Title: From Attention to Participation: Reviewing and Modelling Engagement with Computers,
Abstract: Over the last decades, the Internet and mobile technology have consolidated
the digital as a public sphere of life. Designers are asked to create engaging
digital experiences. However, in some cases engagement is seen as a
psychological state, while in others it emphasizes a participative vein. In
this paper, I review and discuss both and propose a new definition to clarify
the concept engagement with computers. Thus, engagement is a quality of an
active connection between a user and a computing product, either a website or a
mobile phone app. Studying it requires understanding a set of aspects like the
user's affect, motivation and attention, as well as the product's design,
content and composition. Finally, I propose explaining these concepts aligned
with engagement and integrate them into a preliminary model to measure the
manifestations.