The paper explores the integration of emotional design elements in the development of medical devices to enhance user acceptance and adherence. It emphasizes the importance of a user-centered approach, acknowledging both functional and emotional needs. The study compares two cases within healthcare design, highlighting the impact of emotional design on users' perception of medical devices. Despite the different stages of development in the two cases, both employed a higher level of refflective design, aiming to create a lasting impact on users' identity using the products.

Although still in its infancy, the Hyperloop project aims to develop a new type of public transport. The concept is to send a capsule, called “pod”, at about 1000km/h in a vacuum tube that would connect two places separated by 500km. One issue is that the pod will be windowless and travel inside a tube made of steel which will influence passenger comfort. This article brings together various domains to explore the different characteristics that can influence the travel experience. As the Hyperloop concept is still in an early stage of development, methods for analyzing the interior design of transportation vehicles, such as Kansei Engineering, Mayr's circle, and the comfort model by Looze have been proposed. Moreover, typical characteristics, such as “Environment”, “Running Factors” and “Service & Installation” have been discussed with respect to “passengers” experience, comfort and safety.

This paper explores how small-but–detectable changes in manufacturing protocol can alter interaction-design preferences for users. Building on a number of previous studies by the authors, this paper focuses on the manufacture of a set of emotionally attuned pattern-based surface texture designs by means of computer-numerically controlled (CNC) machining. An experiment is subsequently reported that explores how the variations in toolpath rastering approach can affect the visual and tactile qualities of the textures in relation to interaction-design preferences, with a focus on psychological experience. The implications with respect to user-centred design (UX) and manufacturing protocol more broadly are subsequently discussed, with recommendations for a reconfiguration of computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) approaches to better encode the diverse preferences that users may have when considering how products are manufactured.

The challenges of sustainable development require a consistent transformation of decision-making practices in society and in the industry. In this regard, Virtual Reality (VR) is an effective tool, providing experiences that are not accessible in the real world. The overview effect is a feeling of interconnectedness and responsibility towards our planet and its inhabitants described by astronauts after seeing the Earth during spaceflights. We present a VR application merging the overview effect with data visualization. We illustrate the design process and perform a pilot test to assess the emotions raised by the VR experience. Furthermore, we report feedback from design engineering and sustainability experts discussing the applications' potential in decision-making contexts, including product development processes.

This paper explores the value of the visual features of assistive products for a positive psychological impact on users. The research focuses on upper limb prosthetic devices and their aesthetic impact on the user. Within the presented study, these products are identified not only as assistive products but also as fashion accessories. A case study is presented that applies an understanding of human behaviour, motivation, and perception of semantic cues within the cultural context of a given society to deliver a more socially acceptable child's upper limb prosthetic.

Aiming to decouple value creation from resource consumption, the Circular Economy is considered an alternative to the current linear model of production and consumption. Among the innovative circular business models, Product-Service Systems (PSS) have been recognized as a possible route to achieve enhanced sustainability performance through the extension of product lifespans and the reduction of product substitution. However, PSS may lead to rebound effects due to less careful behavior during the use phase, which compromises product durability. Currently, the effect of non-ownership models on product care is not yet fully understood, nor are the strategies that could enable better product care. This research aims to deeper comprehend the consumer-product relationships in PSS solutions, as well as to shed light on the potential role of emotional durability in PSS development for product attachment. In order to do so, this paper analyses twelve Product-Service System cases derived from a systematic literature review, categorizing the emotional attachment strategies in each case, and identifying how these strategies might hinder or potentialize PSS solutions.

When viewing a product for the first time, a consumer's aesthetic perception is based on their knowledge of other products, artefacts, and concepts. These mental images function as visual references for consumers and affect the processing fluency of the new product. Designers frequently use visual references as inspiration during the research stage of the design process. It has been documented, however, that there is a gap between designer intent and consumer response; Consumers do not always realize the intent of designers nor draw on the same visual references when perceiving a product, which can reduce their processing fluency of new products. Visual references differ from one consumer to the other which make them difficult to study. In this paper, we argue for a new way of studying visual references: by analyzing the cognitive process that occurs when consumers view a new product and recognize aspects of that product that are similar to visual references in their memory. We present a framework of three approaches for recognizing this similarity and implications for design practice.

Objective To analyze and discuss the application of synaesthesia theory in modern product design and emphasize the important position and necessity of synaesthesia in modern product design. Methods Based on the concept of synesthesia, the value, significance and design principles of synesthesia in modern product design were further analyzed and summarized through the study of concrete examples of shape, color, material and using methods. Conclusion When the concept of synesthesia is applied to product design, it can enhance the expressive force of products, realize users' synesthetic perception, mobilize users' senses to give psychological suggestions, meet users' various psychological needs, and bring users a richer physical and mental experience.

Notwithstanding the positive environmental impact of recycled plastics, they are only scarcely used in new designs due to unfamiliarity and lack of material identities. This research aims to touch upon the sensorial attributes that characterise the sustainable perception of recycled plastics. Understanding this would allow to respond to the new trend of sustainable living by offering recycled materials that are successfully perceived as sustainable, and that could support the identity building of each specific recycled plastic material. Three research activities were executed to explore (i) the designerly understanding of sustainable perceived plastics; (ii) the consumer understanding of sensorial material attributes that influence the sustainable perception; (iii) the understanding of these attributes towards recycled plastic materials. Five variables were found that interfere with the perception of the participants: A weaker colour intensity, the use of colourless colours, a rougher texture, a speckled structure and the usage of a matte gloss can give a sustainable look towards a sustainable plastic material. Further research should detail these variables, its limitations and try to make defined guidelines to avoid greenwashing.

The concept of User Experience (UX) dates back to the 1990s, but a shared definition of UX is not available. As design integrates UX, different interpretations thereof can complicate the possibility to build upon previous literature and develop the field autonomously. Indeed, by analysing the literature, UX emerges as a cauldron of related and closely linked concepts. However, it is possible to find recurring attributes that emerge from those definitions, which are ascribable to two foci: the fundamental elements of the interaction (user, system, context) and typologies of experience (ergonomic, cognitive, and emotional). Those are used to build a framework. We have preliminarily investigated how UX is dealt with in design by mapping a sample of UX-related experimental articles published in design journals. We classified UX case studies based on the framework to individuate the UXs that emerge most frequently and the most studied ones in the design field. The two-focus framework allows the mapping of experiments involving UX in design, without highlighting specific favorable combinations. However, comprehensive studies dealing with all elements and UX typologies have not been found.

Materials can be considered from a technical and experiential perspective. However, the latter perspective is more complex to study systematically. Four intertwined experiential levels describe the overall materials experience: sensorial, interpretive, affective, and performative level. Building upon the need in experiential material characterization for comparable physical material representations to enable within-material-class comparisons and the inclusion of extensive user aspects, this paper sums up the reasoning process regarding the understanding and design of an experimental set-up and its parameters of a specific case. The case objective is to formulate guidelines for the designer/researcher to set up experiential material characterization experiments with (i) plastic demonstrator forms and (ii) by consumers. Following elements are discussed: Assessors, Stimuli, Interaction Modalities, Dependent variables, Method, and Practical considerations. Next, future experiments can be carried out in order to generate holistic plastic material data on a larger scale, that can be collected in an experiential database and used by designers throughout the design process.

Toys are children's first consumer products and while playing they acquire numerous skills, learn about their environment and socialise with other children and adults. Toys are adapted and used by clinicians as therapeutic devices because they allow them to create bonds and communicate with children. Aesthetical aspects should be considered early in the design process, especially since pre-schoolers’ views are still dominated by the appearance of artefacts, also known as, the perceptual salient characteristics. The study of emotions mediates the understanding of the relationships between a product, user and the process with which consumers set up preferences over products. Decisions taken in each design stage will influence whether therapeutic devices will be enjoyed by children. An experiment was carried out to test out pre-schoolers’ preferences on individual attributes: form, dimension, material (hardness and weight) and surface (appearance and texture). This study exposed dominant characteristic preferences and the fact that some are influenced by gender and age. Employing these findings in therapeutic devices will enable clinicians to better engage the children during therapy.

In the modern automotive industry, a car's style clearly defines its brand. In the context of globalization, a question has recently emerged concerning the relationship between a country's culture and the car style of a particular brand. The style is one way to place car morphologies into a meaningful structure, called the “telling structure.” This research hypothesizes that a stylist tries to compress a car's form and make it a refined unicum that is streamlined with some inherent features, which express a brand's cultural aesthetics. Using the cognitive paradigm that an end user transforms explicit references into implic-it references and that the telling structure of a car's design features influences the recognition of the brand, this research demonstrates a novel method to ad-dress this hypothesis. Results from this study show that there is a relationship between the brand's country of origin and the perceived recognition of a car. However, a country's brand culture is not always represented by the style of the cars. In particular, the results indicate that some cars can actually lose their cultural identity, especially in the context of a worldwide market.

The wearable products market is growing rapidly. Engaging users on an emotional level may be the key to long-term use and attracting new customers. While researchers have proposed various design approaches to realize design qualities for wearable devices, emotional needs are overlooked in the design process. To bridge this gap, we developed an approach with an online tool that uses a two-axis interactive collage for users to compare and evaluate wearable products with targeted emotion-related descriptive words. This approach enabled us to explore how users perceive products and identify types of emotions that were associated with their preferences for and perceptions of the product's form and visible characteristics. The study demonstrated this design approach to reveal insights into the relationships between product characteristics and design goals, such as user comfort, user delight, and perceived product usefulness. The results showed that products that resemble clothes were perceived as more delightful and comfortable. This study suggests that the approach can be further used to explore other design concepts or goals.

Product success depends on its capacity to meet users’ expectations. Human Centred Design approach helps to reach this success by focussing on users’ needs in the design process. These needs are as well functional as hedonic. Designing products requires then to design hedonic properties affecting users’ perception. For sport products, people wants to improve their performances while maintaining their health. Sport products are then considered not only “sporty” but also “healthy”. Thus, integrating both health and sport expectations into the design process are necessary.

Last decades, Affective Engineering was developed to integrate perception into the design process. Applying this approach for sport products may allow defining and mixing sport and health perceptual characteristics all along the design process. However, defining these characterisitics into requirements implies to translate them into semantic terms. If we observe semantic descriptors for sport products and for health products, they seem opposite. In this paper, we aim defining a semantic space representative and respectful of both domains, sport and health, while they oppose.

Defining the aesthetic and emotional value of a product is an important consideration for its design. Furthermore, if several designers are faced with the task of creating an object that describes a certain emotion/perception (aggressive, soft, heavy, etc.), each is most likely to interpret the emotion/perception with different shapes composed of a set of different geometric features. The authors propose an automatic approach to formalize the relationships between geometric information of three-dimensional objects and the intended emotional content using fuzzy logic. In addition, the automatically generated fuzzy knowledge base was compared to the user's perceptions and to the manually constructed fuzzy knowledge base. The initial findings indicate that the approach is valid to formalize geometric information with perceptions and validate the author's manually developed fuzzy models.