01Experience design · Read 8 min

Hassenzahl’s model: designing beyond usability

A product supports action goals as well as needs for stimulation, identity and meaning.

IN ONE SENTENCE

An efficient interface can still feel cold. The pragmatic/hedonic model explains why.

CONTEXT

This post draws on the readings and research I conducted during my PhD on user experience (UX). It introduces Marc Hassenzahl’s model, a framework connecting usability, hedonic qualities and lived experience.

SUMMARY

The model distinguishes what a product enables people to do — pragmatic quality — from what it enables them to feel or express — hedonic quality. Both perceptions, shaped by context and the user’s internal state, contribute to lived experience.

Key diagram

How experience takes shape in Hassenzahl’s model

PRODUCTPerceived properties

→

DO-GOALSPragmatic quality

Useful · controllable · efficient

BE-GOALSHedonic quality

Stimulation · identity · evocation

→

EXPERIENCEEmotion & appraisal

ChoiceUseAppeal

UserSituationTimeContext shapes the whole loop

Product properties are perceived through two families of qualities. They feed emotion, overall appraisal and behavior in a loop shaped by context.

A research-based explainer grounded in the sources listed below. Some mechanisms are simplified without changing the overall conclusions.

Product application01

Variant B converts better. Does it also improve perceived experience?

Add a short measure of pragmatic and hedonic quality to the A/B test, a randomized comparison between two variants. A product team can then separate gains driven by efficiency from gains linked to stimulation, brand perception or a sense of control.

What to measure in the experiment

Conversion and task success

Pragmatic / hedonic score

Retention or reuse

Key idea

Pragmatic quality supports action goals — do-goals. Hedonic quality supports being goals — be-goals. Experience emerges from both, within a specific situation and moment.

01 — Beyond ergonomics

Efficiency covers one part of user experience.

Traditional ergonomics addresses usability, guidance and workload. Lived experience also includes stimulation, identity and meaning. An interface may be clear, fast and error-free while still feeling impersonal or unstimulating.

Marc Hassenzahl’s model asks which perception the system creates and which needs it supports. User experience becomes a subjective evaluation shaped by the product as well as expectations, mood, motivation and context.

02 — Two families of qualities

Do-goals explain action. Be-goals explain meaning.

Pragmatic quality is the perceived ability of a system to help someone achieve a concrete objective: finding information, booking a trip or completing a task. It relates to usefulness, controllability and efficiency — the model’s do-goals.

Hedonic quality concerns be-goals: aspirations related to the self. My doctoral research describes three components: stimulation, which supports novelty and growth; identification, which helps express who we are; and evocation, which connects a product to memories or meaningful experiences. In a messaging service, successful delivery supports the action goal, while a sense of connection supports the being goal.

03 — A dynamic experience

Perception, emotion and behavior continuously shape one another.

Perceived pragmatic and hedonic qualities influence emotional valence and arousal. Those emotions then contribute to overall appraisal, product choice and usage behavior. The model therefore describes a loop between perception, affect and action.

Time matters too. A product that feels stimulating at first may become familiar; an initially complex interaction may become fluid through learning. Any user experience (UX) measure should therefore specify the situation, timing of evaluation and the user’s history with the system.

04 — From model to design

Two simple questions can transform a product brief.

First: what must the person be able to do without needless friction? Second: which need or self-image should the experience support? The answers lead to different decisions. A dashboard should make decisions efficient, but it may also create a feeling of control. A learning app should make progress legible while stimulating curiosity and learner identity.

AttrakDiff, a user-experience evaluation questionnaire, operationalizes the framework by measuring overall attractiveness and perceived pragmatic and hedonic qualities. The model also serves as a design framework for connecting task success with lived value.

Primary source

Doctoral research and readings on user experience

A synthesis of the pragmatic/hedonic model based on Marc Hassenzahl’s work studied during my PhD.

Selected references

Hassenzahl (2005, 2007, 2008)
Hassenzahl et al. (2003, 2010)
Mahlke & Thüring (2007)
Lallemand et al. (2015)