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Take a Paws : Using cute media to alleviate computer frustration

Computers have become an indispensable resource in assisting us in our daily life. While they do a good job most of the time, sometimes they can create a seemingly endless nightmare. Horrible user interfaces, bugs, errors, hardware issues and other factors are various causes of user frustration. The current approach is to either prevent it from happening or to fix the issue after it has appeared. In this study, an alternative approach is explored which makes use of distraction through mood induction. By using cute images of infantile animals it was argued that this could alleviate computer frustration. For this study, 60 participants were used to test this theory by first doing a frustrating task and a consequent treatment or control exposure. Mood and frustration levels were collected throughout the test and later analyzed. Additionally, opinions and reactions were collected using a follow-up interview and observations. Findings suggest that looking at cute images helps alleviate frustration caused by computers.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-133891
Date January 2017
CreatorsKu, Dennis
PublisherUmeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
RelationInformatik Student Paper Master (INFSPM) ; 2017.03

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