PRODUCT EMOTIONS AND EXPERIENCE PHD MONTHLY REPORT Student : Lawrence Farrugia Supervisor : Prof. Jonathan C. Borg Date : 02.11.2013
CONCURRENT ENGINEERING RESEARCH UNIT
Report Number
UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
EMPD – LF01/13
PhD Monthly Report – October 2013
CONTENTS List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... 3 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ 4 A Theory of Affective Experience .......................................................................................... 5 1. Motivation ...................................................................................................................... 5 2. Objective ....................................................................................................................... 5 3. Affective Control Theory (ACT) [short version] ............................................................... 5 3.1. The Elements of an Affective Experience ................................................................ 5 3.2. Gauging the Affective Experience (i.e. sentiments towards the elements) ............... 5 3.3. Explaining People’s Behaviour, Cognitive Processes and Emotions ....................... 6 3.4. Core Processes ...................................................................................................... 6 3.5. Emotions ................................................................................................................. 8 Framework of Product Experience ...................................................................................... 10 1. Motivation .................................................................................................................... 10 2. Objective ..................................................................................................................... 10 3. Human-Product Interaction .......................................................................................... 10 Characteristics which Shape Product Experience ........................................................ 10 Core Affect Theory ....................................................................................................... 11 4. Product Experience ..................................................................................................... 11 The 3 Types of Product Experience ............................................................................. 12 5. Relationships between the 3 Levels of Product Experience ......................................... 15 Meaning and Emotion .................................................................................................. 15 Aesthetics and Emotion ............................................................................................... 15 Core Affect and the Psychological Construction of Emotion ................................................ 16 1. Issues Related to Emotions ......................................................................................... 16 2. Objective ..................................................................................................................... 17 3. Conceptual Framework – Core Affect (CA) Theory ...................................................... 17 Core Affect ................................................................................................................... 18 Affective Quality ........................................................................................................... 20 Attributed Affect ........................................................................................................... 21 Emotional Episode ....................................................................................................... 22 Ten Ways to Design for Disgust, Sadness and Other Emotions: A design Approach to Enrich Product Experiences with Negative Emotions ..................................................................... 24 1. Motivation .................................................................................................................... 24 2. Introduction.................................................................................................................. 24 Page 1 of 40
PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 Darker Shades of Joy: The Role of Negative Emotion in Rich Product Experiences ........... 26 1. Motivation .................................................................................................................... 26 2. Objective ..................................................................................................................... 26 3. Traditional Explanation of Why People Seek out Negative Emotions ........................... 26 Utilitarian Viewpoint ..................................................................................................... 27 Aftermath Viewpoint ..................................................................................................... 28 Intensity Viewpoint ....................................................................................................... 28 4. Alternative Explanation of Why People Seek Out Negative Emotions .......................... 29 Bodily and Mental Effects of Negative Emotions .......................................................... 29 Bodily and Mental Effects are Emotion-Specific ........................................................... 29 Transformation of Perception ....................................................................................... 30 Transformation in Attitude ............................................................................................ 31 The Enjoyment Condition ............................................................................................. 31 Faces of Product Pleasure: 25 Positive Emotions in Human-Product Interactions .............. 36 1. Motivation .................................................................................................................... 36 2. Objective ..................................................................................................................... 37 3. Proposed Typology of Emotion Sources ...................................................................... 37 4. Six Sources of Emotions in Human-Product Interaction ............................................... 38 Source 1: The Object ................................................................................................... 38 Source 2: The Meaning of the Object ........................................................................... 38 Source 3: The Interaction itself with the Object ............................................................ 38 Source 4: The Activity that is facilitated by the interaction ............................................ 38 Source 5: Ourselves .................................................................................................... 39 Source 6: Others involved in the Interaction ................................................................. 39 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 40
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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 - Core Affect .......................................................................................................... 11 Figure 2 - The 3 types of product experience ...................................................................... 12 Figure 3 - The three types of experiences related to a teacup ............................................. 12 Figure 4 - Car which symbolises strength............................................................................ 13 Figure 5 - Wrist watch which symbolizes luxury .................................................................. 13 Figure 6 - Basic model of product emotions ........................................................................ 14 Figure 7 - The relationship between stimulus, appraisal, emotion and behaviour ................ 14 Figure 8 - The story of Alice and the bear ........................................................................... 16 Figure 9- The Core Affect (i.e. feeling) ................................................................................ 19 Figure 10 - The affective qualities of the bear ..................................................................... 21 Figure 11 - Examples of people who voluntarily experience negative emotions .................. 27 Figure 12 - Utilitarian Viewpoint .......................................................................................... 27 Figure 13 - Aftermath viewpoint .......................................................................................... 28 Figure 14 - Intensity viewpoint ............................................................................................. 28 Figure 15 - Bodily and mental emotion-specific effects........................................................ 30 Figure 16 - The change in perception of the rubber band. Left: an artefact used to tie things together, Right: A source of fun ........................................................................................... 30 Figure 17 - Proposed framework without the enjoyment condition ...................................... 31 Figure 18 - The role of protective frames in the enjoyment condition................................... 32 Figure 19 - The safety-zone frame ...................................................................................... 33 Figure 20 - The detachment frame ...................................................................................... 33 Figure 21 - The Control Frame ............................................................................................ 34 Figure 22 - The Perspective Frame ..................................................................................... 34 Figure 23 - The three levels of emotions ............................................................................. 36 Figure 24 - The 25 emotion types, grouped into 9 families. ................................................. 37
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LIST OF TABLES Table 1- Prescriptive Definitions for five technical terms ..................................................... 18 Table 2 - Prescriptive terms for secondary concepts ........................................................... 18 Table 3 - Most and Least frequently experienced emotions................................................. 38
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PhD Monthly Report – October 2013
A THEORY OF AFFECTIVE EXPERIENCE Paper Title A Theory of Affective Experience Authors Rohan Lulham Appears in ICED 2013 Keywords
Emotional design, experience design, human behaviour in design, environmental psychology , affect theory
1. Motivation There is a lot of research on affective experience, as a result of which there is a vast array of design tools and frameworks in order to aid designers in their way of thinking. Yet, there is a lack of theory which would enable designers and design researches to understand an generate hypotheses about how people experience design in particular situations.
2. Objective To introduce Affect Control Theory (ACT), this is an existing explanatory theory of affective experience. The author deems ACT to be of use in the area of affect emotion and design.
3. Affective Control Theory (ACT) [short version] ACT is a theory of social interaction that suggests our desire to maintain affective meaning about the world is central in explaining and understanding how we feel, what we do and the emotions we communicate in situations.
3.1. The Elements of an Affective Experience Events involving the communication or relationships between people involve 4 elements: i. Actor: the person doing the behaviour ii. Behaviour iii. Object-Person: the person or object to whom/which the behaviour is directed towards iv. Setting: The socio-physical context in which people experience the events. The setting impacts the labels we assign to the other elements. e.g. boss pleads with an employee in an office Actor (A) Boss Behaviour (B) Pleading Object person (OP) Employee Setting (S) Office
3.2. Gauging the Affective Experience (i.e. sentiments towards the elements) The affective sentiments people assign to an event can be describe in 3 dimensions: i. Evaluation (Valence) Dimension – How good or how bad is the event ii. Potency Dimension – How powerful or week i.e. intensity of the feeling iii. Activity – How lively or calm
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3.3. Explaining People’s Behaviour, Cognitive Processes and Emotions Another central concept of ACT is the notion that people have 2 types of feeling for elements in events: 1. Fundamental sentiments (FS) – these are the feelings/sentiments/meanings that people form about concepts based on past experience or knowledge. Examples: a. I feel excited about driving a Lamborghini, based on what I read and my driving experience b. I feel happy about my boss he is very polite and calm. c. I enjoy working at CERU I heard it is a wonderful research suite. 2. Transient sentiments – these reflect the actual affective experience of an element in a particular situation. The transient sentiments provide people with a momentary gauge of what a person, behaviour or setting is like in the context of a specific event. Examples: a. I feel disappointed with my Lamborghini while it breaks down. b. I feel sad to work with my boss, his behaviour today was unacceptable. c. I hate working at CERU, central heating is broken down. According to ACT, it is the difference between people’s fundamental and transient sentiments (which can be assessed using valence, potency and activity) that motivates much of people’s behaviour, cognitive processes and emotion.
3.4. Core Processes ACT suggests that there are 2 core processes that are critical to understanding people’s experience and behaviour. Process 1 – Impression Formation This is the process on how people form transient sentiments (or impressions) about elements (i.e. actors behaviours, object persons and settings) when these come together in events. ACT states the – the impressions that the fundamental affective sentiments we have for the actor, object-person, setting and behaviour out of context of an event influences the impression we form about the elements when these combine in an event. Example: The out of context fundamental sentiments for the following elements are as follows: (A) Boss FS: boss is a power and active identity (B) Pleading FS: bad and weak behaviour (OP) Employee FS: a good and active identity (S) Office FS: good, powerful and active setting When we consider a particular event, our fundamental sentiments act as a basis on which the impression for a particular element is formed. Boss pleads with an employee in an office – combined sentiments (Impressions formed) (A) Boss Boss has less power because he is engaged in a bad and weak behaviour Page 6 of 40
PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 Conversely we may form an impression on the behaviour: Boss pleads with an employee in an office – combined sentiments (Impressions formed) (B) Pleading Pleading may seem less worse in this context when compared to the FS out of context, because the pleading is in fact being engaged by from a strong person. It follows that the impression formation of elements in a particular event/context is greatly biased by the fundamental sentiments towards the individual, uncombined elements when considered outside of any particular context. Hence the transient sentiments toward a particular element are actually based on the fundamental sentiments or feelings we have towards the individual out of context elements. Process 2 – Affective Control This is the process by which people try to seek affective experiences which are consistent with their affective expectations. In terms of ACT this means that – people want their transient sentiments to confirm their fundamental sentiments for the different elements and themselves in events. In essence this means that people seek to minimize the differences (deflections) between their transient and fundamental sentiments. What happens when an event leads to deflections? When an event leads to deflections we internally experience this deflection as a ‘stress’ or ‘tension’, motivating us to reduce the deflection. How do we reduce the deflections? There are 3 alternative methods that people use to reduce deflections: 1. Using modifiers to alter fundamental sentiments 2. Behave in a way that changes impressions 3. Change the identity or concept labels for elements in the situation. 1. Using modifiers to alter fundamental sentiments This is a process whereby we assign descriptors such as moods, traits or characteristics (i.e. adjective) to our fundamental sentiments. Thus by combining these descriptors to the fundamental sentiments we are able to reduce the deflections, since the modified fundamental sentiments are now closer to our experiences. Example: Original FS Affective Experience Deflection Modifier Modifier + FS
A Lamborghini is an luxury car to be enjoyed The Lamborghini breaks down while showing off to friends. I become angry. Affective Experience : Anger Affective Expectation : Joy Impractical A Lamborghini is an impractical, luxury car to be enjoyed. So the fact that the car broke down was no surprise…because we already know it is impractical.
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PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 2. Behave in a way that changes impressions When internal ‘tension’ is experience, people reduce this tension through behaving and creating new events to generate impression of themselves, other people and the setting that are more consistent with their fundamental sentiments. In essence what people do/behave is driven by their desire to create events that confirm their fundamental sentiments of themselves and other external elements. Example: A teacher slips over a banana peel, and the class starts laughing at her. Original FS Affective Experience Deflection Behaviour
A fearful dictator Dictator slips on banana Affective Experience : Fear Affective Expectation : Funny Starts shouting in order to restore the impression of himself as a fearful dictator. In this manner the impression (transient sentiment) is in agreement, through the behaviour) with the fundamental sentiment of himself.
3. Assign new labels When the deflection between expectation and affective experience is very wide, then the only way to reduce the deflection is to add new labels to the people, behaviour or setting. This means adding a new identity that is associated with fundamental sentiments. In essence we are completely changing the fundamental sentiment Example: Original FS Affective Experience Deflection New Label to FS
A Lamborghini is an luxury car to be enjoyed The Lamborghini explodes while showing off to friends. I become very angry. Affective Experience : Anger Affective Expectation : Joy Lamborghini is a bad investment
Hence the exploding engine and the affective experience of anger is consistent with the fundamental sentiment and expectation that a Lamborghini is a bad investment.
3.5. Emotions ACT also explains emotions as being – physical feeling (love, anger, joy) that viscerally reflet to the person and to others through (emotional displays) how the situation impact the person’s identity. 1. In terms of ACT emotions result from the relationship between our transient sentiments (experience) of ourselves (‘our concerns’) in the event and the fundamental sentiments we hold about ourselves. In essence emotions result from the fundamental feelings we hold about ourselves and what we experience in events. 2. Emotions can be measured in terms of : goodness, potency and activity. 3. The behaviour of people is not motivated by emotions themselves but by the desire to confirm their fundamental sentiments for the situation and minimise deflection. Page 8 of 40
PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 Unlike what is the norm is psychology, ACT does not consider the emotions experienced in events to directly motivate/control behaviour, but rather the control of affective experience to control behaviour. Example: Mary feels she is a good and valuable person, yet she notices that her husband is paying more attention to their dog, hence devaluing her.
FS towards herself: Valuable Affective experience: Devalued/Not important Resulting relationship between <FS of herself> and <Affective Experience> : Anger Behaviour – try to conform <Affective Experience> to <FS of herself>: cook a nice meal to husband.
As we can see: The emotion of anger resulted from the relationship between: the fundamental sentiment towards oneself and the affective experience. The behaviour was motivated by the need to conform the affective experience to the fundamental sentiment.
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PhD Monthly Report – October 2013
FRAMEWORK OF PRODUCT EXPERIENCE Paper Title Framework of Product Experience Authors Peter Desmet Appears in IJDesign, 1(1) 2007 Keywords Experience, Aesthetics, Meaning, Emotion, Design Psychology
1. Motivation Throughout the years various authors, from different disciplines, demonstrated that affective experience of a product can impact usage, product evaluation and purchase decisions.
2. Objective To develop a general framework of product experience of product experience that provides a structure, in order to facilitate comparisons between experiential concepts.
3. Human-Product Interaction The term ‘product experience’, is used to refer to all possible affective experiences involved in human-product interaction. There are 3 categories of human-product interactions: Instrumental interaction – this involves interaction for the purpose of achieving the main function/s which the product was design for, e.g. using a remote control to change channels, using a knife to spread butter. Non-Instrumental interaction – this involves interactions that do not directly serve a function in operating a product e.g. touching the soft seats of a car, caressing a product. Non-Physical Interaction – this refers to fantasising, remembering or anticipating. i. Fantasising: when the user thinks that the artefact has a mind of its own e.g. the computer thinks it knows what I want. ii. Anticipating: when the user anticipates about possible consequences of an interaction e.g. if I buy this new car, people will compliment me. iii. Remembering: when you look at a souvenir and this artefact immediately reminds you of an adventurous trip.
Characteristics which Shape Product Experience i. The characteristics of the user, which include: personality, skills, background, cultural values and motives. For example – a skilled worker will have a positive experience with a technical machine when compared to an unskilled worker. ii. The characteristics of the product, which include: shape, texture, colour and behaviour. For example – the wrong combination of colours may make the user upset. iii. The characteristics of the context, which include: the social, economic and physical environment where the interaction takes place. For example – the quality of work environment can make workers become frustrated more quickly. Page 10 of 40
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Core Affect Theory It should be noted that this paper makes use of Core Affect Theory as a starting point, for the proposed framework. In essence this theory, offers a simple, yet powerful way to organize product experience, because all possible experiences (and moods) involved in the userproduct interaction can be described in terms of core affect, which is illustrated in Figure 9.
Figure 1 - Core Affect
It should be pointed out that core affect can be experienced without relating to a particular stimulus; in some cases the core affect may result from a combination of internal and external causes. For example, one may be grumpy because of bad weather, lack of sleep and traffic jams.
4. Product Experience The experience of a product involves manifestations such as subjective feelings, behavioural reaction, expressive reactions and physiological reactions. These reactions are defined as follows: i. Subjective feelings – this is a conscious experience of the change in the core affect e.g. I feel sad, I feel happy. ii. Physiological manifestations – these involve exhibition of physical changes, such as pupil dilation and sweat production which are cause by the changes in the autonomic nervous system. iii. Expressive reactions – these involve changes in facial, vocal and postural expressions e.g. smiling, voice cracks and changes in posture. iv. Behavioural reactions – these involve changes in behaviour e.g. running, fidgeting, seeking contact etc.
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PhD Monthly Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2013
The 3 Types of Product Experience There are 3 ways in which a product may be experienced: (i) aesthetic pleasure, (ii) attribution of meaning and (iii) emotional response, which are illustrated in Figure 9.
Figure 2 - The 3 types of product experience
The aesthetic experience infers to the degree to which the senses are gratified. On the other hand the experience of meaning, to the meaning which we attach to a product, while the emotional experience refers to the emotions that are elicited. As one might expect, in a human-product interaction, these 3 components are experienced together. Take for example the example of a teacup, which is illustrated in Figure 3, which illustrate 3 types of experiences related to one product. Aesthetic Experience The teacup is beautiful to look at and the lid produces a wonderful sound.
Experience of Meaning The teacup reminds the owner of a visit to China
Experience of Emotions The user is satisfied that the cup is able to hold the right volume tea. Figure 3 - The three types of experiences related to a teacup
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PhD Monthly Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2013 Aesthetic Experience This refers to the productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capacity to delight one or more of our senses. For example a product can look beautiful, make a pleasant sound, feel good to touch etc. The authors of this paper note that most of the research related to the aesthetic experience has focused on the visual domain. Experience of Meaning Cognition comes into play when we consider experience of meaning. In essence through the cognitive processes of interpretation, memory retrieval and associations humans assign personality and other expressive characteristic to assess the personal and symbolic significance of products. This implies that the experiences of meaning are highly dependent on the individual and cultural characteristics of the human. Some examples of experience of meaning are illustrated in Figure 4 and Figure 5.
Symbolizes
Figure 4 - Car which symbolises strength
Symbolizes
Figure 5 - Wrist watch which symbolizes luxury
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PhD Monthly Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2013 Emotional Experience This refers to the experience of every day emotions such as love, disgust, pride etc. Pleasant emotions pull us toward product while unpleasant emotions push us from those sources which are detrimental. The elicitation of an emotion can be explained using appraisal theory. This theory basically states that an emotion is elicited as a result of an evaluation (appraisal) of an event situation as potentially beneficial or harmful. This appraisal is an automatic and unconscious cognitive process which results in an emotion as illustrated in Figure 6.
Figure 6 - Basic model of product emotions
In short, an appraisal is the significance of a stimulus for oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal well-being. This appraisal results in a change in the behaviour and attitude as illustrated in Figure 7.
Elicited Emotion
Fire Alarm Ringing Stimulus: Loud Sound
Behaviour
Appraisal of Fire Alarm Emotion: Fear
Behaviour: Run Away
Figure 7 - The relationship between stimulus, appraisal, emotion and behaviour
Because appraisals mediate between products and emotions, different individuals who appraise the same product in different ways will experience different emotions.
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PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 For example: one who is stressed my feel irritation towards a ringtone, while another person who is more relaxed may appraise the same ringtone as desirable. Thus the context and moods have a significant impact on the emotions which are elicited for a particular event.
5. Relationships between the 3 Levels of Product Experience It should be noted that the 3 levels of product experienced are typically intertwined with each other. For example, if an artefact reminds a person of an old friend [experience of meaning], then he/she is more likely to be afraid [emotional experience], of losing the precious artefact. As in this case, the experience of meaning triggered the emotional experience of fear. The authors highlight the existence of a particularly strong relationship, between two kinds of experience: a. The relationship between meaning and emotion. b. The relationship between aesthetics and emotion
Meaning and Emotion In a the human-product interaction, it has been shown that emotions arise from encounters with products that are appraised as having beneficial or harmful consequences on the individuals’ concerns, refer to Figure 6. The experience of meaning can elicit emotions because product meaning can be appraised as beneficial or harmful for the individual’s concerns. For example a new car can represent a milestone in life (experience of meaning), hence it brings joy to the user every time he/she drives it (emotional experience). Meaning is also involved in emotions elicited by anticipated usage. For example a dress of a particular brand, represents luxury and exclusivity (experience of meaning). Thus one may anticipate that wearing this dress will make others look at oneself in admiration (emotional experience based on expectation).
Aesthetics and Emotion An aesthetic experience can give rise to an emotional experience, because aesthetic experiences involve pleasure and displeasure, and people are motivated to seek products that provide pleasure and avoid products that provide displeasure – hence our concern is to experience aesthetic pleasure. For example restaurants, entertainments etc are often designed to fulfil our concern for pleasing the senses, and these can result in a variety of emotional responses when experienced.
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CORE AFFECT AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF EMOTION Paper Title Core Affect and the Psychological Construction of Emotion Authors James A. Russell Appears in Psychological Review 110(1), 2003 Keywords N/A
1. Issues Related to Emotions 1. What is an emotion? There is little convergence on an answer on what is emotion, where emotion stops (and becomes something else e.g. mood) and on the causes of emotion. 2. Are emotions reducible to a biological process? Are emotions tied to socially constructed roles? 3. Is there a unique, universally describable emotion of fear or anger? What do different instances of fear share in common and at the same time have different from other instances which are not of fear? Story: Alice is in the woods and a wild bear steps in hear path. She sees the bear, freezes and then flees, refer to Figure 8.
Alice
The Bear
Figure 8 - The story of Alice and the bear
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PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 The question being asked here is: in what sense is Alice’s reaction to the bear the same emotion as her other fears e.g. when she is afraid of a harmless spider she squishes it, when afraid of missing her flight she speeds toward the airport etc. What, other than the label of fear, do various instances of fear share with each other that they do not share what is not fear? Apart from the name, what do the other instances which we call ‘fear’, share with each other in common, that they do not share with what is not fear. (Instance A, Instance B, Instance C) are all examples of fear. What do these instances have in common which they do not share with other instances e.g. Instance X, Instance Y, Instance Z, which are not fear? This is why some argue that fear itself might not be a unique emotion i.e. an emotional atom. All events covered by the word fear must be explained and the concept of fear must itself be taken into account.
2. Objective To propose a framework that: a. Takes into consideration emotions and moods as two closely related events b. Explain the construct of an emotion – i.e. what is the process and elements behind an emotion.
3. Conceptual Framework – Core Affect (CA) Theory An emotion is typically about something – Alice was afraid of the bear. An emotion is typically about something or directed towards something, the object (O). Here the author draws an important difference between emotion and mood. 1. An emotion is typically directed to an object e.g. angry about something, happy with someone. 2. A mood is object-less, which means that it is not directed to an object e.g. serenity, drowsiness etc. The Core Affect theory is able to describe both moods and emotions. The author also presents a number of definitions which are illustrated in Table 1 and Table 2.
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PhD Monthly Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2013 Table 1- Prescriptive Definitions for five technical terms
Table 2 - Prescriptive terms for secondary concepts
Core Affect Is the first element of the framework which describes moods, but is also the core of all emotion-laden occurrent events. So an important aspect of the core affect is that it can describe both emotions and moods.
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PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 The second element is the perception of affective quality, where the affective quality is a property of the stimulus. The perception of affective quality (of the stimulus) through the senses is then attributed to the object, which combined with information processing (i.e. appraisal on one’s concerns) result in a mixture of manifestations (behaviours) and influences called emotional. Definition of Core Affect Defined as a neurophysiological state consciously accessible as the simplest raw feelings evident in moods and emotions…it is what is commonly called a feeling. What is a feeling? A feeling is an assessment of one’s current condition. This assessment is defined on a blend of two dimensions, as shown in Figure 9 : 1. Horizontal Dimension: Pleasure – Displeasure, which can range from one extreme (e.g. agony) to another (e.g. ecstasy). Of course the feeling may be located on a neutral point. 2. Vertical Dimensions: Arousal which ranges from drowsiness to various stages of alertness.
Figure 9- The Core Affect (i.e. feeling)
Core affect is primitive, universal and simple. This implies that, unlike the emotion of fear, it can exist without being labelled, interpreted or attributed to any cause.
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PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 It should be pointed out that core affect may/may not be experienced in relation to a known stimulus. Hence th0e core affect may be experienced in relation to no known stimulus – in a free floating form – as seen in moods. In addition it should be noted that a person always has core affect i.e. a point on the illustration shown in Figure 9. Hence the feeling (i.e. core affect) may be neutral (about the centre point), moderate or extreme (around the periphery). In additions the changes in ore affect may be intense (from one extreme to another) and with different timespans (short time span to long lasting e.g. clinical depression). Causes of Changes in Core Affect There are different sources which may be attributed to changes in the core affect. Internal causes such as hormone changes and activity of immune cells can result in these changes. External causes include external stimuli or stress accumulated over the week. Function/Purpose of Core Affect The core affect is a continuous assessment of one’s current state and it affects other psychological processes accordingly. The core affect is part of the information used to estimate the affective quality of a stimulus. It follows that the more positive the core affect, the more positive events encountered or envisioned seem. Because of this, core affect is involved in motivation, reward and reinforcement.
Affective Quality The affective quality is a property of the stimulus and is related with the capacity of a stimulus to change core affect. The affective quality of a stimulus, such as pleasant, boring, upsetting, soothing etc. has to be perceived through the senses. It should be noted that the perception of affective quality, means to represent rather than experience core affect .It should be noted that the core affect can change without reference to any external stimulus, and a stimulus can be perceived as to affective quality with no change in core affect. In some case the combination of core affect and affective quality can lead to ‘false’ or ‘unexpected’ outcomes. Example 1: mood-congruent priming, this occurs when one is feeling happy (core affect), and as a result one processes exclusively the positive information/affective qualities. In this case the affective quality of the stimulus was skewed due to the core affect. Example 2: misattribution, which occurs when a person mistakenly attributes a happy feeling to an object. This results in the person feeling overly happy, than he/she otherwise seem.
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Large pointed teeth
Sharp claws
The Bear Figure 10 - The affective qualities of the bear
In the case of the story of Alice and the bear the large teeth and sharp claws of the bear are properties of the stimulus to cause a change in the core affect, as illustrated in Figure 10.
Attributed Affect This refers to the case where a change in the core affect is linked to its perceived cause, which can be a person, place, event, physical object and/or state of affairs. The attributed affect is defined by: a. Change in core affect - implicitly this is due to the affective quality of the stimulus b. An object – person, place, event or artefact c. The attribution of the core affect to the object – link between object and core affect Attribution is simple and very common e.g. afraid of the bear (where the change in the core affect is attributed to the bear), feeling uncomfortable from the heat (where the change in the core affect of discomfort is attributed to the heat). It should be pointed out the that apart from changes in the core affect, the attribution (process) guides the attention and behaviour at the object – by linking it helps the person to focus on the object.
Attributed Affect
Change in Core Affect
The Bear Page 21 of 40
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Emotional Episode The author proposes that the processes postulated so far: core affect, affective quality and attributed affect can account/explain all emotional episodes. This section will present the components of an emotional episode. An emotional episode is defined as an event that fits the concept of a particular emotion. For example the encounter with the bear is an emotional episode that fits the concept of fear. Antecedent Event This is the obvious antecedent event that was the starting point of the emotional episode. For example in the story of Alice, the antecedent event was the encounter with the bear. Affective Quality The (antecedent) event (stimulus – e.g. seeing the bear)is perceived in terms of its affective quality. Core Affect The antecedent event dramatically alters the (initial) core affect. Although the person enters the episode with a certain initial core affect, as the antecedent event begins to be registered, core affect begins to change. Attribution The core affect, is attributed to the event. For example in the story of Alice and the bear, fear is attributed to the bear, which in this case becomes the object. ‘The object is making me feel the way I now feel’. Appraisal This is the sensory-cognitive processing of the object. Here we assess the object (e.g. bear) in relation to one’s concerns and goals. For example the bear may be assessed as a potential treat to my concern of safety. Instrumental Action The object is considered as a problem or opportunity that requires a behavioural solution. The particular behaviour taken depends on an assessment of current circumstances and the formation of a plan to reach the goal. In the story of Alice, she may decide to escape, by running away from the bear and taking the shortest path to home.
Physiological and Expressive Changes Facial and bodily changes occur as: a. A result of changes in core affect – screaming and increased heart beat as a result of fear. b. As part of, preparation for, or recovery from instrumental action – improved focus in order to quickly find path home.
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PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 Subjective Conscious Experiences Apart from the conscious experiences there is a flood of metacognitive judgments : a sense of urgency, indecision, confusion. Emotional Meta-Experience There is an additional and separate subjective conscious experience. At this point one becomes aware that one is experiencing a particular emotion e.g. Alice might at some point notice that she is afraid. The emotional meta-experience is thus a categorization of one’s state i.e. a self-assessment. Emotion Regulation By categorizing oneself, as for example, afraid, one helps place one’s current state and situation within a broader body of knowledge. Emotion regulation is the deliberate attempt at self-control based on the categorizing of oneself. For example Alice might try to reassure herself as to control herself.
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TEN WAYS TO DESIGN FOR DISGUST, SADNESS AND OTHER EMOTIONS: A DESIGN APPROACH TO ENRICH PRODUCT EXPERIENCES WITH NEGATIVE EMOTIONS Paper Ten ways to design for disgust, sadness and other emotions. Title Authors Steven Fokkinga, Peter Desmet Appears International Journal of Design, 7 (1), 2013 in Keywords Design Approach, Emotional Design, Negative Emotion, Rich Experience
1. Motivation The motivation behind this research is that product experience should be rich, i.e. worthwhile or valuable. Negative experiences can be an opportunity of providing products which are not bland, but instead provide worthwhile experiences to the user. A rich experience is one which evokes a mixture of emotions.
2. Introduction The aim of the paper is that of propose a framework which: a. Creates rich experiences , rather that pleasure on its own b. Conceives negative emotions at the basis of these rich product experiences When talking about experiences, it should be noted that there are two types of experiences: a. Momentary experience which is attributed to a single event, such as the experience of pain. b. Multiple experiences which refers to an event encompassing multiple experiences. It should be noted, that hen talking about rich experiences in human-product interaction, these involve 3 ingredients: A negative stimulus – which is the element of a product or product interaction that evokes a negative emotion. A subjective transformation – this is what makes an experience rich. This is due to the fact that the transformation brings about a perception transformation and an attitude transformation. Perception transformation (how the person views/perceives the world) – changes what a person attends to in the world around him. It changes the way the person experience time and space. For example: a frightened person will perceive the world as more lively, urgent and revolving around himself. Attitude transformation (how I see myself in the world) – changes a person’s view on his own position in the world, and his tendency to act upon it.
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PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 A protective frame – this psychological protective frame takes away the unpleasant negative aspects of the negative emotions to allow the user to enjoy the more positive emotions. There are 4 kinds of protective frames: a. b. c. d.
Safety zone Frame Detachment Frame Perspective Frame Control Frame
The paper demonstrates how the three ingredients of the framework can be applied consecutively in a three-step design approach. This document will expand on the framework by making reference to a similar paper by Desmet and Fokkinga called ‘Darker Shades of Joy’.
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DARKER SHADES OF JOY: THE ROLE PRODUCT EXPERIENCES Paper Title
OF
NEGATIVE EMOTION
IN
RICH
Darker Shades of Joy: The Role of Negative Emotion in Rich Product Experiences
Authors Steven Fokkinga, Pieter Desmet Appears in Design Issues, 28(4), 2012 Keywords
1. Motivation Designers must engage in the design of products with rich product experiences, as to avoid the pitfall of shallow amusement in experience design. If one had to design a product which elicits a unique emotion e.g. an artefact which elicits exclusively joy, such a product would be considered emotionally shallow. This is because, the emotion of joy would only last a short period of time, and as time goes by the user will get accustomed to the product. Consider the following analogy. A film with a linear plot, where the plot is evident and remains unchanged throughout the entire film, is considered to be boring and bland. On the other hand a film with multiple side plots and a few pleasant/unpleasant surprises may be considered as surprising and interesting. It follows that products should be designed as to elicit a combination of different emotions, thus rendering the product rich and long lasting.
2. Objective With regards to negative emotions in the context of product experience, this paper makes two important proposals. i. People seek out negative emotions, because such emotions transform their perception of and attitude toward a situation. In fact, in this paper negative emotions are a key element of rich product experiences, instead of an unwanted side effect of product interaction. ii. People actually enjoy this transformation in perception and attitude, if they can experience it through a protective frame.
3. Traditional Explanation of Why People Seek out Negative Emotions If one thinks about it, there are many instances where people voluntarily experience negative emotions for example: bungee jumping and other extreme sports, handling of dangerous animals, running long exhaustive marathons etc. as illustrated in Figure 11.
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Figure 11 - Examples of people who voluntarily experience negative emotions
So the main question is, why do people seek out, and often enjoy these negative emotions? There have been four traditional approaches/viewpoints, which have attempted to answer this critical question.
Utilitarian Viewpoint People engage in activities that evoke negative emotions not because they enjoy them, but because they expect these activities to be beneficial in the long run. Example: A person might be afraid of ‘flying’ in an aeroplane; however he might still go on a flight in order to meet his family as illustrated in Figure 12
Figure 12 - Utilitarian Viewpoint
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PhD Monthly Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2013 A shortcoming of this viewpoint is that it does not explain why people engage in certain activities, which have negative emotions and do not have any long term benefits e.g. roller coaster rides, extreme sports.
Aftermath Viewpoint The negative emotions in experiences are taken for granted because they make the ensuing positive emotions more enjoyable. In essence the positive emotions overcompensate for the initial negative emotions. Example: Parachute jumper only experiences the moment after the jump, because it compares pleasantly to the fear she experienced before jumping as shown in Figure 13.
Figure 13 - Aftermath viewpoint
Intensity Viewpoint Certain people are able to enjoy certain activities, because they can successfully inhibit the accompanying fear. To these sensation seekers, the activity is not loner frightening â&#x20AC;&#x201C; just pleasantly arousing. Example: Fans of horror films have learned to inhibit disgust and anxiety and simply enjoy the arousing effects, as illustrated in Figure 14.
Figure 14 - Intensity viewpoint
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PhD Monthly Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2013 The problem with these 3 viewpoints is that they all start from the false assumption that negative emotions are fundamentally and therefore always unpleasant. This paper proposes a new alternative explanation of why people seek out negative emotions.
4. Alternative Explanation of Why People Seek Out Negative Emotions The key to the idea that negative emotions can also be enjoyable is subjective transformation. People seek out negative emotions because they produce specific bodily and mental effects which together transform their perception of and attitude towards the situation. If we had to deconstruct this proposition, one would find that it has 4 elements: 1. 2. 3. 4.
The bodily and mental effects of negative emotion are Emotion specific, and bring about a Transformation in perception and a Transformation in attitude
Bodily and Mental Effects of Negative Emotions The idea that emotions have bodily effects is undisputed. For example when one is afraid, the heart rate increases in order to allow the individual to move rapidly and act quicker in case of danger. For example fear has been shown to have the following effects on the body and mind: i. Narrower field of attention, so that one focuses on the danger and eliminates other objects of lesser priority. ii. Improves visual contrast sensitivity iii. Causes people to experience time passing more slowly. iv. Influences peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to estimate sizes of objects and distances v. Brings back memories of previous dangerous situations.
Bodily and Mental Effects are Emotion-Specific Negative emotions have different sets of bodily of mental effects. Thus for example the effects of sadness differ strongly from those of anger. For example : fear causes people to estimate that real-life risks are more likely to occur, anger causes people to assess the same risks less likely, as illustrated in Figure 15. These bodily and mental responses are the means which enable the human being to survive, as in the typical case of an increased heart rate in the case of fear
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Angry Soldier: Fearful Soldier “Enemy cannot be defeated!”
“We can defeat the enemy”
Figure 15 - Bodily and mental emotion-specific effects
Transformation of Perception The bodily and mental effects, apart from the purpose of survival, have a significant effect on the person’s subjective experience. For example, fear brings a sudden focus of attention and increase in heart beat rate. These effects occur together, and cumulatively are a deviation from the neutral everyday experience. In this sense these mental and bodily effects holistically transform the perception of people, events and objects, where these take on a different meaning. The rubber band example: During ‘normal’ days the rubber band does not provide any particular emotion. However during exams, the perception of the rubber band (which forms part of the world) changes from this neutral point. In these ‘extreme’ or ‘peculiar’ situations the rubber band becomes a source of entertainment. This example, illustrating the change in perception of the world (or objects in it) is shown in Figure 16.
Figure 16 - The change in perception of the rubber band. Left: an artefact used to tie things together, Right: A source of fun
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Transformation in Attitude Give that the change in perception brings about a change in how we see things, people and the environment, it follows that the changes brought by negative emotions also result in a transformation in attitude. This means a subjective transformation of one’s disposition toward people, event and objects. For example: people, who feel angry, hence perceiving the world differently than normal, will have a different attitude towards the world. Typically the attitude of angry people is assertive, more empowered and more risk taking. On contrast, a person who is sad is more likely to exhibit a more reflective, calm and sensitive attitude towards the world. Apart from attitude, there is the concept of action tendency which infers to how we physically act in the world. For example the action tendency of an angry person is to shout, while the action tendency of a sad person is to cry. The difference between attitude and action tendency is that the latter is a behavioural concept. Attitude on the other hand refers primarily to the individuals’ subjective account of their disposition to the world. The framework so far has been described in terms of its constituent elements which result in negative emotions, as illustrated in Figure 17. What is yet to be explained is the enjoyment condition, i.e. the condition which renders these negative emotions enjoyable.
Figure 17 - Proposed framework without the enjoyment condition
The Enjoyment Condition The reason why people enjoy negative emotions is the presence of a ‘protective frame’. This frame is a mental construct that enables people to create a certain distance between themselves and the object of their emotion. It follows that the protective frame enables the elicitation of positive emotions from what would be considered as a negative experience, as illustrated in Figure 18.
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Figure 18 - The role of protective frames in the enjoyment condition
There are two characteristics of the protective frame: i. The protective frame converts the negative experience into an enjoyable one. ii. The protective frame is not a physical, but a psychological construct which means that the determining factor is not whether the person is, in reality, safe but whether she/he believes that she/he is safe. There are 4 types of frames: i. The Safety Zone frame ii. The Detachment frame iii. The Control frame iv. The Perspective frame The Safety Zone Frame This frame arises when a person perceives a negative stimulus in her direct environment, but feels protected from it. This frame does not have to be a fixed enclosure, it is a mental construct. An example of this construct is illustrated in Figure 19.
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Figure 19 - The safety-zone frame
Example: We enjoy the thrill of coming into contact with wild, dangerous animals for example a lion. The reason why we enjoy this experience is that physical cage, gives us a sense of security in our mind. Hence the cage converts the ‘thrill’ of encountering the lion into an enjoyable experience. On the other hand the story would be very different if we had to encounter the lion outside of the cage, where the experience would definitely not lead any positive emotions. Similarly, the experience would not be enjoyable if we had to visit a cage which is without a lion. The Detachment Frame This frame lets people observer an event without participating in it. Through this frame the person is dealing with a representation of the stimulus rather than the stimulus itself. An example of this mental construct is illustrated in Figure 20.
Vs.
Figure 20 - The detachment frame
Example: It would not be an enjoyable experience to directly witness a couple arguing and shouting at each other. On the other hand a TV show which features couple arguing with each other may be considered as enjoyable and funny. The difference between the two scenarios is that in the second case the person is detached from the negative experience.
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PhD Monthly Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2013 The Control Frame This frame ascertains the people that they have a certain amount of control over the interaction with the negative stimulus. Thus although the user is in the danger zone, they can trust their skills to keep themselves away from any danger. A case in point is illustrated by the example in Figure 21.
Figure 21 - The Control Frame
Example: A motorcycle is a very dangerous means of transport; however the artefact is marketed as to emphasize thrill power and speed rather than safety. This is because the main aspect in riding a motorcycle is fright, however the enjoyment of riding a motorcycle is derived from the control frame where the motorcyclists are provided with the feeling that they are all the time under control of the situation. Thus if one had to ride a motorcycle which does not respond to the user input, the experience would result in negative emotions. This is due to the fact that the fear would not be enjoyed due to the lack of a control frame. This frame would be absent because the user does not feel he/she is under control. The Perspective Frame The perspective frame changes the meaning of the experienced emotion. This frame connects the negative stimulus to a universal human theme. An example of this frame is illustrated in by the examples in Figure 22.
Figure 22 - The Perspective Frame
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PhD Monthly Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2013 Example: One might experience a lot of muscle pain and feel exhausted during a marathon, however this experienced results in the positive emotion of satisfaction, knowing that the participation in the marathon can help raise money for poor children.
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FACES OF PRODUCT PLEASURE: 25 POSITIVE EMOTIONS IN HUMAN-PRODUCT INTERACTIONS Paper Title Authors
Faces of Product Pleasure: 25 Positive Emotions in Human-Product Interactions Pieter Desmet
Appears in
International Journal of Design, 6(2), 2012
Keywords
Emotion-Driven Design, Positive Emotions, Questionnaire Research
1. Motivation This paper deals with emotion knowledge, which refers to the knowledge people use to assign to words to their own feelings, interpret emotions of others and talk about emotional reactions. In many cases people with limited emotion knowledge, use the same word to refer to a variety of different emotions. For example people with limited emotion knowledge may use the word disgust to refer to a wide variety of emotions e.g. disgust, contempt, shame and guilt. It is obvious that this is not ideal, because the same word is being use to encompass a wide variety of distinct emotions. Over the years numerous typologies have been proposed in order to organize this emotion knowledge. A very basic typology is that suggested by prototype theory, where emotions are organized in a tree-like structure with 3 levels, as illustrated in Figure 23.
Superordinate Level
Pleasent vs. Unpleasent
Basic Level (most popular and used by researchers) Basic emotion types
Subordinate Level Finely grained emotions of the basic level
Anger
Fury
Joy
Irritation
Euphoria
Happinness
Figure 23 - The three levels of emotions
There are typologies of emotions which have been proposed over the years. A common issue with these typologies is that these are either simple yet too generic, or else they are finely grained yet too complex and impractical to be employed.
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2. Objective The objectives of this paper are to: i. Introduce a set of emotions that represent the general repertoire of emotion knowledge. The scope will be to provide a repertoire which is fine grained yet at the same time substantially practical to use. ii. Propose how these emotions can be experienced in human-product interactions.
3. Proposed Typology of Emotion Sources The proposed typology was developed firstly by creating a long list of 150 positive emotion words and then clustering these emotion words into 25 emotion types. These identified 25 emotion types were then grouped further into 9 categories, as illustrated in Figure 24.
Figure 24 - The 25 emotion types, grouped into 9 families.
Part of the process of identifying emotions was to eliminate negative emotions. However the author points out something interesting, that is the distinction between negative and positive emotions is not always obvious. Whether or not an emotion is positive depends upon: i. The behaviour that is stimulated by the emotion – is the behaviour positive or negative. For example there is a word in German called ‘Schadenfreude’, which is defined as a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of other people. In this case the feeling is positive, yet the behaviour is not evaluated positively. ii. The consequence of the emotion. For example courage is typically elicited by a negative situation, however it is often considered as a positive emotion because it leads to Page 37 of 40
PhD Monthly Report – October 2013 beneficial outcomes. In a similar fashion, sympathy does not feel pleasant, yet the behaviour is evaluated positively, because the consequence of sharing burden is considered to be beneficial. Once that the 25 positive emotions were identified and grouped, a long term study was conducted with the intent to determine if the identified emotions can in fact be experienced in human-product interactions. A summary of the most frequently and least frequently experienced emotions is illustrated in Table 3. Table 3 - Most and Least frequently experienced emotions
Most frequently experienced emotions Joy, Satisfaction, Amusement, Relaxation, Love, Confidence and Desire
Least frequently experienced emotions Worship, Lust, Dreaminess, Relief, Euphoria, Courage and Enchantment
4. Six Sources of Emotions in Human-Product Interaction Another objective of this paper is to identify the sources which elicit emotions in humanproduct interactions. The argument present by the author is that the emotions are not only evoked by the product itself but also by a variety of elements which are involved in the interaction between the product and the human.
Source 1: The Object The products are objects that we perceive: see, touch, taste, hear and feel. Hence the emotions are evoked through our human senses. Very often the word appearance is used, to refer not only to the visual appearance, but also to the taste, tactile, sound and fragrance.
Source 2: The Meaning of the Object Emotions can also be experienced in response to some object, person or event that is associated with or symbolized by a product. For example some objects are intentionally designed with this intention, such as spiritual and religious objects. On the other hand some objects acquire their symbolic value through the course of user-product interactions, e.g. a backpack becomes precious to its user because it reminds the person of numerous adventures and journeys.
Source 3: The Interaction itself with the Object The interaction with the object can evoke positive and negative emotions. In this case the emotion is evoked by how the product responds to the user when he/she is using it. For example a user might experience joy and satisfaction when using a product that is unexpectedly easy to use. On the other hand one might become extremely frustrated with an object which is too complicated to use.
Source 4: The Activity that is facilitated by the interaction Products are instruments which are used to ‘get something done’. The extent to which the product gets the job done can elicit emotions. Individuals will respond emotionally because they have concerns related to the activities. It should be noted that unlike source 1, the emotion is not directed toward the product, yet the product does play a role. For example: one may be excited about making a hiking trip (facilitated by a pair of shoes), one may be satisfied with the mowed lawn (facilitated by a lawn mower). Page 38 of 40
PhD Monthly Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2013 Special types of emotions are those related to anticipated usage. When seeing a product, people anticipate the emotions that they will experience when engaging the product in the activity. For example one may desire a sailboat (emotion directed towards object), because one anticipates the fun he will have when going on a trip (fun directed towards the activity of sailing, enabled by the object).
Source 5: Ourselves We can be emotional about ourselves. The perception of ourselves, which is enhanced by products, can be in itself a source of emotions. Products are extensions of their owners, hence the affect an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s self-perception and how he/she is perceived by others. A sports car enables someone to feel good about him/herself. A luxury watch is viewed by others as a positive thing, makes us feel satisfied about ourselves. We care about ourselves and how others look at us. Products can have a profound impact of the emotions that we have towards ourselves.
Source 6: Others involved in the Interaction The interaction with other people, through products, can evoke a multitude of emotions. The interactions with other people, which elicit emotions, are facilitated or influenced by products. We may be surprised with a birthday card (facilitated by a birthday card) given to us by a friend, or we may be relieved when someone helps us find our route (facilitated by a city map). In this case the product is the medium through which the interaction elicits emotions.
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CONCLUSIONS This report has presented a series of research papers pertaining to the user emotions and the appraisal process in eliciting emotions. The following may be concluded: 1. The literature work concerned with design and emotion is primarily concerned with the elicitation of emotions from the customer during the use phase. There is no reference to the emotions elicited by the workers during the use phase. 2. This document has presented various sources originating from the field of psychology which attempt at explain the psychological construct of a human emotion. The various sources 40include: a. A human emotion is the result of a relationship/interaction involving the artefact and the human being and the situation. The situation may involve objects, the environment and other beings including humans. b. The most frequently cited theory is that emotions are elicited as a result of an evaluation of the situation, and how the situation influences the concerns of the human being. This is why different situations my elicit different emotions, this is due to the fact that the emotions is the product of the situation, and its characteristics, and the personal concerns of the human being. Constant reference is made to the work by Richard Lazarus and Klaus Scherer. c. Another theory which explains the process behind the elicitation of emotions is Affective Control theory where emotions are the result of deviation of our present experience from our expectations. 3. An important point made by Desmet, is that the experience of emotions is not the only form of experience. In addition to the experience of emotion there is also the experience of meaning and the experience of aesthetics. However in the same paper, Desmet points out that there is a strong relationship between , the experience of meaning and emotion and the experience of aesthetics and emotions. In essence all 3 types of product experience at some point or another elicit emotions. 4. The elicitation of a human emotion brings about certain changes. In fact Desmet suggests that an emotions bring about three changes : a. Change in the perception of the situation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; how I experience the world. b. Change in the attitude towards the situation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; how I see myself within the world c. Change in behaviour - how I act within the world. This last effect of an emotion. This is due to the fact that worker emotions could lead to changes in their behaviour. 5. One of the challenges in the field of human emotions is related to the definition and measurement of emotions. Russell points out this challenge and attempts to address it by characterising an emotion in terms of two properties: Activation/Deactivation and Pleasure/Displeasure. Another challenge which is pointed out by Desmet is that there is a lack of practical and concise taxonomy on human emotions. For this reason Desmet attempts to provide a taxonomy consisting of 25 human emotions which covers a wide array of emotions, yet at the same time is substantially concise as to render it practical to use particularly by product designers.
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