Design and Emotion: The Experience of Everyday Things
Book by Diane Gyi, Paul Hekkert, Deana Mcdonagh, Jeroen Van Erp; Taylor & Francis, 2004

PREFACE
Design and emotion has gained significant interest within design practice and design research over the last ten years. We can no longer ignore the important role that emotions play in the generation, development, production, purchase, and final use of products that we surround ourselves with. In 1999, the Department of Industrial Design of Delft University of Technology organised a two-day conference on 'design and emotion'. Invited speakers from all over the world shared their views and data on a range of topics, such as design for the senses, engaging experiences, irrational aspects of technology, mixed emotions, and Kansei engineering. As broad as these topics may seem, they are all related to our affective interaction with and responses to human artefacts. At the seminar it was widely recognised that this new perspective in research and design is fruitful and deserves special attention. In order to stimulate more work done in this field, the birth of a society was launched on the final day of the conference: the Design and Emotion society.

With a strong base in the Dutch design world, the society started a range of initiatives to promote, stimulate, and contribute to experience/emotion driven product design. The society aims to be a platform for researchers, designers, and other practitioners in the field of product design, to share their common interest in the relationship between design and emotion and to exchange insights and experiences. Among the society's initiatives were a series of emotion-driven design workshops, the construction of a website (www.designandemotion.org), and the co-organisation of a 2nd conference on design and emotion ('Emotionale'), hosted by the Department of Design at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, June 2000. This book represents the proceedings from the 3rd international conference held at Loughborough University, UK. At the two previous events, only researchers and designers, known for their knowledge and experience in design and emotion related issues, were i nvited t o present their work. Unlike those events, this conference was open to papers from everyone feeling the ability and urge to share their ideas or work in this field. However, efforts were made to avoid making it a traditional-and often soporific academic conference. In line with the society's objectives, practitioners (designers, marketers and product developers from design studios and industry) were specifically invited to present their work. Many of them did, and so did academics from various backgrounds, turning this volume into a colourful collection of ideas, approaches, methods, and tools representing the state of the art in design and research on 'design and emotion'. To guide the reader through this field of views, the papers have been presented under the following themes/topics:
Experience driven design
In practice, designers face the challenge of evoking emotions and experiences in the prospective users of their products. How do they deal with these incalculable phenomena? Do they follow particular strategies or is it merely intuition that guides their design work? Lee Crossley, for example, describes a case study in which explorative techniques-like storytelling, taking pictures-were applied to understand the grooming experience of male teenagers. This approach must lead to the design of a 'cool' experience, which has very little to do with designing 'cool' products.
Generative tools
Experience or emotion driven design requires new tools and methods for designers. What kind of information or inspiration do designers need and how do they get it? In their paper, Pieter Jan Stappers and Elizabeth Sanders report an experiment in which they compare various techniques to inspire users to express their past, present, or future home experience. They conclude that symbol+word collages on paper, collages on a computer, or mindmaps each capture unique insights into the lives of people.
Evaluative tools
Experience or emotion driven design also requires new tools for evaluating designs. How do we know whether interaction with our artefact will result in the experience intended? Jennifer Downs and Jayne Wallace, for example, apply Kelly's Repertory Grid Technique to evaluate people's responses to their jewellery designs. The results provided them with a clearer and broader view of their own practice.
Emotive effects of visual properties
Visual aesthetics is traditionally the field in product design that deals with the emotional dimensions of pleasantness and unpleasantness. Words, colour, shape, and motion each have their own effect on our visual experience and these properties can interact and counteract to raise all kinds of feelings. Brian Stone et al., for instance, demonstrate that typographic messages evoke stronger emotional responses when they are shown in motion than in a stationary manner.
Emotive effects of the other senses
A product can simply be beautiful to look at, but can also have an elegant sound, a pleasing touch, or an exiting smell. What is more, sensorial information can guide users or mislead them and can in these various ways contribute to an experience. What makes a tactile sensation delightful or a blurring sound confusing? Nicolas Bouché stresses the importance of manipulating the sensorial qualities of sporting goods to raise their sensuality and achieve customer satisfaction.