Facets in HCI: Towards understanding eudaimonic UX - Preliminary findings

In recent years, researchers aimed to understand different facets of positive experiences with technology. Positive psychology, and recently also HCI, makes use of a hedonia/ eudaimonia distinction. Hedonia is understood as providing enjoyable experiences, whereas eudaimonia is associated with meaningful experiences. However, it is not clear how eudaimonia manifests in the HCI context. The aim of this explorative study is to provide empirical evidence for eudaimonia in HCI and outline what characterizes hedonic and eudaimonic user experiences. Results indicate that hedonic and eudaimonic user experiences often seem to occur at the same time. Preliminary analysis of user narratives show rich data and experiences with a huge range of different devices are described. Based on these findings further implications and research possibilities are discussed.