Sensual Evaluation Instrument (SEI)

This tool is a set of sculpted objects that can be held in the hand, used by a person to indicate how they are feeling as they interact with a system designed to evoke affect. The objects are meant to provide a flexible, non-verbal channel of communication between user and designer during system development. Because they do not use language, we also hope the objects will be easy to use in many cultural contexts.

http://friendlymedia.sbrl.rpi.edu/body-projects.html

Höök, K., Isbister, K., and Laaksolahti, J. 2005. Sensual Evaluation Instrument. CHI 2005 Workshop on Innovative Approaches to Affective Evaluation. Isbister, K., Höök, K., Sharp, M., and Laaksolahti, J. 2006. The Sensual Evaluation Instrument: Developing an Affective Evaluation Tool. Full paper at CHI 2006, nominated for best paper award. Isbister, K., Höök, K., Laaksolahti, J., and Sharp, D. (forthcoming). The Sensual Evaluation Instrument: Developing a Trans-cultural Self-Report Measure of Affect. To appear in special issue of IJHCS (International Journal of Human-Computer Studies) devoted to Innovation in Affective Evaluation.

Contact Dr. Isbister (isbisk@rpi.edu) or Dr. Höök (kia@sics.se). We have multiple copies of the object set and highly encourage designers to use the objects. We are very interested in learning from 'live' design projects to improve the tool.