The aesthetic turn: unravelling recent aesthetic approaches to human-computer interaction

With the rapid penetration of digital interfaces into all aspects of everyday life, the need for understanding the aesthetic aspects of interaction between humans and computers has come into focus. Various positions suggest that aesthetics offers IT design and research an enhanced analytical foundation going beyond the traditional use-oriented principles of HCI and usability. However, this new body of literature employs different notions of aesthetics, resulting in a blurred picture. This article reviews the contributions of aesthetics to IT design and research, which we refer to as the aesthetic turn. Based on a thorough literature review, we propose a division of the field into four overall approaches: the cultural, the functionalistic, the experience-based and the techno-futuristic. Finally we discuss the prospects and pitfalls of approaching research and design of digital interfaces from aesthetic