📄 social_science

How stylized digital interfaces shape emotional value, self-expression and continuance intention in intelligent vehicles

This study analyzes 174 questionnaires to demonstrate that perceived enjoyment mediates the positive impact of stylized in-vehicle interface features—specifically perceived novelty, personalization affordances, and aesthetic quality—on drivers' continuance intention, while self-expression does not serve as a mediator in this relationship.

Original authors: Bo Liu, Xinliu Wu, Xinlei Ma, Jingyan Yang, Lei Dai, Jie Zhang

Published 2026-09-29

📖 6 min read🧠 Deep dive

CC BY 4.0

Original authors: Bo Liu, Xinliu Wu, Xinlei Ma, Jingyan Yang, Lei Dai, Jie Zhang

Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ✨ This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer

Inside the modern car, the dashboard is no longer just a collection of dials and warning lights. It has become a screen, a portal, and increasingly, a personality. As vehicles grow more autonomous, the focus of design is shifting from simply helping a driver steer to creating an emotional environment for everyone inside. This is the realm of the human-machine interface, the digital layer where people talk to their cars. For years, engineers prioritized safety and clarity, ensuring that a driver could read a speed or a map without distraction. But as cars become smarter, designers are asking a deeper question: can the interface do more than just work? Can it make the driver feel something? Can it become a place where a person's own identity is reflected? This is the territory explored by a team of researchers who wanted to understand how the look and feel of a car's digital screen influences whether a driver will keep using it, and why.

The researchers began by looking at three specific ingredients that make a digital interface feel special. First, there is the sense of novelty, the feeling that a design is new, fresh, and different from what has come before. Second, there is personalization, the ability for a user to change the screen to match their own tastes, much like choosing a wallpaper on a phone. Third, there is aesthetic quality, the sheer visual beauty of the design, including how colors, shapes, and layouts come together. The team wondered how these three elements affect two distinct feelings in the driver's mind. One feeling is simple enjoyment, the immediate pleasure of using a system that feels fun and engaging. The other is self-expression, the deeper sense that the car is an extension of who the driver is, a way to show their personality to the world.

To test these ideas, the team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and other institutions created a series of stylized digital dashboards for a study. They designed interfaces with specific themes, such as vacation, food, and landscape, to see how different artistic styles would land with real drivers. They then invited 174 people, mostly experienced drivers from mainland China, to look at these designs and answer a detailed survey. The participants were asked to imagine using these systems and rate how novel, personalized, and beautiful they found them. They also rated how much fun they thought the system would be, how much it allowed them to express themselves, and whether they would want to keep using it in the future. The goal was to map out the invisible path from a design choice to a driver's decision to stay loyal to a car's technology.

The results revealed a clear and somewhat surprising story about what drives people to stick with a technology. The study found that all three design ingredients—novelty, personalization, and beauty—did indeed boost the driver's sense of enjoyment. When a dashboard looked new and fresh, or when it allowed the driver to tweak it to their liking, or when it simply looked beautiful, the driver reported having more fun using it. This sense of enjoyment was a powerful engine for the future. It was the strongest predictor of whether a driver intended to keep using the system. In fact, the feeling of fun was so central that it acted as a bridge, carrying the positive effects of novelty, personalization, and beauty all the way to the driver's decision to continue using the car.

However, the path to self-expression told a different story. While personalization and aesthetic beauty strongly helped drivers feel that they could express their identity, the sense of novelty did not. The researchers found that simply seeing something new and different on the screen did not make a driver feel like they were expressing who they were. This distinction is crucial. A new design might spark curiosity and provide a momentary thrill, but it does not automatically give a person a voice. To truly feel that the car is an extension of themselves, the driver needed the power to choose and change. The ability to customize the interface was the key that unlocked the feeling of self-expression. It was the act of making the system their own, rather than just witnessing something new, that mattered most.

When the researchers looked at what ultimately made drivers want to keep using the system, they found that both enjoyment and self-expression played a role, but enjoyment was slightly more influential. The immediate pleasure of using a beautiful, fun interface was a stronger pull than the deeper satisfaction of identity, though both were important. The study suggests that while drivers love to show off their unique tastes, the day-to-day decision to keep using a car's technology is driven more by the joy of the experience itself. The data showed that personalization was the most powerful tool for designers. It was the only factor that strongly boosted both the fun of using the system and the feeling of self-expression. Aesthetic quality followed closely behind, helping both feelings, while novelty was effective only for the immediate sense of fun.

The findings offer a clear guide for the future of car design. They suggest that while making a dashboard look new and exciting is a good way to grab attention, it is not enough to build a lasting connection. To create a system that drivers will love over the long term, designers must focus on giving users the tools to make the car their own. The most successful interfaces will be those that are not just beautiful or new, but that allow the driver to shape the experience. By balancing the thrill of the new with the power of personal choice, car manufacturers can turn a simple screen into a space that feels both enjoyable and deeply personal. The study concludes that the future of the intelligent vehicle lies not just in how smart the car is, but in how well it lets the human behind the wheel feel like themselves.

Technical Summary: How Stylized Digital Interfaces Shape Emotional Value, Self-Expression, and Continuance Intention in Intelligent Vehicles

Problem Statement
As autonomous driving technologies shift the focus of vehicle Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) from pure driving assistance to enhancing user experience, there is a growing need to understand how "stylized" interfaces—defined as designs incorporating cultural themes or artistic features beyond functional presentation—impact user behavior. While existing research acknowledges that interface design influences emotional experience, a theoretical gap remains in explaining the specific psychological mechanisms driving continuance intention (the willingness to continue using a system). Previous studies often treat emotional experience as a monolithic construct (e.g., general satisfaction), failing to differentiate between immediate hedonic pleasure and deeper eudaimonic self-identification. This study addresses this gap by distinguishing between these two emotional value pathways to comprehensively model how stylized in-vehicle HMIs influence long-term user loyalty.

Methodology
The study employed a quantitative research design utilizing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test a theoretical model involving six latent variables:

Input Variables: Perceived Novelty (PN), Personalization Affordances (PA), and Aesthetic Quality (AQ).
Mediating Variables: Perceived Enjoyment (PE) and Self-Expression (SE).
Outcome Variable: Continuance Intention (CI).

Data was collected via an online survey using the PowerCX Questionnaire System Platform in mainland China. The study presented respondents with scenarios and interface presets featuring vacation, gastronomy, and landscape themes designed for Chinese vehicle manufacturers. After screening for attention and data quality, 174 valid questionnaires were analyzed from a sample of 208 respondents. The demographic profile was skewed toward experienced drivers (77.01% with over three years of driving experience) and the 24–35 age group.

The analysis was conducted using SmartPLS 4.0. The researchers assessed the measurement model for reliability (Cronbach's alpha and Composite Reliability), convergent validity (Average Variance Extracted), and discriminant validity (Fornell-Larcker criterion and cross-loadings). Common Method Variance (CMV) was checked via Harman's single-factor test. The structural model was evaluated using path coefficients, $R^2$ (variance explained), $Q^2$ (predictive relevance), and Variance Accounted For (VAF) for mediation effects.

Key Results
The structural model demonstrated strong predictive capability, with $R^2$ values of 0.618 for Perceived Enjoyment, 0.632 for Self-Expression, and 0.754 for Continuance Intention.

Direct Effects on Emotional Value:
- Perceived Enjoyment (PE): Significantly influenced by Perceived Novelty ( $\beta=0.203$ ), Personalization Affordances ( $\beta=0.448$ ), and Aesthetic Quality ( $\beta=0.225$ ).
- Self-Expression (SE): Significantly influenced by Personalization Affordances ( $\beta=0.540$ ) and Aesthetic Quality ( $\beta=0.197$ ). However, Perceived Novelty did not have a significant direct effect on Self-Expression ( $\beta=0.138, p=0.149$ ).
Direct Effects on Continuance Intention:
- Both Perceived Enjoyment ( $\beta=0.473$ ) and Self-Expression ( $\beta=0.456$ ) significantly positively influenced Continuance Intention. Perceived Enjoyment showed a slightly stronger direct impact.
Mediation Analysis:
- Perceived Enjoyment served as a significant mediator for all three input variables (PN, PA, AQ) in predicting Continuance Intention.
- Self-Expression mediated the effects of Personalization Affordances and Aesthetic Quality on Continuance Intention.
- Crucially, the indirect path from Perceived Novelty to Continuance Intention via Self-Expression was not significant.

Key Contributions

Differentiation of Emotional Pathways: The study explicitly distinguishes between the "Hedonic Path" (Perceived Enjoyment) and the "Eudaimonic Path" (Self-Expression). It demonstrates that while both drive continuance intention, they are triggered by different design attributes.
The Role of Personalization vs. Novelty: A core finding is that while novelty drives immediate enjoyment, it does not directly foster self-expression. The authors argue that self-expression is an active, volitional behavior requiring user agency (control), which is provided by Personalization Affordances, rather than the passive experience of novelty.
Mediating Mechanisms: The research clarifies that Perceived Enjoyment is a more robust mediator than Self-Expression for the relationship between design features and continuance intention, particularly regarding novelty.

Significance and Claims
The paper claims that in-vehicle HMIs are evolving from functional tools into platforms for identity construction. By integrating both hedonic and eudaimonic emotional values, the study provides a more nuanced understanding of user loyalty in intelligent vehicles.

The authors assert that for designers, Personalization Affordances are the most critical factor for enabling self-expression, while Aesthetic Quality supports both enjoyment and expression. Conversely, Perceived Novelty is effective for generating immediate fun but is insufficient for fostering deep identity connection unless paired with personalization capabilities. The study suggests that while stylized interfaces enhance emotional engagement, the design of self-expression features must prioritize user control and choice over mere visual novelty to ensure long-term continuance.

Limitations
The authors acknowledge that the study is limited to a Chinese cultural context, potentially affecting the generalizability of self-expression findings to individualist cultures. Additionally, the sample consisted primarily of experienced drivers, and the study focused on macro-level constructs rather than granular design details (e.g., specific color combinations). The authors note that the model did not quantify the interplay between Perceived Enjoyment and Self-Expression, suggesting this as an area for future research.

Technical Summary: How Stylized Digital Interfaces Shape Emotional Value, Self-Expression, and Continuance Intention in Intelligent Vehicles

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