Mach 49. He began his talk by making us think about what makes a successful UX design and showing that it actually goes beyond just good usability and functionality. What matters are the emotions the product makes users feel.

He was talking about how considering a variety of potential emotions a user may experience while interacting with a product helps in designing the experience. To show how this works, Bill had a few examples of when users’ emotions and facial expressions were analysed when they were trying out a certain service or product. He highlighted that the topic of emotional analysis is complex and unequivocal because certain expressions may represent two completely different feelings, for example, a smile can represent either happiness, joy, or uncertainty and confusion. Because of this complexity, researchers try to think of techniques, methods, and tools to help interpret and understand human emotions. Additionally, Bill Albert mentioned the Journal of User Experience – an online journal, which can be accessed by everyone and to my mind, will be a good resource for my future research.

What additionally makes this process even more complex is cultural differences and mentalities. Bill didn’t state this in his talk, but one of the quests had a question about it, which is really important to always keep in mind. Due to this, researchers try to find a way to create more universal models that can adapt to different contexts.

In summary, I chose this for my Impulse because it’s always been fascinating to me – the topic of the multifaceted nature of emotions, and this talk gave me information about what softwares are being used for that and how important it is in the field of UX Design.

Sources:

by laura.weixler -

1. Themenwahl

Vorerst möchte ich mich mit meinem aktuellen Thema noch beschäftigen und untersuchen, ob ich vielleicht eine spannende Erweiterung dazu finden könnte. Ich bin mir relativ sicher, dass ich meine Masterarbeit nicht ausschließlich zum Thema Drucktechniken schreiben möchte, jedoch möchte ich noch weiters untersuchen, ob ich eine passende Verknüpfung zu diesem Themenfeld finden könnte.

Ich finde den Ansatz mit analogen Techniken zu arbeiten und andere Gestaltungsprinzipien einzubinden sehr interessant. Analoges Gestalten und verschiedene Techniken zu erlernen, erscheint für mich besonders reizvoll, um neue Wege des Gestaltens zu entdecken. 

by nagyija.bogas -

New Semester – New Research Topic

Last year I was exploring the topic of cultural adaptation through interfaces. It was an interesting topic to explore because through it I also could learn something new. I analysed government websites, conducted surveys, and explored technologies that are out there relevant to my topic. It was a nice experience, which helped me understand that researching and analysing different emotional states of people while using certain products/interfaces is what is interesting to me.

Because of this, I decided to take the opportunity to change the topic and try something a little bit different. The topic I want to explore in this semester is – Digital Well-Being. Why the shift? The past few years have strongly shown that technologies will become a part of our daily lives more and more with each year and it sometimes becomes harder to control time and quality of the experience. We rely on our digital devices a lot, which we can notice even more during global events like COVID-19.

This raises the question about the negative consequences this has on our mental and physical well-being. It is now nearly impossible to control what you’ll see on your feed and how that will affect you. For this many resources were created to help with controlling time spent on digital devices or certain apps (for example: do not disturb or lock app modes) but what I’ve experienced and what I saw people experiencing is the result of thinking even more about your devices, feeling guilty/irritated, avoiding any locks. And since we rely on our devices too much these days, the solution of just leaving or turning off your phone (for example) won’t work.

So, my idea now lies in the question – is it possible to create something that would make the experience with the device more “ecological” for the user without compromising their need for the device? And what emotions/feelings do users have while interacting with their device?