Mood in Experience Design: A Scoping Review

This article presents a comprehensive review of existing literature covering the topic of mood-focused design. It delves into how designers and design researchers currently address mood in the context of experience-driven design. Using a scoping review methodology, we identified and thematically analyzed sixty-six highly relevant articles. Our...

Needs Matter: A Detailed Typology of Fundamental Needs for Human-Centered Design

The relevance of human needs is generally recognized in human-centered design research and practice. However, a challenge of working with needs is that the word “need” can be interpreted in various ways, which can hinder effective communication and collaboration. Need typologies, in such cases, can serve as a shared language by providing an...

Impact-centered design: Introducing an integrated framework of the psychological and behavioral effects of design

This paper introduces a framework for impact-centered design that maps the direct and indirect psychological, social, and behavioral effects resulting from human-product interactions, as well as the strategic pathways that designers utilize to achieve these effects. The framework was created through a series of expert workshops in which 186...

Design for sustained wellbeing through positive activities—a multi-stage framework

In this paper, we introduce a framework that conceptualizes a multi-stage process through which technology can promote sustained wellbeing. Intentional wellbeing-enhancing activities form the centerpiece linking direct product interaction to, ultimately, wellbeing. The framework was developed following a bottom-up–top-down approach by...

Activities as a Gateway to Sustained Subjective Well-Being Mediated by Products

Research in positive psychology indicates that sustained well-being is more determined by our actions than by our possessions. Products' contribution to well-being may thus be grounded in their potential to support well-being-enhancing activities rather than in their material value. In a laddering study, we investigated how products shape a...

Escaping the emotional blur: Design tools for facilitating positive emotional granularity

In human-product interactions, pleasure has many different shades. We can, for example, be proud of using an eco-friendly detergent, be all aflutter in anticipation of a planned trip when looking at a calendar application or experience a feeling of cathartic relief when playing a mobile phone game. Although these experiences are all pleasurable,...

Billy Cash: Digital piggy bank for meaningful saving behavior

Virtue is a fundamental aspect of well-being. Past research has proposed that emotional-driven design can be a powerful mediator towards supporting virtue. However, virtue-focused solutions generally target isolated actions. Here, using saving as an example of virtuous behavior we present a design cas —Billy Cash, a digital piggy bank that...

Objects with symbolic meaning: 16 directions to inspire design for well-being

The symbolic meaning of a product can contribute to people’s well-being. Previous research (Casais et al., 2016) has identified six distinct well-being enhancing symbolic meanings in products (based on Ryff, 1989): positive relations with others, personal growth, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. To support...

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...

Provocative design for unprovocative designers: Strategies for triggering personal dilemmas

Traditional design approaches stimulate the creation of products that make daily interactions more efficient, comfortable, and pleasant. In contrast, provocative design approaches, such as critical design, have a different focus: they aim to challenge the status quo through products that expose assumptions and stimulate discussion. In this paper...

Happy moments: A well-being driven design of a Car2Go

User well‐being is increasingly addressed in design and design research. Previous work has proposed a design for well-¬‐being framework that includes three main ingredients: pleasure, personal significance, and virtue. While useful for analysing the well-¬‐being impact of existing designs, it is difficult to use the framework as a resource in...

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...

Still in its infancy: Design for co-wellbeing among different user groups

This paper introduces a design approach for co-wellbeing. We exemplify how design enables designers to facilitate a meaningful interaction between two diverse groups of people with different pleasures, needs, concerns, strengths and virtues. Given that people meet each other constantly in daily interactions, it is relevant to look at these...

Symbolic meaning attribution as a means to design for happiness

Material possessions with happiness-related symbolic meanings can provide a contribution to subjective well-being (happiness), because they remind owners of memories, achievements, or aspirations. Such possessions provide an anchor for personally meaningful narratives, help in the construction and communication of self-identity, represent...

Design for subjective well-being in interior architecture

Can interior environments engage people in pleasurable and meaningful experiences and thereby have a positive influence on their happiness? This paper discusses why and how interior architects might want to consider implementing ideas in relation to ‘design for subjective well-being’. Despite of people being the ingredients that bring life to...

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...