1. 從產品認知語意探討紙本書閱讀愉悅感之初步研究
A Preliminary Study of Pleasurable Reading Experience in Paperbook from
Cognitive Product Semantic Perspective
歐瑜婷 1* 王明揚 2
國立清華大學工業工程學系 1
yuitn690814@gmail.com
摘要
目前電子書設計議題關注於使用性功能測試，如：反應速度、顯示器圖文品質等，而這些功能規格
決定了電子書服務或設計之策略。大部分閱讀活動中，可發現重度閱讀者仍屬偏好紙本書籍的閱讀，而
他們被視為潛在的電子書使用者。本研究初步了解讀者於紙本書閱讀時產生的愉悅和不愉悅感經驗，並
透過語意調查法(semantic inquiry)，歸納相關紙本書閱讀愉悅和不愉悅感之形容詞語彙。我們架構五個主
要的情緒體驗類別：讀者與紙本書的關係(reader-paper book attachment)、本能(visceral)、行為(behavior)、
情境(situational)和人與人之間(interpersonal)。研究結果顯示紙本書閱讀愉悅感，需同時包含實用功能性和
持續的閱讀經驗於各種不同讀者的情緒體驗中，除此之外，本研究所歸納之形容詞語彙，亦可為電子書
服務經驗設計之應用。
關鍵詞：愉悅感、電子書服務設計、紙本書、產品語意和情緒體驗
Abstract
Current study for e-reader design is surrounded by usability orientation (e.g., competing in speed, display
quality on text and images) which leads toward service/design strategies. However, for most of the reading
activities, paper continues to be the preferred medium for frequent readers, who could be the most promising
potential adopters for e-readers. The preliminary study aims to understand how ―pleasure‖ or its opposite
―displeasure‖ was experienced by paper book readers, and also to collect semantics regarding
pleasure/displeasure through semantic inquiry. Five categories of emotional experiences are identified to collect
inquiry data: attachment (reader-paper book attachment), visceral, behavioural, situational and interpersonal. The
finding shows that a pleasurable paper book reading combines pragmatic features and sustainable through
diverse reading experiences. In addition, these semantics of pleasure/displeasure in paper book reading
experiences can be potentially used for e-reader service experience design.
Keywords: pleasure, e-reader design, paper book, product semantics, emotional experience

2. 1. Introduction we aim to advance our understanding of the
In-depth understanding the emotional experiences emotional experience of paper book reading
of interactions with frequent readers of paper book is corresponding to different categories of emotions,
important to serve as the foundation for the and in turn, to model the interactions with the wide
development of electronic reading applications and range of pleasure/displeasure.
service; however, little contribution has been made in 2. Five categories of emotional experiences
this area by exploring how frequent readers approach to paper book experiences
experienced pleasure/displeasure during holistic As for our definitions, reading experience with
paper book interactions. Ruecker (2002) has made reading medium interactions can be comprised with
contributions through his objective in single emotion multiple levels of emotions for frequent readers, and
of pleasure to discern paper book experiences and also, we hope to better understand attributes which
underlines the functionality of e-reader design can be can determine pleasure/displeasure of paper book
without loss to either the existing functions of paper interactions. Thus, we first have to define the
book or this significant range of pleasures. It different emotional experiences, and then explore the
seemingly implies the design focus of e-reader goes possible determinants from the broad and varied
beyond the issue of functionality or usability. We product emotions of paper book.
take similar view and deepen explanation to better
2.1Visceral, Behavioral and Reflective
determine how emotional experience of paper book
Norman (2004) proposes a multi-level analysis
could evoke pleasure for frequent readers, and
framework. In this analysis, emotional considerations
whether if there has contradictive emotions with
are inclusive at each of three levels of emotional
―pleasure‖ or its opposite ―displeasure‖ for
processing: visceral (reactive), behavioral (routine),
reader-paper book interactions. Currently, surveys
and the reflective. As noted, this triple tier
indicate that adults spend substantial amounts of time
framework is similar and reasonably corresponds to
reading as an important aspect of their lives (Gioia,
Jordan‘s pleasurable framework which includes
2008), and in the design trend for reading
physio-pleasure, psycho—pleasure, socio-pleasure
applications, digital reading devices need to possess
and ideo-pleasure. This viewpoint was confirmed by
a paper-like high contrast appearance, ultra-low
review of other existing literature in the field (Lim et
power consumption, and light weight enough to carry
al., 2008; Schifferstein and Zwartkruis-Pelgrim,
anywhere (Dougherty, 2010), whether these
2008). For this research, we adapted the visceral and
electronic feature can enrich the frequent readers‘
behavioral emotional relevance to the discussion (e.g.
experience. On the one hand, developers may face
book feature, material, appearance) and also have
some difficulties in deciding which functions should
considered broad interests to explore how to trigger
be considered essential for an electronic reading
the pleasure/displeasure arousing attributes with
application or service, and seems certain that merely
reflective experiences or other unknown emotional
embracing the notion of bare functionality or
experiences in paper book interactions.
usability is just not enough; on the other hand, little
2.2 Attachment (Reader-paperbook attachment)
existing knowledge explains why frequent readers
are bound by conventional paper media. In this study, In the literature, attachment with product has been
defined as the strength of the emotional bond to a

3. consumer experience with a specific product also enrich the extent of the reader‘s pleasurable
(Schifferstein et al., 2004). Ruecker (2002) even experiences with paperbook and might possibly be
mentions that there is a strong emotional bond undefined by Norman or Jordan. So, additional issue
between frequent readers and paperbook. Govers and arises as to what determinants can affect reader‘s
Mugge (2004) states a product attachment can result durable experiences with paperbook in different
in a longer usage period may experienced the process situational experience (e.g. purchase of book, reading
such as, (s)he is more likely to handle the product occasion)
with care, to repair it when it breaks down, and to 2.4 Interpersonal experience
postpone its replacement as long as possible. It
Guthrie et al. (2004) sates social reading
suggests design product that was composed with
motivation leads to increased amount of reading and
enjoyment and memories that evoked from the
high achievement in reading. And also, Parkinson et
associations between products and people, places or
al. (2005) restates these elements of interpersonal
events (Norman, 2004; Schifferstein and
experience included: emotional contagion, social
Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, 2008).
appraisal, and interpersonal reinforcement. Similarity,
2.3 Situational experience the factor of self-image has also been concerned into
As we mentioned, readers with various purposes the reflective category as defined (Norman, 2004).
were performed their reading tasks. Adler et al. (1998) 2.5 Semantic identification of pleasure/displeasure
reports adults‘ reading activity is far too general and emotions from product attributes
with ubiquities from a varied range of forms and
Wikstrom (1996) defines the four product semantic
purposes. These reading activities will also depend
functions that a product may possess as: to describe,
on whether person is considering reading at work or
to express, to signal, and to identify itself. With
at home according to their different considerations.
recent design trends in ergonomics benefiting from
As we can see, it‘s seemingly has a barrier for
contributions by related to semantics and emotional
readers owning a pleasurable reading experience that
design, the focus of product semantics has shifted
meets several of ubiquitous reading or occasion. We
from emphasis on the product‘s narrative
realized the paperbook relationship represents a
performance to the psychosocial feelings product
durable experience for readers and from the different
interactions engender or evoke. Many researchers
roles in relationship to a book it can be assumed that
have been motivated to find out how to trigger the
they will evoke various emotions from these
pleasure arousing attributes in a product. For
different situational experiences, such as whether
example, Jordan (1998) used interviews to ascertain
from book of purchasing, reading enjoyably, carrying
product attributes including features, usability,
books of anywhere, etc. It‘s naturally responsive to
aesthetics, performance and reliability factors that
the points of Kahmann and Henze (2002) mentions
contribute to making product use pleasurable or
that consumers have different roles in their
displeasure. Naturally, it is interesting not only to
relationship to a product: there‘s the person who buys
understand the determinant attributes of pleasurable
the product, the person who uses the product and the
book interactions, but specifically attempt to
person who owns the product. Based on the literature
organize the semantics are frequently mentioned with
regarding durable product experiences, these could
regard to ―pleasure‖ and it‘s opposite ―displeasure‖

4. from reader‘s inquiry context. have collected a total of 29 experiences for each
3. Respondents and procedure given emotional category (see Appendix, Table 1). In
the second stage, we carefully formulated the
This study conducted two inquiry stages to
questions according to the experiences gained from
investigate the issue of pleasure or displeasure in
following up on the semi-structured interviews. This
experiences with paper book interactions. At the
not only helps the respondents to express more about
first stage, data were collected from 60 frequent
their experiences with paperbook, but also
readers who preferred reading paperbook through
contributes to the data collection and analysis
open-ended questionnaires with snowball sampling.
followed. The fifteen respondents were randomly
Subsequently, we attempted to conduct in-depth
chosen for follow-up interview, and were asked a
semi-structured interviews with 15 respondents who
series of questions that cover the experiences
were randomly selected from a representative pool of
elaborated in the first inquiry stage. All of the
the frequent readers in this study. The representative
questions were formulated in accordance with the
pool sample respondents had the following
five emotional categories and evaluated by experts
characteristics: age ranging from 24 to 55 with the
and peers.
average age of 35. The number of male and female
subjects is the same. 62% of the respondents had 5. Results
higher education (bachelor and master degrees), and The interview data were transcribed and coded
the rest have doctoral degrees; thus, indicating a bias according to the principles of content analysis
toward higher educational status. The respondents (Saldana, 2009), and analyzed by the nVivo
were individuals from a range of occupations, qualitative data analysis tool. Boyatzis (1998)
including administration related to computer work suggested the raw data be audio taped responses, the
(35.5%), information specialists or engineers unit coding be determined by the structured
(22.2%), publishers (15.2%), researchers (6.7%), as interview (e.g., by each question). Weber (1996) also
well as product designers, sales, students, retired and stated the content analysis of the specific words were
others. From these respondents, frequent readers are higher reliability than other unites of text (e.g.,
those who usually read books for 1-2 hours daily, and paragraphs). Moreover, in the literature, we found
bought nearly three books a month on average. that many emotions related research studies used
4. Instrument development interviews or discourse to collect respondent‘s
semantic adjectives (Hauge-Nilsen and Flyte, 2002;
The instrument used in this research was aimed to
Jordan, 1998; Ruecker, 2002).With this reason, we
explore the polarity of pleasure and displeasure in
encoded a sample of respondent quotes for each
paper book reading experiences. A two-stage
experience using semantic adjectives as a unit of
questioning technique was employed to elicit the
analysis. More important, the semantics evoked and
emotions of the reader‘s experiences associated with
extracted from these respondent‘s words were
pleasure or displeasure. In the first stage, the
selected and divided into groups of similar attributes.
open-ended questionnaire allows us to collect
Attributes were grouped together based on references
experiences (e.g., easy to turn page, difficult to recall
to related aspects of experience respondents
position, book as treasure) in an unbiased and
mentioned (e.g., they described the act of
non-leading way (Venkatesh and Brown, 2001). We

5. preciousness as ―nostalgic‖ and ―precious‖) or From the overall distribution, we can clearly see that
reference to diametrically opposing aspects (e.g., the range of behavioral category involving broader
relaxed vs. tense).These attributes were combined experiences collected in the opened-ended
and named according to their contribution to questionnaire and interview stages. Although it could
identifying the context of experience resulting in potentially imply the importance of behavioral
pleasure or displeasure. Following these collection experiences to readers, the significant pleasure in
principles and data driven analysis, a total of over ―usage of book‖ is recognized in highest in
30,000 words were collected from an initial pool of attachment category, followed by ―sharing &
15 interview responses, and each respondent that discussion‖ in interpersonal, ―marking‖ in behavioral,
contributed 2,500 to 3,000 words in average for total ―sense of vision‖ and ―reading occasion‖ in visceral
of 29 experiences. From the data we collated, 17 and situational category respectively. As expected,
attributes of book reading experiences were labeled. readers‘ pleasure in paperbook reading is not
85 semantic adjectives regarding pleasure or particular to the behavioral experiences but to the
displeasure were identified in this research (see broad ones. In contrast to displeasure aspect, no
Appendix, Table 2). In order to understand which attributes affect the ―ownership of book,‖ but do
possible attributes can determine the significantly influence ―reserve of book‖ in
pleasure/displeasure experiences of the five attachment category. Also, it is important to note that
categories of emotions, we purposely separated the the particular displeasure experiences in paperbook
semantics without emotional terms associated with were ―storage book‖ and ―recall previously read‖ in
pleasure (e.g., happy and comfortable) and with which they can be significantly identified in
displeasure (e.g., dislike and unhappy). By doing behavioral category. The distinction between
so, we hoped to avoid the bias on terms occurring pleasure and displeasure of paperbook experiences
frequently in the data analysis. More specifically, the shows an interesting result for readers‘ feelings with
three independent researchers transcribed the data contradiction. The most particular pleasure for
into the template and the categories were compared readers was from the attachment with paperbook.
after each coding session until valid categories were Particular displeasure, meanwhile, was evoked from
found (Kvale, 1996). Additionally one supervising those experiences in behavioral. It suggests that the
analyst (out of the 3 participating data analysts) particular displeasures occurred with the lack of
investigated all the data to make sure that the data existed book functions or obstructive original goals.
was consistent to the coding template. The101 Several respondents had comments like “It’s
semantic attributes were discussed among coders marvellous to see a shelf of books displayed, but it
until reaching unanimous consensus. The inter-coder did occupy most of my living space” or “I’m used
reliability was 0.79. to clipping pages by bookmarks, but if not, I felt
5.1 Significant experiences of the five categories of irritated because next time I might find the page
emotions which was previously read.” Overall, the relatively
higher frequencies of pleasure than displeasure show
The significant paperbook experiences in each
that the readers have less displeasure experiences in
category of emotions in terms of pleasure/displeasure
paperbook interactions.
were distinctly identified (see Appendix, Figure 1).

6. 6. Conclusion Publishing
In practice, the results of this study offer four main 4. Govers, P. C., & Mugge, R. (2004). ‗I love my
implications as below, First, the semantics of jeep, because it‘s tough like me‘: The effect of
describing the pleasure/displeasure of paperbook product-personality congruence on product
reading shed lights on the facilitation of connection attachment. In Proceedings of the Fourth
among designers in developing digital reading International Conference on Design and
application. Second, we suggest, from the Emotion, Ankara, Turkey.
implications of results, designers/researchers in the 5. Hauge-Nilsen, A. L., & Flyte, M. G. (2002).
product development need to evaluate reader‘s Understanding attributes that contribute to
emotion in digital reading by the blend of two pleasure in product use. In: William S. Green
dimensions of pleasure/displeasure or mixed. Finally, and Patrick W. Jordan, Eds. Pleasure with
mangers implementing technology or service in adult products: beyond usability. London: Taylor
reading market should broadly sense that a and Francis, 257-270.
successful combination of frequent readers and
6. Jordan, P. W. (1998). Human factors for
sustainable reading experiences is inclusive of
pleasure in product use. Applied Ergonomics,
five-category emotions rather than taking single view
29(1), 25-33.
in functionality concerned. We present important
7. Kahmann, R., & Henze, L. (2002). Mapping
implications for design or service development
the User-Product Relationship (in Product
related digital reading application. Finally, we hope
Design). In:William S. Green and Patrick W.
our study provides potential value for both emotional
Jordan, Eds. Pleasure with Products: Beyond
experience research in ergonomics and HCI, as well
Usability. London: Taylor and Francis, 297-306
as for service-oriented industries, which is based on
8. Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional design.
holistic design strategies for e-reader reading
Citeseer.
pleasures.
9. Ruecker, S. (2002). Carrying the pleasure of
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Appendix
Situational Purchase of Reading Reading
(N=3) book occasion location
Table 1. Five Categories of emotional experiences
Interperson Sharing & Social Social
Five Detailed readers’ experiences (Total=29) al (N=3) discussion identity ideology
categories
Attachment Reserve of book Ownership of Usage of
(N=3) book book
Visceral Sense of Sense of Sense of
Table 2. 17 Attributes comprising semantics associated with pleasure/displeasure
Definition of attributes pleasure displeasure
Content –content that are classified, accessed or searched by various 1.Complete 2.Organized 1.Tedious 2.Disorganized
design elements contained in a book, such as ―text,‖ ―length,‖
―format,‖ ―section,‖ etc. 3.Concise 4.correct 3.Incomplete 4.Incorrect
Utility – the quality of being practical to use, such as ―does what I
1.Useful 2.Indispensable 1.Useless 2.dispensable
want it to do.‖
Preciousness– the emotional feeling to desire to keep a book for a 1.Nostalgic 2.Precious 1.Worthless 2.Replaceable
longer time, such as ―treasure,‖ ― love,‖ etc.
3.Irreplaceable 4. Memorable 3.Contradictory
Reminder – the reminder function to assist reading, such as ― recall
1.Remindful 1.Forgetful
previous section,‖ etc.
Self-efficacy –capable of attaining designated levels of performing
1.Progressive 1.Regressive
reading task, such as ―recognition of my reading progress,‖ etc.
Focus attention – the act of devoting to study or reading, such as
1.Focused 1.Distracted
―concentrate on searching or reading,‖ etc
Self-image –the way readers view themselves or their sense of social 1.Vain 2.Deep 1.Shallow 2.Old-fashioned
relationship, such as ―what kind of book interests me,‖ ―how deep I
discuss or talk with others,‖ or ―how do I catch up to date,‖ etc. 3.Recognized 4.New-fashioned
Eco-awareness –awareness related to environ- mental issues, such
1.Aware 1.Unaware
as, ― uses too much paper,‖ etc.
Cost – the amount of money that needs to be paid for a book. 1.Lower 2.Discountable 1.higher
Book feature – features are book characteristics that deliver
1.Limited 2.Traditional
prominent functions or benefits.

8. Ambiance – the ambiance of the reading place is the character or 1.Relaxed 2.Engaged 1.Tense 2.Noised
atmosphere that it seems to have, such as ― I read at home,‖ I read in
my workplace,‖ ―I habitually read in bed,‖ etc. 3. Quiet 3.Disengaged
Physicalness– related objects or things which actually can be visible 1.Appropriate 2.Tangible 1.Inappropriate 2.Narrow
and tangible, such as the ‖size,‖ ―shape‖ or ―weight‖ related to book
structure; the ―space‖ or ―area,‖ related to a storage room. 3.Light 3.Heavy 4.Dense
Aesthetic–the way that a book looks on the outside in visible aspects 1.Colorful 2.Beautiful 1.Old 2.Ugly
with aesthetics, such as ― design of the book cover,‖ ―colour of
photos‖ or ―resolution,‖ etc. 3.Attractive 3.Monotonous
Timeliness –the time needed for efficiently completing reading tasks 1.Timely 2.Regular 1.Inefficient 2.Belated
or purchases, ―stay inform latest version of a book,‖ ―taking own
time to complete a reading task,‖ etc. 3.Asynchronous
Manipulation– the reading state or process of acting or doing, such 1.Effortless 2.Free 1.Difficult 2.Inconvenient
as ―turning page,‖ ―searching passages‖ or holding books,‖ etc.
3.Controllable 4.Quick 3.Unpredictable 4.Restricted
`Material – the tangible substance of paper that is made into a book, 1.Thick 2.Flexible 1.Flimsy 2.Irretrievable
and also includes the texture of paper, such as ―the surface or fabric
when touched.‖ 3.Unreflecting 3.Smelly 4.Risky
Social Relation –playing an important role in defining person‘s 1.Perceivable 2.Sympathetic 1.Unsympathetic 2. Unperceivable
social characteristics, especially mixing specific groups, such as ―a
reading or discussion group,‖ etc. 3.Active 4.Curious 3. Passive 4.Prejudiced
Figure 1. The frequency counts of attributes in each category of emotional experience, where frequency counts of pleasure
and displeasure are 536 and 380, respectively