Evaluating users' experience of a character-enhanced information space

We created the characters Agneta & Frida with the intent to strengthen and encourage exploration of information spaces. In a follow-up study we tried to capture whether users found the characters believable, whether they rais ed affective responses in users, and whether they created a richer, more na rratively oriented, experience of the space. In order to do so, we had to d evelop new criteria and methods of understanding users' conceptions and aff ective responses. We discuss the study in detail, as well as the general im plications for how to perform user studies and design of character-enhanced systems.