Noisy products: Does appearance matter?

Noisiness is an important product experience that is not restricted to the auditory properties of products; bright colors and cluttered visual patterns can also be experienced as noisy. The aim of this study was to determine to what extent the overall product noisiness is attributed to the sounds that the products make and to what extent is it...

Designing for social configurations: Pattern languages to inform the design of ubiquitous computing

In this paper we present our approach for informing the design of ubiquitous computing by using pattern languages of human practice. By linking ethnography and design, this approach makes it possible to tackle the social dimension of ubiquitous computing in the design processes. Adding to the existing research on patterns of human practice for...

The effect of a business-like personality on the perceived performance quality of products

People use the appearance of products as a cue for evaluating functional attributes at purchase. This research provides an understanding of this form-function interdependency by investigating the effect of a business-like personality in product appearance on the perceived performance quality of the product. A business-like personality is...

Benefits of co-design in service design projects

In many service design projects, co-design is seen as critical to success and a range of benefits are attributed to co-design. In this paper, we present an overview of benefits of co-design in service design projects, in order to help the people involved to articulate more precisely and realistically which benefits to aim for. Based on a...

User-material-product interrelationships in attributing meanings

In selecting a material to create an intended product meaning, several factors, such as the material’s sensorial and technical properties, the product in which the material is embodied, and who the user is, may need to be taken into consideration. Each factor consists of a number of aspects (e.g., user covers aspects including gender, expertise,...

An agenda for research on the relationships between industrial design and performance

This article proposes a research agenda for studying the relationships between industrial design and performance in the context of new product/service development. A review of existing research on relationships between industrial design and performance is used as a basis for identifying research opportunities and developing a research agenda....

Pleasantness in bodily experience: A phenomenological inquiry

This study investigated the varieties of pleasantness in bodily experience in order to advance the aesthetics of interaction paradigm. Interviews were held with twelve people varying in age and occupation. They were asked to describe pleasant experiences for Sight, Audition, Smell, Taste, Touch, Action and Thought. A phenomenological reduction...

Supplier websites: Could they be inspiring to lighting designers?

This paper describes an exploratory pilot study on the usefulness for designers of three lighting manufacturers’ websites. All three websites contain sections that are specifically directed at professional lighting designers. This study’s first objective is to investigate whether designers experience the websites' content as conducive to the...

Should Mary smell like biscuit? Investigation scents in product design

In attempt to influence how a product is experienced, designers can manipulate all aspects of a product, including odor. The effect odor has on a consumer’s experience of the product is still not yet understood. Two experiments were conducted in order to shed more light on the influence odor has on consumers. In Experiment 1, differences in...

How consumers perceive product appearance; the identification of three product appearance attributes

The appearance attributes of designed products noted in the literature often reflect what designers themselves perceive in a product design. This present research, however, provides knowledge on how consumers perceive product appearance by identifying appearance attributes that consumers use to distinguish the appearances of durable products....

Appraisal patterns of emotions in human-product interaction

Emotional design, i.e., designing with an intention to evoke or to prevent a particular emotion, can be facilitated by understanding the processes underlying emotions. A promising approach to understanding these processes in the current psychological literature is appraisal theory. Appraisal theory can support this understanding because it...

Special issue editorial: Design and emotion

Consumer-product attachment: Measurement and design implications

Due to differences in the attachment consumers experience towards the durable products they own, they hang on to certain products whereas they easily dispose of others. From the viewpoint of sustainability, it may be worthwhile to lengthen the life span of many durable consumer products. Hence, there is a challenge for designers to strengthen...

Materials in products selection: Tools for including user-interaction in materials selection

Products do not only discriminate from other products in functionality, but also in the way they please users. The sensorial properties of materials influence whether a product provides adequate feedback or gives a pleasant emotional experience. Designing a specific userinteraction involves selecting appropriate materials that create that...