Design and emotion

Draft

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Introduction

Design and emotion or design for emotion or emotional design or emotional aspects of design “comprises studying the emotional experiences of users with products, as well as the emotional meanings assigned by users in relation to experience and interaction with products, assessing how emotions vary with different user characteristics and integrating users’ emotional expectations into the product development. It acknowledges the fact that the emotion is not a feature of the design, but a subjective experience of the user, owner or observer of the product.” ([Engage, 2005])

“Product design that provides aesthetic appeal, pleasure and satisfaction can greatly influence the success of a product. Traditional cognitive approaches to product usability have tended to underestimate or fragment emotion from an understanding of the user experience. Affect, which is inexplicable linked to attitudes, expectations and motivations, plays a significant role in the cognition of product interaction, and therefore can be usefully treated as a design aid. Emotion influences and mediates specific aspects of interaction before, during and after the use of a product. These affective states regularly impact how a user manipulates and explores a user interface in order to support a desired cognitive state.” (Frank Spillers, 2007, retrieved 18:11, 26 April 2011 (CEST)).

According to Rafaeli and Vilnai-Yavetz (2004) summarized by Spillers (2007), sense-making of the artifact involves emotion in three ways:

1. Instrumentality: Tasks the artifact helps accomplish.
2. Aesthetics: Sensory reaction to the artifact.
3. Symbolism: Association the artifact elicits.

Testing for emotions

Observation

The Fluid project summarizes De Lera and Garreta-Domingo (2007) ten emotion heuristics as follows:

This observational technique does not replace the current and most common methods used during a UCD process, but complements the objective and subjective data gathered (...) facial expressions are central in the area of emotional research (...) using facial expressions as a tool to evaluate the emotional dimension is a cross-cultural tool. (...) We correlated the emotional cues identified with an emotional state and ensuring that these could be easily identified and measured during a user evaluation. A total of 10 emotional cues were selected. Better than any body parts, our faces reveal emotions, opinions, and moods (...) [the ten emotion heuristics proposed by the paper are:]

1. Frowning (...) can be a sign of a necessity to concentrate, displeasure or of perceived lack of clarity.
2. Brow Raising (...) should also be considered a negative expressive reaction (...) is a sign of uncertainty, disbelief, surprise and exasperation
3. Gazing Away (...) from the screen may be perceived as a sign of deception.
4. Smiling (...) is a sign of satisfaction. The user may have encountered an element of joy during the evaluation process.
5. Compressing the Lip (...) should be perceived as a sign of frustration and confusion (...) reflects anxious feelings, nervousness, and emotional concerns.
6. Moving the Mouth (...) is associated with a sign of being lost and of uncertainty.
7. Expressing Vocally (...) as well as the volume of the expression, the tone or quality of the expression may be signs of frustration or deception.
8. Hand Touching the Face (...) is a sign of confusion and uncertainty, generally a sign of the user being lost or tired.
9. Drawing Back on the Chair (...) negative or refusing emotions. By drawing back the chair, he / she [the user] may be showing a desire to get away from the present situation.
10. (...) Leaning forward and showing a sunken chest may be a sign of depression and frustration with the task at hand (...) the user might be encountering difficulties but instead of showing refusal, leaning forward is a sign of attentiveness, of "getting closer".

retrieved 18:11, 26 April 2011 (CEST) from Designing and testing for emotion.

Emotion questionnaires

See Usability_and_user_experience_surveys

Links

Introductions

• Designing and testing for emotion (fluid project).

Web sites

• the Design & Emotion Society aises issues and facilitates dialogue among practitioners, researchers, and industry, in order to integrate salient themes of emotional experience into the design profession. This website includes interesting tools and methods.

Bibliography

• De Lera, Eva & Muriel Garreta-Domingo (2007). Ten Emotion Heuristics: Guidelines for assessing the user's affective dimension easily and cost-effectively, in Devina Ramduny-Ellis & Dorothy Rachovides (Editors), Proceedings of the 21st BCS HCI Group Conference, HCI 2007, Lancaster University, 3-7 September 2007, British Computer Society, Volume 2.

• Engage consortium (2005). Designing for emotion: report of the state of the art. (registration fo the design & emotion society required)

• Futon Suri, J. (2004). Design Expression and Human Experience: Evolving Design Practice. in McDonagh, E. et al. (Eds) (p. 13-17) Design and Emotion. Taylor and Francis.

• Gaver, William (2009). Designing for emotion (among other things), Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009 December 12; 364(1535): 3597–3604, doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0153.

• Hoonhout, Henriette C.M. & Marcelle Stienstra (2003), In D. de Waard, K.A. Brookhuis, S.M. Sommer, and W.B. Verwey (2003), Human Factors in the Age of Virtual Reality (pp. 341 - 355). Maastricht, the Netherlands: Shaker Publishing.

• Malone, T. W., & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivation for learning. In R. E. Snow and M. J. Farr (Eds.). Aptitude, learning and instruction. Volume 3: Conative and affective process analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

• Norman, Donald. 2002. “Emotion and design: Attractive things work better”. Interactions Magazine, ix (4), 36-42.

• Norman, Donald. 2003. Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books.

• Oh, Wilson and Poh Wah Khong. 2003.“Competitive advantage through pleasurable products”. Pittsburgh: Proceedings of the DPPI ’03

• Rafaeli, Anat and Iris Vilnai-Yavetz. 2004. Emotion as a Connection of Physical Artifacts and Organizations. Organization Science 15 (6). (Jstor PDF).

• Ratner, Carl, (undated) A Cultural-Psychological Analysis of Emotions. This is a revised online version of an article published Culture and Psychology 2000, vol. 6, pp. 5-39.

• Spillers, F.: (2007). Emotion as a Cognitive Artifact and the Design Implications for Products That are Perceived As Pleasurable. PDF, retrieved 18:11, 26 April 2011 (CEST).

• Stienstra M, Hoonhout J (2002) TOONS Toys. Interaction toys as a means to create a fun experience. In: Proceedings of the interaction design and children conference 2002, Eindhoven, Shaker Publishing BV, Maastricht, pp 199–210.