The Role of the Designer in the Affective Design Process: the Principle of Accordance

Affective Design is gaining much attention from academic research and companies. In this paper, a research framework for assessing Innovation through Affective Design is presented. Moreover, Affective Design is correlated to Participatory Design through some definitions. The importance of an Affective approach during the earliest phases of design process is motivated. This study introduces Affective Design as a powerful approach in order to manage interactive Virtual Prototyping (iVP) methodology. The paper deals with issues regarding the great variability that iVP offers: the questions raised find answer in the notion of Accordance, which is defined on the basis of Product Semantics. A tool to implement iVP methodology with this approach is here presented. Finally, the results of a pilot study, qualitatively tested to assess the tool usability, are described

Unfolding the Notion of Experience (Virtual) Prototyping: A Framework for Prototyping in an Experience-Driven Design Process

Along with the rise of Experience Design, the term Experience Prototyping was coined to describe the practice of prototyping for an experience-driven design approach. However, limited resources are available to define what Experience Prototyping is, which approaches it entails, and its scopes within the product development process. To answer these questions, we first discuss the fundamental definition of Prototyping itself, proposing a model that can describe Experience Prototyping too. The model details the possible focuses that Experience Prototyping can take, aiming at fostering greater awareness on how to prototype for future experiences. Furthermore, we discuss the role of new emerging technologies in shaping the practices related to prototyping. As an example, we report one case in which we used virtual technologies to perform an Experience Prototyping activity at the early phases of design process. The aim of this paper is to contribute to both design research and design practice by providing significant knowledge to shed light on the multifaceted practice of Experience Prototyping and thus tackle the prototyping decisions with greater awareness

Experiences and senses an experimental based methodology for the design optimization

Understanding users points of view is rapidly becoming an urgent issue for companies and designers, as well as User Experience and Experience Design proving to be of wide interest for academic research. This paper presents an experimental-based methodology aimed at guiding designers during product optimisation. It is meant to support designers in choosing the right strategy to assess the users emotional reaction towards a product at an early stage of product development. The methodology consists of three different phases: 1) Design Challenge definition, to help in clarifying the research question; 2) Interaction Study, aimed at understanding the user experience; 3) Sensory Boost phase, to improve the products perceived pleasurableness. The methodology includes a review of the methods and tools used for catching users emotional reactions to products. Moreover, a computer-based version of the methodology will be introduced, together with two case studies to validate the developed methodology

Materializing experiential visions into sensory properties: The use of the experience map

Moving from conceptual design intentions to the materialization in product sensory qualities can be challenging. For Experience-driven designers this transition can be even more difficult, as they need to move from the abstract level of user experience to the concrete level of product features. In this paper, we suggest an approach to progressively deconstruct experiential visions and decrease the level of abstraction. We propose the use of a tool, namely the Experience Map, which describes five steps to develop a well-refined materialization and maintain a solid correlation with the initial intention. To investigate its value and challenge the approach in design practice, we set up four case studies. The analysis of designers' attitudes towards the Experience Map gave insights on its ability to provide a structure for creative thoughts, while suiting different and subjective attitudes of designers. Moreover, the map supports the integration of several different elements and the exploration of alternative design directions to achieve the intended, holistic experience. Some limitations were also highlighted by the case studies, which are discussed in light of future work