From Attention to Participation: Reviewing and Modelling Engagement with Computers
This work addresses the need for a clearer concept of engagement for designers and researchers in human-computer interaction, but it is incremental as it builds on existing reviews and definitions.
The paper tackles the problem of defining and modeling engagement with computers by reviewing existing perspectives and proposing a new definition as a quality of active connection between users and computing products, resulting in a preliminary model to measure its manifestations.
Over the last decades, the Internet and mobile technology have consolidated the digital as a public sphere of life. Designers are asked to create engaging digital experiences. However, in some cases engagement is seen as a psychological state, while in others it emphasizes a participative vein. In this paper, I review and discuss both and propose a new definition to clarify the concept engagement with computers. Thus, engagement is a quality of an active connection between a user and a computing product, either a website or a mobile phone app. Studying it requires understanding a set of aspects like the user's affect, motivation and attention, as well as the product's design, content and composition. Finally, I propose explaining these concepts aligned with engagement and integrate them into a preliminary model to measure the manifestations.