How do exhibition visitors describe aesthetic qualities?

In this investigation, visitors to an art and design exhibition have used an interactive computer program to express the qualities they consider important for an art or design object (artefact). They have then used the program with their individually selected qualities to assess the artefacts. In this article, we present the experiment and its results. They indicate that with such a setting it is relatively easy to reach a degree of consensus about criteria. Such an interactive program can therefore be very useful, for instance when choosing among design proposals or when selecting artefacts for exhibitions, because they make the assessments open to a larger audience such that their basis can be discussed.In this investigation, visitors to an art and design exhibition have used an interactive computer program to express the qualities they consider important for an art or design object (artefact). They have then used the program with their individually selected qualities to assess the artefacts. In this article, we present the experiment and its results. They indicate that with such a setting it is relatively easy to reach a degree of consensus about criteria. Such an interactive program can therefore be very useful, for instance when choosing among design proposals or when selecting artefacts for exhibitions, because they make the assessments open to a larger audience such that their basis can be discussed.