Towards conscientiousness-based graphical user interface design guidelines

Abstract

Although designers aim at ofering the best possible user experience, products are designed for a general audience with a common pool of characteristics. Since intrinsic psychological characteristics model the human interaction, ignoring that each individual has diferent experiences may lead to a failed product. From these constructs, personality has shown strong results by shaping how users process and act on the world, and how individuals perceive and accept technology. In this work, we focus on conscientiousness, a personality trait that models one’s organization, persistence, and motivation for goal-oriented behavior. In particular, we study (N = 40) whether conscientiousness afects the design preferences for graphical elements in a user interface. Additionally, we assess (N = 60) if designing graphical user interfaces based on the design preferences of individuals with diferent conscientiousness scores afects perceived usability and ease-of-use. Results show that designing interfaces for conscientiousness-based personality profles infuences user preference but has no signifcant efect on perceived usability and ease-of-use. Our fndings support the incorporation of conscientiousness in the design process to develop graphic user interfaces that focus on goal-oriented behavior for the correct audience.