Exploring emotions for design of your future chair

The User Compass Chart (UCC) was used for eliciting middle-age subjects’ experiences of 33 photo-represented easy chairs, including consumer products and chairs designed for nursing-homes as well as institutions in general. The chairs were represented in black and white photos measuring 50 x 50 mm. The vectors used in the chart were most inviting - most repellent and most homelike- most nursing-home like associating adjectives. Subjects were asked to position each representation on the chart, according to hers/his emotional experiences and to think-aloud. When the UCC was complete the subject had the possibility to adjust the positions of the representations. The experiments were recorded with video and digital camera. Key-sentences were transcribed. The positions of all subjects’ markers were summarised in “flag diagrams” for each represented chair and frequencies were compared of different products in different sectors. Key sentences of significant products and sectors were classified according to design elements (defined elements or whole body) and products values (functional and ergonomic or appearance and image). Some chairs were identified as more significant (homelike and inviting, institutional and inviting, institutional and repellent). The UCC proved to be a stimulating and useful tool, and some product qualities could be recommended on basis of the results

Accessibility Is Not Enough - What about Feelings in Universal Design?

There is nothing such as a standard person and a product will always exist in a context. It is of democratic importance to be able to take part in society on an equal level. Non-discriminating design tries to meet the diversity among users when new design solutions are created. Although functionality will remain an es-sential precondition for user satisfaction with products and market success, emo-tional experiences influence how a product is received. A product that the user does not wish to interact with will not be considered as meaningful for that person, and such a product will elicit negative emotions, perhaps expressed as unpleasant feelings. Using Emotional Universal Design (EUD) Principles as complements to the seven original Universal Design (UD) Principles is one way to initiate a dis-cussion about how socio-cultural obstacles can also be reduced or even eliminated in society

Emotional principles for a holistic approach to Universal Design.

Exploring emotional relationships between user and product is an important issue to adress in the design of t non-discriminating everyday products. Universal design is one approach among several, which the industrial designer can use when designing on the basis of on a non-discriminating philosophy. One way to achieve an integration of the user product relationship into the concept of universal design is to see the existing universal design principles in a new light by using a grounded theory approach when analysing empirical data. Seven young users with various impairments were interviewed about product experiences in daily life, resulting in user stories. Data collection and analysis were woven together in a parallel process according to grounded theory. Analysing the user stories in relation to the established seven principles of universal design and the concept of four pleasures, resulted in the proposal of four emotional universal design (EUD) principles to be verified in future design cases. Parallel with the interview study, several related studies were carried out, which in different ways contributed to the thesis. The connections between the related studies focus on meaningful products. ‘Meaningful’ stands for the user’s motivation to connect or integrate with an object – that the object has an emotional significance for the user. For the industrial designer, the EUD principles make it possible to get closer to the general concept of universal design, since they concentrate on those aspects in the design process that are characteristic of industrial design. The four EUD principles also contribute to promoting product values that are appreciated by consumers, and that contribute to facilitating the implementation of a non-discriminating approach on the consumer market

Design as Reflection

For young persons with disabilities it is important to be as everyone else and not deviating from the normative in an unwanted way. Assistive devices are products that persons with disabilities can use to get accessibility to our society. Such products enable the person to participate in activities he or she wishes to take part in. However assistive devices are also a sign for disability, indicating that a user of such a product is different from others. As a consequence persons with disabilities sometimes avoid using their assistive devices in public. There are many reasons why. However, one reason which is addressed in this thesis is that the identity of the product is in conflict with the user’s desired self-image. This may be due to the fact that a user of an assistive device has not voluntarily chosen the product. Even though the person does not like the appearance of the product, he or she must use it in order to take part in society on equal terms. In this thesis, I have described how young adult users with disabilities emotionally experience their assistive devices. This thesis also explores how users handle the situation of being forced to use an involuntarily chosen product which they do not like. Finally, the thesis describes how design may contribute to solve conflicts between the identity of an unwanted product and the desired identity of the user. In order to understand how young persons with disabilities emotionally experience their assistive devices I have carried out in depth interviews with ten young adult users of assistive devices. Furthermore I have carried out a design project employing a participatory design process together with young wheelchair users to create a product based on the understanding of how users experience products in relation to their self-image, experience of meaningfulness and stigmatisation. The results indicate that young adult persons (whom I have interviewed) used three different strategies to handle their emotional conflict of being forced to use a non-voluntarily chosen product which he or she does not like: (1) they endure, feeling they cannot do anything (2) they abandon it, or (3) they redesign the product themselves to meet their personal preferences and values. From these strategies I have created a concept model describing product experiences in relation to the user’s self-image, meaningfulness and stigmatisation. The concept model will encourage designers to view assistive devices in a new way, changing his or her approach to design; from regarding them as mainly functional products meeting the user’s bodily abilities to regarding assistive devices as part of a person’s self-expression meeting his or her desired self-image. Using the concept model to improve the understanding of experience of assistive devices may support the design of new products which are more congruent with user’s self-image. In the long run, attitudes and prejudices in society towards persons with disabilities using assistive devices may be improved