Emotional Dimensions of User Experience: A User Psychological Analysis

User psychology is a human–technology interaction research approach that uses psychological concepts, theories, and findings to structure problems of human–technology interaction. As the notion of user experience has become central in human–technology interaction research and in product development, it is necessary to investigate the user psychology of user experience. This analysis of emotional human–technology interaction is based on the psychological theory of basic emotions. Three studies, two laboratory experiments, and one field study are used to investigate the basic emotions and the emotional mind involved in user experience. The first and second experiments study the measurement of subjective emotional experiences during novel human–technology interaction scenarios in a laboratory setting. The third study explores these aspects in a real-world environment. As a result of these experiments, a bipolar competence–frustration model is proposed, which can be used to understand the emotional aspects of user experience.