Mood granularity for design

Introducing a holistic typology of 20 mood states

Journal Article (2020)
Author(s)

Haian Xue (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)

Pieter M.A. Desmet (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)

Steven F. Fokkinga (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)

Research Group
Form and Experience
More Info
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Publication Year
2020
Language
English
Research Group
Form and Experience
Issue number
1
Volume number
14
Pages (from-to)
1-18
Downloads counter
331
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Institutional Repository
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Abstract

This paper introduces a holistic typology of 20 mood states that are presented with a componential approach, describing six aspects: subjective feeling, perception, reaction, tendency, liking, and disliking. In addition, each mood is illustrated with a short example narrative and a collection of four images. The typology was generated by combining the results of two studies. With a lexical analysis and researcher introspections, Study 1 examined 135 mood words, which resulted in an initial identification of mood states and corresponding verbal and pictorial descriptions. Study 2 validated and enriched these results with a phenomenological analysis of 159 introspective mood samples that were collected by a group of nine co-researchers in a two-week mood diary exercise. The mood typology provides a fine-grained overview and a vocabulary of user moods. Designers and design researchers can use these results as a foundation for systematic mood-focused design research, as a means to develop mood sensibility and granularity (i.e., the ability to distinguish between moods and the variety of mood manifestations), and as a tool to facilitate user interviews in empathy-based design processes.