When Joy Matters: The Importance of Hedonic Stimulation in Collocated Collaboration with Large-Displays

Hedonic aspects are increasingly considered as an important factor in user acceptance of information systems, especially for activities with high self-fulfilling value for the users. In this paper we report on the results of an experiment investigating the hedonic qualities of an interactive large-display workspace for collocated collaboration in sales-oriented travel advisory. The results show a higher hedonic stimulation quality of a touch-based large-display travel advisory workspace than that of a traditional workspace with catalogues. Together with the feedback of both customers and travel agents this suggests the adequacy of using touch-based large-displays with visual workspaces for supporting the hedonic stimulation of user experience in collocated collaboration settings. The relation of high perception of hedonic quality to positive emotional attitudes towards the use of a large-display workspace indicates that even in utilitarian activities (e.g. reaching sales goals for travel agents) hedonic aspects can play an important role. This calls for reconsidering the traditional divide of hedonic vs. utilitarian systems in current literature, to a more balanced view towards systems which provide both utilitarian and hedonic sources of value to the user.