Beyond Beauty: Towards a Deeper Understanding of Aesthetics in HCI

The word aesthetics, as used in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), tends to refer to visual characteristics of an interface. Furthermore, it is broadly taken to mean beauty, which, while a significant aspect of aesthetics, is not its only concern. Unfortunately, HCI tends to hold a narrow-sighted view of the topic that often ignores a rich history of discourse. Aesthetics is a key concern of philosophy, considering our perception of the natural and artefactual world. In more recent times, it has grown to consider all of our sensory perceptions of the world around us, where our encounters with everyday objects and environments are two areas of interest. Here, I explain how HCI describes aesthetics and give an overview of philosophical approaches to aesthetics, show where some common ground lies between the two, and suggest how aesthetic categorisations could work for artefacts in HCI.