Design for Wellbeing, Happiness and Health

The chairs' editorial for the theme track of SIGWELL, the Design Research Society's Special Interest Group (SIG) focusing on Design for Wellbeing, Happiness and Health.

The value of travel speed

Travel speed is an intrinsic feature of transport, and enlarging the speed is considered as beneficial. The benefit of a speed increase is generally assessed as the value of the saved travel time. However, this approach conflicts with the observation that time spent on travelling is rather constant and might not be affected by speed changes. The...

From good to the greater good

In this chapter, we outline why and how design can (and cannot) support the sustainable wellbeing of individuals and communities. Building on findings of well-being researchers, we first address the reasons why material well-being, as experienced through the consumpfion and ownership of products and goods, does not necessarily contribute to...

Using symbolic meaning as a means to design for happiness: The development of a card set for designers

Using design to improve the lives of people towards a positive flourishing state is the main premise of Positive Design. Our contribution to this growing field focuses on making use of the symbolic meaning that design can have to bolster<br/>human happiness. This paper presents the development of a card set for designers aiming to inspire design...

Feeding your piggy bank with intentions: A study on saving behaviour, saving strategies, and happiness

The act of saving money can connect one’s present state to a meaningful future state, especially if we consider money not as a direct source of happiness, but as a resource for engaging in meaningful activities. To explore how design can contribute to making the act of saving more meaningful, we conducted two studies. The first consisted of...

Positive design: An introduction to design for subjective well-being

This paper addresses the question of how design can contribute to the happiness of individuals–to their subjective well-being. A framework for positive design is introduced that includes three main components of subjective well-being: pleasure, personal significance and virtue. Each component represents an ingredient of design for happiness, and...

Does migration make you happy? A longitudinal study of internal migration and subjective well-being

Marie Curie programme under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / Career Integration Grant n. PCIG10-GA-2011-303728 (CIG Grant NBHCHOICE, Neighbourhood choice, neighbourhood sorting, and neighbourhood effects). The majority of quantitative studies on the consequences of internal migration focus almost exclusively on...

Does Migration Make You Happy? A Longitudinal Study of Internal Migration and Subjective Well-Being (discussion paper)

The majority of modelling studies on consequences of internal migration focus almost exclusively on the labour market outcomes and the material well-being of migrants. We investigate whether individuals who migrate within the UK become happier after the move than they were before it and whether the effect is permanent or transient. Using life...

SLEUTH: Sustainable lifestyles - educating universities towards happiness

SLEUTH is an initiative born out of the need to bring universities towards more happy and sustainable lifestyles. It is the ‘real life’ application of the resulting conceptual design from the main study of the "Design for Happiness" PhD research project. This aims to identify and propose the design characteristics which compose a product,...

Design for happiness: A telehomecare product case

In this paper a design approach is introduced for designing products to increase happiness. Happiness reflects the degree to which people’s concerns are fulfilled. Based on this fact, a framework of all human concerns was created. After that, the framework was applied to a telehomecare case. Telehomecare products release the pressure on...