Emotionally Durable Designs

beyond the design.

Emotionally Durable Designs

German University In Cairo Applied Arts & Sciences Product Design Thesis Sara Osama 22-3907 Under the supervision of Nikolai Burger & Sylvia Burger

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Acknowlegments

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First and foremost, I have to thank my Bachelor Project supervisors, Mr. Nikolai burger and Mrs. Sylvia burger.

Without their assistance and dedicated involvement in every step throughout the process, this thesis would have never been accomplished. I would like to thank you very much for your support and understanding over these past four months.

Nikolai, your teaching style and enthusiasm for the topic made a strong impression on me and I have always carried positive memories of your meetings with me. I will always be “Jumping & running�.

Getting through my dissertation required more than academic support, and I have many, many people, friends 4 and family, to thank for listening to and, at times, having to tolerate me over the past four months.

You, and only you, thank you for sharing your magic with me.

You always inspire me.

Shrek, you are my motivation!

Gogo, you helped inspire the very first ideas, and for that, thank you!

Everyone in my bachelor’s group, Shoshie, Mariam, Menna, Anne, Mirna, Sherry, Nammar, Lama, Yostina, Hana and Yara, each one of you added something to me one way or another. So Thank you.

Everyone who helped me finish this thesis and people who participated in the research process, I cannot begin to express my gratitude and appreciation for your friendship and support.

Abstract Consuming is a natural human behaviour. To stop consuming and designing would be impossible. However, it is a challenge for designers to discover approaches, products and technologies to make “consuming” more “sustainable”.

Designers shape the world and sometimes, shape social behaviours as well.

This thesis aims at understanding the user/product relationship and how product design can influence it. The goal is to find the key to designing products that would last for more than a typical product lifespan, while giving the user a rich experience that would last for a lifetime, and sometimes passed down to the next generations as well.

In a world of commodities, Product Design ought to create stories for the user to feel more personally attached to his belongings. Memories and Nostalgia, the only factors the 5 designer cannot completely control are the most important factors that influence product attachment. The final product of this thesis, “the cocoon”, switches roles between the designer and the user, and makes sure the user becomes attached like never before.

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Table Of Content Acknowledgments

4 5

Abstract Table Of Content

1. Chapter One - Introduction 1.1 Infographics

2. Chapter Two - Methodologies 2.1 Interviews

6-7

8 14-15

4 17 4 17

2.1 (a) Design Professionals’ Interviews 2.1 (b) Design Students Interviews 2.1 (c) Users with no design 6

background Interviews 2.2 The Thesis Experiment 2.3 Design Concept & Focus Group 2.4 Results 2.5 Analaysis & Discussion

3. Chapter Three - Materialism

4 18 4 18 4 19 4 30 4 40

3.1 The “What” & “Why”

4 40

3.2 The relationship between Materialism

4 46

& Our Environment 3.3 Why do people replace products?

3.4 The designers’ role & Influencing Social Behaviour

4. Chapter Four - Sustainability 4.1 Socially Responsible Design 4.1.1 Cradle to Cradle approach 4.2 The advantages of Sustainable Design

4 48 4 54 4 60 64 4 64 4

4 64 68

4.3 The Limits of Sustainable Design

4 69

4.4 Examples from Design

4 70

5. Chapter Five - Emotional Design

4 74

5.1 Emotionally Durable Design

4 78

5.2 Why are people attached to certain products?

4 80

5.2.1 Time VS. Attachement 5.3 Examples from Design 5.3.1 How to design successful Emotionally Durable Products?

5.4 Negative Emotions & Design 5.4.1 Rich experiences VS. ordinary experiences

6. Chapter Six - The Design Concept & Inspiration

4 88 4 92 4 94 4 104 4 110 4 112

6.1 The Play Bliss

4 114

6.2 The Keywords

4 116

6.3 The mood board

4 118

6.4 Target User

4 120

6.5 The Idea

4 122

6.6 The Focus Group

4 124

6.7 The Material

4 132

6.7.1 Analyzing Materials

7. Chapter Seven - The Final Design

4 146

7.1 The Sketches

4 148

7.2 3D visualizations

4 150

7.3 Interactions

4 152

Future Developments

4 154

Bibliography

4 156

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. s , r m e e n o g i p s c e i d p e e r n a a n g e n i m “A l is compos l, n a r g i u s m e D a , e g c e n i i p t execu ng a master i t n i . a o t p r e c & n o g c n i n a a writing ign is also cle wer, s a e r d d t k u s B e d a g n i s i , h n t a o o g t r o d e re t c a p m i n a g n i pul , e i p e l p p a n a g bakin r o f s e d i s g n i choos , e m a g l a b e s a b t o l k c a b a � . d il h c a g in t a c u d &e

(Horvath, 12)

Introduction

If

humans continue with the current consumption rates, planet earth will no longer have the capacity and ability to sustain us no more. Sustainability of planet earth should be a concern to all human kind alike, users and designers. Consumption has been seen as a measure of success for the society, which was sparked since the industrial revolution. Consuming is a natural human behavior. To stop consuming and designing would be impossible. However, it is a challenge for designers to discover approaches, products and technologies to make “consuming” more “sustainable”.

‘Billions of products effectively die before their time has come.

They can be found in silent places in homes, or they are needlessly recycled, buried inlandfills or simply burnt’.

(Arguin, 9) This research project aims at understanding the user/product relationship and how the designer can influence it. Designing products that would last for more than a typical product lifespan, while enhancing the user experience. Products that can be passed down to the next generation-after elongating their life cycle- and creating a story for the user to feel more personally attached to them.

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Introduction How can we design emotionally durable designs today for the needs and desires of tomorrow’s users?

In this research, I tried to understand why some designs last longer than others and what makes users attached to their objects. Design can be a durable solution for social and personal needs and desires, when done in a thoughtful manner and approach.

Designers must acknowledge the importance of their design choices, from materials to aesthetics and how these choices will have an impact on the products life span, the buying decisions, and most importantly, the environment.

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Objects convert emotions to users and these emotional attachments can impact the life span of an object. In this thesis, I aimed at understanding what emotional aspects of an object create stronger relation with the user which in turn forces the user to be less inclined to throw away their products for newer or more technologically advanced ones. The purpose is to understand how user and product flourish within a long lasting relationship. (Arguin, 11) Design is not only about aesthetics, “high Tec functionalism”, but it should also regard human psychic needs.

Products should have the potential to express the needs that come from the user’s personality (psychological benefits) and also satisfy the needs that drive from needs of relationships users have with other people (social benefits). Design thinking is the ability to conceive, plan and present ideas about products.

Knowledge about a practical constraint, a criterion for evaluation, or even a source of inspiration is useless until transformed in the designer’s imagination into ideas and images that can be effectively communicated to others

“We invent, and we change the product, and in its turn changes our life.

It is extremely important that designers should understand and anticipate the issues created by the qualities of the products that they design. They should be aware of this moral responsibility and stop the destruction of man and of the environment.

Designers can save the world, or at least prolong its agony.”

(Horia,1) Product design makes a particular function possible: it determines the relationship between an object and a user. Increasing the value of products through design increases quality of the usage experience and quality of our lives. Product design can be durable and influential. “Psychological function can be seen, read from the product, however it can be revealed by multiple sensory experiences.” (Horváth, 19) Design is a discipline of problem solving that can never yield only one right answer; it will always produce infinite number of answers, some “righter” and some “wronger”. (Horváth, 15)

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Introduction A good design has got the capacity to attract consumers, to communicate to them and add value to the product by increasing quality of usage experiences. (Horvรกth, 16) Designs such as Harley Davidson motorcycles, VW Beetle, Zippo lighters and Thonet chairs are considered successful, not only because they fulfill the functions for which they were intended, but they also possess an aesthetic and societal dimension, that builds up new relations between themselves and their users.

(Horvรกth, 18) At the end of the thesis, I should be able to design 12

a sustainable design with an emotionally durable approach for users to build personal attachement with the product and thus, become less inclined to throw it away.

in·fo·graph·ic / , infō’ grafik/ noun

a visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent information or data.

60% of product returned to stores are functional

All design is design for emotion

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%

Circumstances

People’s happiness is subjective

50%

40%

Genetics Concious Behaviour

Design Thinking Des

le

irab l

e

Viab

People

Business

Technical Feasible

Design products for engagement, savouring of life’s pleasures.

Number of planets needed to sustain the world at different countries’ levels of consumption:

US UK

We are targeted by over 1,500 commercial messages a day, up from 560 per day in the 1960s.

France Germany

Less than $50 billion a year could provide adequate food, clean water, and basic education for the world›s poorest.

People around the world spend much more than this amount on makeup, perfumes, pet food, ocean cruises, and ice cream.

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” ,William Morris.

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In this thesis, the methods used to collect data are “qualitative” research methods, as “quantitative” research methods would not provide relevant findings regarding this design issue, which is mainly based on user’s personal emotions and feelings.

Chapter Two - Methodologies 2. Primary research done in the subject through literature resources The early stage of research was investigating the topic through literature sources (websites, journals, articles, magazines, videos, books).

Thoroughly reading and taking notes was done to acquire all the information about the topic and understand its different perspectives.

2.1 (a) Interviews with design professionals Interviewing professionals and/or academics that have a vast knowledge on design; these interviews should be achieved before working on the design concepts. These interviews will give valuable insight in the subject and help understand what more is needed.

The individuals to be interviewed may provide different perspectives on sustainable and emotional design. 2 interviews were conducted.

2.1 (b) Interviews with design students These interviews will aim at understanding how “young� designers think about nowadays products and how they would develop them to become more sustainable and emotionally durable. At the end of the day, the future lies in the hands of yound designers.

13 interviews were conducted. 1 Male, and 12 Females.

Age group: 18-21.

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Chapter Two - Methodologies 2.1 (c) Interviews with people with no design background

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Interviewing people would be mainly to gain insight on user/products attachments. What makes the user attached to one product other than other products?

What makes the product CLICK with the user and enhances the whole experience?

Why are some objects thrown away while they are still in a good condition, while other products are kept even after they are obsolete?

The aim is to understand what makes an object precious/timeless to consumers.

22 interviews were carried out, out of which 5 are males, and 17 are females. Age group: 18-21.

2.2 The Thesis Experiment As a part of the methodologies, this thesis book is in itself an experiment for emotionally durable design.

Along the book, random activities and questions will be left for the readers to fill.

The idea is that if the user feels involved within the research’s structure, and the book’s format, the reader would be less inclined to throw this Thesis book away.

Emotional attachment should be built between the reader and the book through the “DIY” (do it yourself) like activities becase the Thesis book would then feel personal to each and every reader in it’s own different way.

2.3 Concept Design & Focus Group The concept design is to be proposed to different target users that will have their reactions/comments recorded.

2.4 Results 2.1 (a) Interviews with Design Professionals The professors were asked how as product designers would they ensure that the user would keep a product that they have designed for more than a year.

Regine Ritz, Professor of Product Design at GUC applied arts.

Regine believes that it all revolves and starts with the user. The designer should watch the user, know about the background, present and past. The designer should have knowledge about what is fun for them and what would they enjoy.

She thinks that because of how the market is always changing, and competitors are always emerging, companies do not take the time to think before taking any decisions. The design and production process is as important as the end product. The process should be sustainable and should end with an eco-friendly product that would be of value to its users.

Alaa El-Ansary, Professor of Product Design at GUC applied arts.

Dr. Alaa believes that the designer should focus on the user’s experience with the product before and after use, designers should be concerned to get feedback from users. They must observe how the user understood and handled the product, if a defect happened, is it because of the behavior or a fault in the design. Dr. Alaa does not feel attached to clothes, shoes, kitchen tools and papers. He thinks the main reason for waste is that people throw things just because they consume too much space.

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2.4 Results 2.1 (b) Interviews with Design Students Question 3: If the product holds memories for the user, he’s more prone to keeping it was mentioned as the top reason why the user keeps the products.

Being emotionally attached to the product or if it is a gift are also reasons to keep products. Other reasons that were mentioned are: Being useful, if it resembles a passion (like musical instruments), if it’s good design or aesthetically pleasant, if it is self reflective, tells a story, valuable and/or expensive.

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Question 4: Creating a personal connection between the user and the product came as the number one answer. Making the product prone to being personalized was also frequently mentioned. Knowing the target group, their background, what will make them click, what will they be attached to is also a very important aspect. Using sustainable materials and making a product with a unique design will also ensure that the user is attached to the product.

Other methods were mentioned as: Designing multifunctional products, designing products that would live longer and “focusing on the functionality of the product and not only the technology as technology becomes outdated.”

2.1 (c) Interviews with Users with no design background The interviewees were asked the following questions; sometimes more questions were added or omitted according to how the interview’s flow goes.

1.What is a product you have had for the past 5 years?

2.Why do u still have this product and u never bought a new one?

3.Is there something special about it? How it looks? Its colors? Shape?

4.Would u call it your best friend? Do u have a name for it? Can it make u smile?

5.Would u still keep it even if it were not working anymore? I mean if it stops functioning? And if yes, why?

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2.4 Results 1.Mirna heikal

She has had the same watch for the past 5 years.

She never threw it because it was the very first watch she ever bought from her own money.

She would call it her best friend because it has witnessed with her a lot of her life events. It can make her smile. It stopped functioning several times but she never lost hope in it and always repaired it. She’s so attached to it even though it’s not trendy anymore. She even once wore it while It was not functioning.

2. Noha Ashraf

She bought an iPad but she still uses her laptop for work. It’s not very special, it was once but now it is just heavy and slow. She would keep it because she’s used to working on it, its comfortable. And even if she buys a new laptop, she’d still keep it.

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3. Nesma Alaa

She’s attached to her glue gun. It’s handy and efficient. She has a name for it and she even personalized it to her liking.

4. Haya ElSheikh

She’s attached to her watch and she never replaced it because it’s still functioning and it goes along with all of her dressing styles.

5. Kholoud El-Helaly

She is attached to a necklace because she got it as a gift from someone special. She always feel comfortable and safe wearing it.

Salma has had and used the same pen for almost five years. The pen makes her feel comfortable while writing. She always carries it around with her even if she knows she won’t be using it. It helps her write smoothly and with a font and color that she likes. She feels like the words just slide over the paper when she is using it.

She never throws the pen even if it’s empty; she loves seeing that she has used up all those pens.

6.Salma Abd El- Wahab

He is attached to his acoustic guitar. It’s not in anyway special but even though he bought a new one he would never give this guitar up. He would like to keep all the guitars he ever had. He has a name for it, and he thinks it’s a “female”. The guitar represents his passion.

7.Ezz Tarek

Haya is attached to her DSLR camera because it was the first camera ever she owned which also helped her discover her passion about photography. Even if she ever buys a more professional one, the first camera will always be special to her.

8.Haya khairat

Toka has kept a snow ball that she received as a gift from her best friend. She would keep it even if it breaks because it reminds her of her best friend and the memories they shared, especially that they don’t talk that much anymore.

9.Toka Radwan

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2.4 Results 10.

Abdeltawab Alaa

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Abdeltawab is attached to his Dumbbells. For him it’s an object that helps him purify his mental state. He takes his dumbbells when he’s travelling and they are a perfect weight to be able to carry in a bag. His dumbbells are his pride. They are his best friends because they’d never lie to him. They might cause him physical pain but on the inside he’s always filled with joy because he knows that the pain will be turned into mental and physical toughness. He feels comfortable with them and has adjusted his working out techniques according to their weights.

11. Omar Gamal

Omar is attached to a watch he has had for 8 years.

The watch is very functional and has extras as it can work as a stopwatch and a countdown timer.

He is a pharmacy student so it comes in handy for him during his experiments. It also lights up when he looks at it. Whenever he takes it off, he feels something is missing from him. He knows for sure that the watches’ calendar would stop working after the year 2035 but he won’t give it up by then either.

12. Yomna Abushady

Yomna has kept the same jacket for as long as she knows. She has kept it because it suits everything and would never get old fashioned. It reminds her of school days.

13. Aya Mahmoud

Aya has kept her mothers ring which she bought 20 years ago. It makes her smile because for her it’s a sign of loyalty, which she loves. It has been there for too long, and it did not rust. It’s loyal.

She is attached to her pen that her father bought as a gift for her when he knew she started writing.

Besides the fact that it is a special gift, it has a Disney character on it, which she loves them because Disney reminds her with her childhood. If she accidently sees it even when she’s not writing, the pen can make her smile.

Reem has kept her eyeglasses since she was 8 years old. It’s the first and last eyeglasses she ever bought and she still wears them and now she is 21 years old. It reminds her of the time when she first bought it, and how happy she was.

14. Remonda Raafat

15. Reem Yasser

Her friends bought for her the iPod as a birthday gift and she had kept it ever since. She never bought a new one because it has been with her through the last 5 years of her life, which were the most fun, weird, hectic, happy and sad at the same time. It does not look special, but she once dropped it and the dent reminds her with that and makes her ipod distinguished. She would still keep it if it stopped functioning, because she wouldn’t throw away her bestfriend.

16. Yasmin Mostafa

She has kept the same pajamas for more than 5 years even though they don’t fit her anymore. She has kept them because they remind her of when she was in another country and how those were the best days of her life. She wants to keep it for her children to wear. It brings peace to her mind.

She’s a happy person when she wears them.

17. Sherine El-Moataz

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2.4 Results

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18. Menna Hany

Menna is attached to her laptop. It’s her best friend even though it reminds her with her university work. If it ever stops functioning, she would open it up and watch it’s components. If she buys a new one, she would still keep it and use both. It has been through a lot with her.

19. Yasmin Mahmoud

Yasmin has kept the cup for 9 years because of how special it looks, with the bear on its handle. It makes her smile as she got it as a gift from one of her friends back then. She and her friend don’t talk that much anymore.

20. Ahmed Salah

Ahmed is attached to his guitar. He still has it because it was the first guitar he ever bought.

Whenever he’s feeling down he can play music on his guitar and feel better, it lifts him up.

21. Deenah Ahmed

Deenah keeps every gift boxes she was ever given.

They have multiple uses and she usually uses them to store things.

22. Ahmed Tarek

Ahmed is attached to a childhood toy because he saved up money to pay for the half of its price. It reminds him of the good times he had when he played with it when he was a little boy.

Think about a product you have had for the past 5 years. Take a picture of it, and stick it right up there.

Why do you still keep it?

Why are you attached to it?

2.4 Results

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Pictures of some of the products mentioned in Interviews 2.1 (c)

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Pictures of some of the products mentioned in Interviews 2.1 (c)

2.5 Analysis

1 think about THE USER Observe

Whats fun for them their values Past, present

Get feedback before & after the experience how they handle the product Observe are there any defects? or Because of wrong usage? production wise?

2 take time before making any decisions think

think

think

Don't fall for the competitors trap

think

sure the design process + the fiffiinal product 3 make are both sustainable & eco-friendly.

2.5 Analysis

Why do people keep Products? witnessed important life events cHILDHOOD MEMORIES self ref lectio

n

comfortable 32

reminds them with a certain state of mind

for the way it looks not available anymore

nostalgia companion

expensive presents a passion presents a personality trait

functional & handy

n o s r e p r e h t o n a m o r Memories f

Why do people throw away Products? nOT FUNCTIONAL Something they can f ifind anywhere

bored with it UNPLEASANT MEMORIES 33

cOMPLEX USAGE

MORE ADVANCED/U PDATED VERSION IS AVAILABLE

SPACE CONSUMPTION

2.5 Analysis

things people do not feel attached to: sunglasses clothes plastic cups

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stationery products desktops & laptops kitchen utensils medical products shoes - bags promotional objects Food packaging stationery products laptop covers mobile covers combs hair bands magazines- newspapers tooth brushes WATER BOTTLES FURNITURE THINGS THAT "RUST"

Consumer

Record everything you consume e n o in e as h rc pu u o y g in th ry ve e OR day/week

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2.5 Discussion

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Through the research, I discovered the relationship between products and users; what criteria they use to judge a durable emotional relationship.

The most important criteria to be expressed in design objects were the memories the object held within it.

People tend to keep products that endure age, and that accompany them through out their life major events.

The object was like a vehicle of memories to the user.

Almost all test subjects mentioned memories even if the memories do not have any actual connection between them. However, childhood memories were mentioned quite often. The product being functional and easy to use is also an important aspect to building the relationship between user and product.

If the object had an aesthetic appeal to the targeted group personal value, it also increases the degree of attachment, as the product will then have a greater aesthetic personality than the conventional objects, or products that are designed for their function which in turn makes them unique and valuable for “self reflection�.

The main design criteria expressed from the test subjects were; memory, personality, functionality, partnership, exclusivity, reliability and the ability to customize.

The concept of customization is very interesting when it comes to emotionally durable designs, as no product will ever be the same to the one the user has customized. Like with the example of the glue gun.

The user had already bought another gun but she would still use the one she customized.

Customization also plays an important role in increasing a person’s self worth and motivates him if his customized product gets positive comments from other people. Customization does not only allow for uniqueness but it can also ensure longer lasting objects as if a part of the product can be altered and replaced by a stronger or newer part, people might stop replacing the objects all together. Another aspect that must be brought into attention is if the product gets better with time, like leather, this would enhance the emotional attachment between the product and the user as the user would be willing to keep it for much longer to see how it gracefully ages.

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The arguments against a product being emotionally durable were: if the object does not work anymore, requires too much space to be stored, the person did not care if he threw the object, if a better version is available, one that would fulfill better the user’s needs and desires. The need of space is important because it is based on the idea of over consumption, as people have more than what they will actually need.

A very interesting comment was given by one of the interviewed designed students, which was that “The designer should focus more on the functionality of the product, not the technology, as technology becomes outdated, but functionality does not.” People will always throw objects away to get the new updated version, unless the product can be updated by the user himself, for example if he can remove parts and have new ones installed instead.

2.5 Discussion An important aspect -that a lot of today’s products lackis educating the consumers so that they’d take more educated choices when buying products. Designers can include the expiration date on the objects to push people to take care of their objects.

One of the biggest issues with emotional design is that it is based on aspects that are hardest to calculate.

How can a designer research and quantify if a product will last for generations within few months?

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Eco-design and sustainable design is about changing people’s perceptions. People must look differently to their personal belongings. Design must be able to change how people live with their objects.

The designers and the company must have the user preferences, needs and desires as the main target.

Designers should take the time to know their users, their background, present and past.

The future is discovering how everyday objects can evolve through time with their owners, how could they be free of trends, technological advancements and all social, physical and personal values that change with the users.

Use what you have

Borrow Swap Thrift make BUY The buyerrachy of needs (with apology to Moslow.)

(Source: SaraL.com)

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ma·te·ri·al·ism \ma-’tir-ē-a-,li-zem\ noun

1. A tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values.

2. Philosophy - The doctrine that nothing exists except matter and its movements and modifications.

- The doctrine that consciousness and will are wholly due to material agency.

1384 94302

Chapter Three - Materialism

P

roducts can be both objectives to be reached and instruments, and based on this approach materialism can be approached from these two perspectives: Instrumental Materialism: Objects serve as tools, instruments to achieve personal goals, and accomplish things.

Terminal Materialism: phenomenon of consumption that furthers no goals beyond possession itself.

(Horváth, 24)

Not a single day passes without objects being purchased. It is in the nature of human beings to need and want. However, due to media and social influences, people are made to believe they need things that they do not necessarily need.

But what is a need and what is a want? You – and human beings in general - actually only need four things to survive: shelter, nutrition, hygiene, and appropriate clothing to be comfortable.

Everything that goes beyond that – is a want. Counting in the big house you wish you could own, the BMW car, and the brand clothes. (Erin Huffstetler, about.com) Products do not only influence economic behavior but they influence social behavior as well, intended and unintended. For example, the microwave oven has made it easy to quickly heat up individual meals, nowadays families joining together for dinner are becoming less and less. As Verbeek explains; “a product is not a neutral intermediary, but a mediator that actively mediates the relation between the user and his or her environment.”(Tromp, hekkert, and verbeek, 5)

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Chapter Three - Materialism Chapman, the author of “Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences and Empathy” mentions a theory presented by Philip Cushman that states that consumption diminishes the feeling of loneliness experienced by humans. Humans expectations towards objects became unrealistic and excessive that they tend to replace items by newer ones more and more frequently. Waste, as Chapman describes is “nothing more than symptomatic of a failed user/ object relationship.” (Boumlid, 12)

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Materialist consumption style implies that consumers use objects to communicate through them, to identify themselves with them or differentiate themselves. The object becomes a part of personality of the user, a tool to express his identity. However a non-materialist consumption style means that the value of the product lies in the consumption experience, the product is needed to create valuable experiences and memories.

(Horváth, 24) Materialism is a source for creating consumer values that users usually attribute to their products. These values can emerge through three ways: -Through acquisition, as for materialistic consumers, acquisition itself is an objective.

-Acquisition and ownership of material objects can become the pursuit of happiness for a materialist consumer and a source of satisfaction.

-Products and object can define personal success.

Consumers regard others’ and their own success on basis of what amount and quality their goods have.

(Horváth, 25)

Consumption is itself a creative process, source of difference and Identity.

“Consumption is not just a personal act of destruction by the consumer, but very much a social act where symbolic meanings, social codes, and relationships, in effect, the consumer’s identity and self, are produced and reproduced.” (Horváth, 28) Most products and objects live longer than their creators and consumers alike – for even a simple plastic bag will outlive everyone many times over. A human being, is an object as well, where it’s bodily organs would outlive it. Therefore, as all objects that enter this world are commodities, humans must realize that this world is not a “humans” world, but rather theirs, the commodities.

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Chapter Three - Materialism “We dwell in the world of commodities.”

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In the movie “Transformers”, beings from a different planet fight for the control on earth. They searched for means to properly distinguish themselves and concluded that cars and weapons comprised the main forms of existence on earth. While on one level this can be mere fiction, but looking closely into it, the number of cars in the world tight now approaches two billion, and a country as Germany produces more cars in a year than newborn babies. So really, planet earth a planet or cars, not humans. (Simon,3) In a well known advertisement by luxury wristwatch maker – Patek Philippe, it states that “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” Which asserts that there are new ethics for using objects-we take care, look after and watch over them. (Simon,6) It is hard to deny that people nowadays have more intimate relations with commodities than with other human beings.

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3.2 How materialism affects our environment

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Reduction of over 90% in material throughput, energy use and environmental degradation will be required for a sustainable future and for meeting the demands of the growing world by 2040 as indicated by leading publications. (Robins, 1993; von Weizsacker et al., 1997).

Some practitioners claim that our destructive and unsustainable use of natural resources is due to the majorly increasing human population. However, this is not the case, ‘over the last 50 years the world’s population has increased by 50 per cent; but our resource utilization has increased by 1000 per cent for the same period’.

So no, the increase in the human population is not the reason in resource consumption but rather the result of unsustainable developments in the way we design, manufacture and consume objects. “We take out a great deal more from earth that we put back in.”

We are lucky to have inherited a 3.8 billion-year-old reserve of natural capital. But it is expected that not much of it would be left by the end of this century, due to the consumption rates. One third of all the planet’s resources have been consumed within the past four decades. (Chapman, 3) The problem with waste produced from consumers’ “short time desire” is that it is disposed via landfill sites, which in turn produces heavy metals and other toxic contaminants over time, such as arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, manganese and zinc. These toxics then contaminate the soil and groundwater and threaten local biodiversity.

Methane, which is a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming is also produced from landfills. When waste is burned using incinerators, it produces ash laden with toxic elements such as cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium, tin and zinc which again, in turn releases acidic gases.

Even recycling waste consumes large amounts of energy and the chemicals used in treatment always find their way back to the ecosystem and causes more damage. (Chapman,17) Despite how materialism is taking over our lives and how our world needs the consumption to be reduced, companies assume that sustainability and longer life spans would reduce sales and profits. Instead if making longer lasting products, companies use planned obsolescence.

Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time. (Wikipedia. com)

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3.3 Why do people replace products?

Reasons behind buying and replacing varies but basically people want a well functioning and up to date product that meets their changing needs. (van Nes, and Cramer, 286).

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People now have an infinite loop of “self-improvement” and aspiration through obtaining objects; the material you possess is the destiny you chase. You tell yourself that this the last sofa that you will ever need in your life, you do buy the soda, and then for a couple of years you are satisfied no matter what goes wrong, at least you have got your sofa issue solved. Then you want to buy the perfect bed. Rugs. Drapes. And the list goes on and on. (Chapman, 30) In a study conducted by Okada in 2001, a mental framework that accounts replacement decisions was developed. When people replace objects, they face essentially two types of cost: the purchase price of the new model and the mental cost of the retiring old model before they have had their full money’s worth out of it.

The research focuses more on the second type. During the ownership of a product, the consumer creates a kind of “mental book value” for the product and he starts to mentally depreciate the initial purchase price.

The mental cost of a replacement purchase is the write off of this mental book value. The remaining book value is why it is difficult to replace reusable products when the one the user owns is still functional. When the user has to replace the object before it has paid for itself through usage, it has a significantly negative impact on the replacement decision. The study concludes that “a well functioning product forms a barrier for the consumer to replace the product by a new model.” (van Nes, and Cramer, 288).

As materialism increases, and as the number of products in the market increase, the choices of consumers tend to be more influenced by aesthetic qualities.

How the product looks is one of the most important reasons why a consumer would buy a certain object and why that object might become more famous than other brands, especially as brands are majorly increasing. (Myszkowski and Storme, 641) In a model proposed by Desmet in 2003, it states that product emotions can be classified into 5 classes, instrumental emotions, surprise emotions, social emotions, interest emotions and aesthetic emotions.

Aesthetic emotions refer to the attractiveness of the object to the user, which is a mix between the characteristics of the product and the individual’s dispositional likings, if for example the user prefers round shapes. However, there’s a huge individual differences when it comes to aesthetics depending on each person’s personality. (Myszkowski and Storme, 641) In the paper “Influencing product lifetime through product design”, Nicole van Nes and Jacqueline Cramer gave a review of literature that provided them with majorly related lists of factors that could influence a replacement decision. These lists had been made by Bayus (1991), Creusen (1998), Engel et al. (1995) and Mowen (1995).

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3.3 Why do people replace products?

On the basis of these four lists, the influencing factors can be grouped into three main categories.

1.Product characteristics. The product characteristics refer to those aspects of the product that provide an added value of one product over another.

2. Situational influences or external influences. Factors extrinsic to the product, meaning working from outside and not a part of the essential nature of the thing.

3.Consumer characteristics.

The consumer characteristics refer to those differences between people that explain why, in the same situation, different people make different choices.

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However, within these three categories, in the literature a variety of factors are mentioned that influence the initial purchase considerations. However, it can be questioned whether these factors are similar to the ones that represent the arousal of the replacement need – which was Nicole van Nes and Jacqueline Cramer purpose. Therefore, they carried an empirical study, which aimed at developing a more detailed list of factors influencing the replacement need. This study also addressed the relative importance of the different factors.

Starting with qualitative measures, Interviews were carried out and 21 cases were included in which each respondent had replaced one or more products within the past 12 months. Respondents were asked to tell their story in any detail and bring light to all factors of influence. Also the demographic measures were taken into account.

Then a quantitative survey was carried out as well. The final sample size consisted of 253 respondents.

The final sample consisted of 56% men and 44% women. The ages range from 14 to 85 years old. The selected respondents were asked to fill out the questionnaire for a product that they had recently replaced. An important choice in the research concerned selecting the range of products to focus upon. It was decided not to work with a predetermined set of products but to include a very broad range of products.

The final sample covered a wide range of products. It included large and expensive products such as cars, televisions, furniture and computers. It also covered small or less expensive products such as irons, hair dryers and watches. The majority of the sample, about 75%, concerns electronic products.

The four general motives were wear and tear, improved utility, improved expression and new desires.

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3.3 Why do people replace products?

Four replacement motives Improved Utility

New Desires

Comfort of use

Comfort of use

Economy of use

Quality

Design

Comfort of use

Design

Quality

Quality

Upgradability

Safety Economy of use Upgradability Social Value

wear & tear

Emotional Value

Situational Influence Technical Condition

wear & tear

No Situational Influence

Bad condition, either partly or totally defective

Some fear of emerging defefts Deserving it is no issue No difficulty to abandon

Some fear of emerging defefts Deserving it is no issue

Relatively Low Involvement

Relatively Low Involvement

Involvement

Improved Expression

Safety

Replacement Morality

Product Characteristics

Wear & Tear

Changes in Personal Life

Bad condition, either partly or totally defective

wear & tear

Changes in Personal Life Peers

Bad condition, either partly or totally defective

Some fear of emerging defefts Deserving it is no issue No difficulty to abandon

Relatively High Involvement

wear & tear

Changes in Personal Life Peers & Media

Good Condition

Deserving it I just want a change Difficult to abandon Highest purchase Satisfaction with old product

Relatively High Involvement

To answer the paper’s main question, which was how to influence the replacement decision through product, design, a full day workshop for creative people who come from a variety of organizations.

At the end of the workshop, five design strategies came to fore: Design for reliability and robustness; design for repair and maintenance; design for upgradability; design for product attachment and design for variability.

Design for reliability and robustness guarantees that the product will not be easily broken or damaged.

To enhance reparability the product repair must be so simple that the consumers themselves can perform it.

This is a way to offer repair for low cost because it does not require complex and expensive repair systems with repair centers and expensive professionals to perform the repair.

To enhance upgradability, the change of parts or modules for more advanced ones must be so simple that the consumers themselves can perform it. (295) The third method is the method that is on which this thesis is based, and that is the strategy to enhance product attachment that the disposal of products is made harder. It is a challenging approach because is it possible to design mass products and still allow for personalization?

The strategy design for variability concerns the possibility to offer variation to the user without the need for additional parts. It mainly concerns the physical appearance of the product, but is not restricted to this. This strategy aims at achieving a more enduring interest in the product. (296)

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3.4 The designers’ role

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Because of how fashion oriented the market is, designers think that they should design without creativity, and only replace originality with bland, market led, “safe” solutions. The market is one of the reasons that industrial design does not evolve into an authentic discipline that is capable of tackling important issues and concerns, such as ethical and environmental matters. (Walker, 7) Designers are motivated “To do good for the society” whether as a result of global climate change, a financial crisis or in this case massive overconsumption.

Designers are applying design thinking and design methodologies to come up with innovative solutions.

The goal of sustainable design was initially to design products that require the least energy to be produced and used and that could be recycled. However, for sustainable design to really cause change, it has to be capable of changing the user behavior.

“Sustainable behavior” is the significance of change in user behavior in terms of environmental implications.

For example, if the amount of unnecessary water people repeatedly boil could be somehow reduced in kettles, a reduction in energy loss can be achieved.

(Tromp, hekkert and verbeek, 3)

3.4 The Designers’ role in Influncing Social Behaviour In the article “Designing for socially responsible behavior”, they argue that the choice of strategy should be based on the intended user experience. The user can be to a greater or lesser extent willing to change his behavior, and that Is why they accept the influence in the first place. (Tromp, hekkert and verbeek, 6) Products do not only influence behavior but they cause desired social implications as well.

For example, the size of a plate appears to influence eating behaviours. People who eat in smaller plates serve themselves less food that those who use a bigger plate. serving less does not yet create any social implication, but the eating activity that follows could cause obesity, which is a negative social implication.

Designers do not address the collective concers directly with the user, instead they trigger different individual concerns to reach the desirable behavior from a social perspective. Taking for example, going to work by bike, from a collective concern perspective it is better for sustainability, however using the bicycle would conflict with a lot of individual concers who desire comfort and efficiency. This is where Product Design should do it’s magic. It should bridge those concerns and address individual concerns.

(Tromp, hekkert and verbeek, 7)

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3.4 The Designers’ role in Influncing Social Behaviour An interesting design example was mentioned in the paper, which was the social cups designed by Niedderer.

The cups can only be placed stably on the table when linked with other cups which in turn requires social interaction because the user will have to cooperate with other people for the cups to stay stable.

Based on this example, a design can exert influence that can vary from weak to strong forces and can vary in an implicit to a more explicit manner.

The writers of the article distinguished four types of influences products can have on user’s behaviors.

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(Tromp, hekkert and verbeek, 11)

The writers explains that “coercive design is strong and explicit in its influence (e.g., the speed camera to discourage fast driving). People who are being coerced by design are aware of the influence and experience this influence as a strong force. A change in behavior therefore will be regarded as a reaction to the influence (i.e., externally motivated).

Persuasive design is both weak and explicit in its influence (e.g., a campaign to promote healthy eating).

Seductive design is weak and implicit in its influence (e.g., a microwave’s effect on family dinners). People who are being seduced by design are not aware of the influence and most probably regard the behavior as internally motivated.

Decisive design is both strong and implicit in its influence (e.g., a building without any elevators to ensure physical activity). People who encounter decisive design experience their behavior as externally regulated but do not recognize this regulation as a deliberate influence of the designer.“(Tromp, hekkert and verbeek, 12) To conclude the article, the writers’ give a list of possible techniques the designer can use to influence the behavior.

The most relevant to this thesis are; 1.”Trigger different motivations for the same behavior.

This strategy adds an extra function to the product that elicits the desired behavior. To illustrate, the garbage bin along the highway is designed as a basket used in sports to score (Figure 17).

By its design, it gives a different meaning to the action of throwing garbage in the bin. A strong aspect is that the strategy thereby aims at a different but intrinsic motivation for the behavior.”

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3.4 The Designers’ role in Influncing Social Behaviour 2. “Elicit emotions to trigger action tendencies. This strategy tries to elicit an emotion to seduce people to certain reactions.

The smiley in figure 18 is placed on the side of a section of road that needs maintenance and forces the driver to slow down. The smiley explicitly thanks drivers for their understanding, with the expectation that the driver will not get agitated and start driving recklessly. This strategy aims at influencing the affective component of the attitude system to shape or change an attitude and therefore the evolving behavior.� (Tromp, hekkert and verbeek, 15) 58

Draw the feeling of “Materialism”

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‘Sustainability is the ability of the present generation to fulfill its needs without compromising the ability of future generations to fulfill their needs.’ (Development 1987)

Chapter Four - Sustainability

Representation of Sustainable Design (Arguin, 21)

“We are now reaching a real tipping point where unless designers start to embrace these kinds of environmental issues, we won’t have a future that needs designing.”, Chris Sanderson.

Theoretically speaking, sustainable design offers long-term solutions to encourage the growth of economy while supporting the environment as well.

But how can we achieve successful sustainable design without ending the designer’s job as well? What are its advantages and drawbacks? (Boumlid, 5) Industrial design has emerged at the end of the nineteenth century and became the creative vehicle for mass production. (Melles, de vere and misic, 143) Designers, cosnumers and producers all hold responsibility towards their decisions in relation to design objects in a world of diminishing resources and climate change. (Melles, de vere and misic, 144)

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Chapter Four - Sustainability Consumerism turned what used to be luxury products into necessities, which resulted in a society of waste and pollution. The 20% of the world’s richest countries are responsible for about 80% of the global consumption. According to the Hong Kong Ecological Footprint report in 2010, Hong Kong alone consumes double the earth’s capacity to sustain us. (Boumlid, 6)

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“One recent example of integrating 3BL and product design sees ‘sustainable design as design which aims to achieve triple-bottom line ideals by striving to produce products that minimize their detriment to the environment while, at the same time, achieving acceptable economic benefits to the company and, wherever possible, having a positive impact on society’ (Diehl et al., 2007).”

Despite the notion that sustainable design can be the end of designers, designers should let go of many of the fundamental values of the “market driven” design process. Industrial designers are more of value adders through aesthetic styling, improved usability, enhanced user experience, lower manufacturing cost, increased desirability, etc.

The problem with design nowadays is that designers are typically remote from the communities and environments that they are seeking to assist which results sometimes in “remote” solutions, which lack the essential local context.

The most successful designs are a result of codesign where designers engaged effectively with the communities they are designing for. (Melles, de vere and misic, 149) IDEO is one of the design companies with the “user centered” approach which suggests a role for codesign. (Melles, de vere and misic, 147)

According to Wikipedia “Co-design” is a product, service, or organization development process where design professionals empower, encourage, and guide users to develop solutions for themselves. Co-design encourages the blurring of the role between user and designer, focusing on the process by which the design objective is created.This process believes that by encouraging the trained designer and the user to create solutions together, the final result will be more appropriate and acceptable to the user. It is generally recognized that the quality of design increases if the stakeholders’ interests are considered in the design process.

Co-design is a development of systems thinking, which according to C. West Churchman “begins when first you view the world through the eyes of another.”

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4.1 Socially Responsbile Design Several descriptions for socially responsible design have already been developed by several websites but they are more utopian than realistic (Example: http:// www.sociallyresponsibledesign.org). And then a more realistic approach has been introduced in the Design Against Crime Research Centers’ reference to socially responsive design (http://www.designagainstcrime. com/methodologyresources/socially-responsive-design), which recognizes the limited practical power of designers to ‘change the world’ while promoting design responsive to social issues as the primary driver, e.g. crime, in urban contexts.

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Gavin Melles, Ian de Vere and Vanja Misic (2011) propose a more practical list of criteria by which we can judge a product quality and to determine it’s success as a socially responsible design: . Need: does the user or community need this product/solution? . Suitability: is the design culturally appropriate? . Relative affordability: is the outcome locally and regionally affordable? . Advancement: does it create local or regional jobs and develop new skills? . Local control: can the solution be understood, controlled and maintained locally? . Usability: is it flexible and adaptive to changing circumstances? . Empowerment: does it empower the community to develop and own the solution? . Dependency: does it add to third world dependency? (149)

An interesting example on socially responsible designs was given as a comparison between two products of water purification.

The life straw is a device that aims to make contaminated water drinkable using iodine, mesh and carbon filters.

However, it has been criticized for being too expensive for it’s target market. The life straw addresses the needs of it’s users and is portable and effective, but still it can not be produced locally and is dependent upon external supply and therefore lacks local context and engagement.

The second product is “the slow sand water filter” which is as effective as the life straw but highly rely on readily available materials and simple local construction. Although these systems are not portable or aesthetically pleasing, they are affordable by the local community and allows them to have purified future water supply without any dependence on imported technology.

(Melles, de vere and misic, 150)

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4.1.1 Cradle to Cradle Approach William McDonough et al. suggested a “cradle to cradle” approach as opposed to “cradle to grave” approach. “Bio mimicry” which is copying nature and one of the approaches towards sustainable design is based on three criteria: the regeneration of waste ( waste=nourishing food), the use of renewable resources (especially solar energy) and encouragement of diversity. Cradle to cradle solutions can be as simple as recycling your used ground coffee, pizza boxes or food waste into compost for your garden. (Boumlid, 7) 66

Life cycle analysis is a process to measure the environmental impact of every stage of a design process and production of a product. It starts by questioning the design, the brief, and the solution that was taken on paper. And then it questions the production of the raw materials, how they were extracted and how they are going to be prepared for use. And then it questions the distribution of the product. And then depending on the product qualities, how it will have an impact on the environment and the consumption of energy, for use and maintain. Of course LCA does not give a complete and comprehensive picture, because a product does not operate alone, on its own, but it is a part of a very complex and interlocking system.

When the product has reached the end of its life cycle, it will be disposed off. Landfills, incineration are the most conventional ways of disposal and the worst for the environment. The three other ways are called “the three Rs”: reduce, reuse and recycle. And then after the introduction of the concept “cradle to cradle” we have a fourth, which is repurpose. (Arguin, 23)

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Reduce design is a principle used to achieve sustainable design, it can be done by decreasing the amount of parts, reducing the amount of toxic materials, reducing the amount of non renewable materials of an object. It can also mean decreasing the amount of energy used to produce, use or dispose the product. Or even the energy used to recycle it. Reduce is most often used with the parts of a product, as if a product has fewer parts it will be easier to assemble and disassemble which would in turn make it easier to repair, cheaper to recycle and reuse the parts. It is important to try and reduce consumption as well, making objects that require less change in the long run, objects that have a strong place in an owner’s life. (Arguin, 24)

vER 4•2 Advantages of Sustainable Design 1.

Ecological benefits:

Sustainability would prevent pollution and wasting Earth’s natural resources, which in turn would make the quality of life of millions of people a lot better by making their environment safer. Not only the life of human being would be affected, but also endangered animals as well as a reduction of the greenhouse gas might be able to save 37 endangered animal species.

2.

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Creative and integral designs

Because creating more sustainable designs is somehow a challenge for designers, it will allow for more creativity and value added to the product.

3.

Satisfy a growing demand

Awareness and concerns about environmental issues are growing more among consumers. More people wish to buy sustainable products. However, it was argued that consumers are limited by three major issues despite their interest in green products: the notion that green products are of higher price which is often false, confusion and lack of trust. (Boumlid, 16)

SuS 4•3 Limits of Sustainable Design 1.

Recycling: no one said it was easy:

The main recycling process uses chemicals and causes air pollution. Most materials are recyclable, but the complex systems that are needed to recycle them are only in place for a few types of materials. (Paper, glass, steel or aluminum.) Recycling is not the end solution for waste, as sooner or later, the material will end up in a landfill 2.

Dematerialization:

Despite the severe economical crisis in 2008, global economy continues to grow. This is where the challenge lies for the designer as producing more durable goods means selling less and therefore slowing down the global economy.

3.

The end of Design?

An essential question was raised; if producing and processing are the enemies of sustainability, then why design anything at all? However, sustainability can be achieved to some extend, as wanting more is an essential part of the human nature and this desire along with others needs to be fulfilled.

Ann Thorpe explains that purity should be what designers aim at, even if each one adopts a different strategy to work in that direction. 100% sustainability is a fairy tale, but reaching as close as possible could help solve a lot of issues.

(Boumlid, 19)

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4.4 Examples on sustainable design Improvisation, spontaneity, and making do all emerged and made the “The kind of blue Chair�.

Individual pieces of wood, comprising off-cuts or found pieces in any size or form they happened to be found in were used to make up the chair. Nails, glue or screws were used to ensure stability.

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Kind-of-blue Chair: Reused wood, screws, nails, glue, acrylic paint

Low Chair: Reused wood, screws, nails, glue (Walker, 84)

Because of how most people care about how aesthetically beautiful a design should be, what is special about products that are made from reused parts or recovered materials, is that they are often able to absorb wear and tear in a way that does not ruin the overall appearance of the object. The more you use the object, the more it becomes valuable.

Hence, reused materials can be employed in aesthetically sensitive ways to create objects whose surfaces are able to absorb abuse.

Another way to address the aesthetically perfect look is by designing objects that are easy to maintain.

In the Plaine Telephone, Attaching the components to a single piece of plywood was used to avoid the need for designing a casing. Instead of covering the components, it was made aesthetically pleasing by leaving it uncovered.

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Cable Radio: Reused electrical parts, steel rod, chipboard, water pipe

The Cable Radio use minimized components is to save energy.

Plaine Telephone: Reused electrical parts, plywood, reused rubber, dowels, mild steel, wire, tin lid, acrylic paint (Walker, 90)

Another important aspect of sustainable design is combining and integrating locally produced parts and mass produced parts.

This was achieved in The Lumiere Floor Lamp.

(Walker, 87)

Lumiere Floor Lamp: Threaded rod, recovered ash wood, handmade paper, steel rod, pebble, standard electrical parts

4.4 Examples on sustainable design Recycling is another approach to reduce waste; it is not the final solution to achieve sustainability though.

Glass, paper and plastic may be the most commonly known Recycled resources but designers can come up with ingenious Alternatives. An example was recycling remaining paperclips and creating a chandelier out of 50,000 paperclips. “The Whole Package” made out patch worked purses from old shopping bags, paper scraps and samples and old soda can tabs.

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Using eco-friendly material is also a way to sustainable design. They are diverse and offer infinite alternatives.

Material is important and can positively affect products end life and the environment. To shift from plastic bags usage to reusable eco-friendly bags, Geyrhalter Design produced one hundred percent organic cotton tote bags. Edible packaging for food is also an effective way to add value and unique product quality while avoiding waste. Lavanza made edible coffee cups from sugar and biscuits. (Boumlid, 8)

Lavazza’s edible coffee cup is a two-in-one product which avoids waste in more than one way.

Miniature Ecosystem Collect water from three different sites. These can include a lake, pond, stream, puddle, or similar. Combine the samples in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Place the jar in a sunny location & watch to see the ecosystem unfold. Soon this miniature world will start to organize itself and create some interesting results. Make daily notes about the changes.

Each ecosystem is unique.

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Source: How to be an explorer of the world by, Keri Smith

“Everything we do, everything we think is tinged with emotion, much of it is subconscious. In turn, our emotions change the way we think, and serve as constant guides to personal behavior, steering us away from the bad, guiding us towards the good.�

(Arguin, 25)

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Chapter Five - Emotional Design

E

motions have physiological correlates, are expressed physically through gestures, facial expressions and so on, they result often from a specific event and lead to an action.

The basic seven emotions (which are universal) are, joy, sadness, contempt, fear, disgust, surprise and anger.

To know which emotions can affect your target audience, you have to know some basic demographic information, identify and document psychographics; for example what emotions are motivating or will motivate different parts of your target audience?

(Weinschenk, 164) Emotions that are evoked by products tend to be intangible and personal to the user. How functional a product is, how easy is it to use, how attractive it is, how affordable it is and whether it’s recyclable or not are all characteristics that are expected to already exist in nowadays products.

Objects that inspire users, enhance their lives, help in triggering emotions or evoking dream are more sought. (Demirbilek and Sener, 2) Paul Hekkert (2002), the chairman of the Design & Emotions Society, says: “It is no longer sufficient to design good products or services; we all want to design experiences and generate pleasurable or exciting sensations.”

The messages sent through products via semantics which is a part of language structures that deal with meaning. Regardless of how the designer uses color, shape, form and texture, the designer must be aware of the messages they wish to transmit to the user and the kind of responses they can expect.

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Chapter Five - Emotional Design

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The product speaks about itself, and at often times about the person who owns it as well. Semantics help in creating the negative or positive perceptions and emotional values within the individual person.

Semantics help provide a clear message about what should be and what should not be communicated through the product.

For example, a knurled knob says ‘turn me’; a button so designed to say ‘press me’; a chair that softly welcomes your relaxed posture; a shape or form that indicates ‘I move in this direction’ or ‘I fit into that part of your body’.

If a product is complicated it might require to have a manual, but simpler products should be self instructing.

If pictures or labels are needed for simple things, then the designer has failed to communicate through semantics. When semantics is used properly, the products become more comfortable for users, and thus they can become attached to them emotionally.

(Demirbilek and Sener, 4) For a user to have emotional attachment with a product, the product is not only expected to fulfill its given purpose but also be capable of creating enjoyable activities, sensual pleasure, aesthetic experience.

An example was given by Selle (1997) in an article

by Horvath Dora, about his relation with a pocket computer: it does not only calculate but the touch of its buttons, the sound gives an aesthetic experience and pleasure. Selle describes reactions about the quality of experience and usage which in turn form an emotional bond with the object :

“For weeks I’ve been playing with an Olivetti tabletop calculator, something unusual took place that had not occurred to me until now. It was not the insight that forms are convertible worldwide.

It was not even the consideration of how obvious these forms are for many users. It was, rather, the unexpected discovery of the pleasure created by touching the thing. I understand nothing about electrical equipment; this calculator was not even working. I played around with it and found, to my surprise, that handling the thing was not bound to its function, that it was free from any goals. The instrument had tangible weight, plasticity, and an extraordinary haptic quality, which functioned sensually with no hidden agenda but merely as a material body that “serves” playfully. Is it an object for esthetic pleasure, freed from all the goals of necessity? A person can feel it, stroke it, lift it, weigh it, even compose on it; for it is also a musical instrument.

I recall the slight pressure of sensitive, warm skin on tangible, rubber-covered keys and buttons, which offered a slight resistance; then the apparatus made a delayed and attractive clicking noise, without causing any dismay and which was similar to the spontaneous pressure that produces playful rhythmic patterns on a percussion instrument. And I remember how increasingly amazed I was by the forgotten process approach and negotiation between the machine and my hand.”, Gert Selle: Untimely Options.

(An Attempt to Reflect on Design)

(Horvath, 31)

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5.1 Emotionally Durable Design Designers face a challenge nowadays to strengthen the bond between consumers and their products through the design process.

Many durable still functioning products are discarded everyday by users, either because they became old fashioned, they are no longer compatible with other products or because new products on the market offer more possibilities. If the life span of many durable consumer products is increased, sustainability will be achieved as from a sustainable point of view, a high product turnover is in many cases undesirable as it increases waste level and uses up more scarce resources.

Consumers experience difference in attachments towards durable products that they own, they might hang on to some products and they might easily dispose others.

Because of different external factors, as in how the product looks, how it functions… etc. and also internal factors which are more related to the user’s personal life and being.

Therefore increasing the attachment people experience towards products they own can in turn slow down product life cycles and maintain sustainability. (Schifferstein and Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, 1) Another challenge for companies is to focus more on “super trends” such as hedonism, spirituality, downsizing and individuality more than functionality. (Schütte,1)

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5.2 Why are people attached to certain products?

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As reasons vary for replacing products, when a person becomes attached to an object, he or she is more likely to handle it with care, repair it when it breaks down and postpone it’s replacement as long as possible. When a person is attached to a product, the person would experience emotional loss if the product is lost and so it is unlikely for the person to dispose the product, especially if it is still functioning.

(Schifferstein and Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, 1) Chapman thinks that the main reasons why the user/ product relationship sometimes fail is because it is one way only and that actual design encourages short-lived user/product relationships to encourage more consumption. Constant evolution of an object in time, action feedback interaction, unpredictability and engaging multi layered experiences can help encourage the relationship to last longer.

“The consumer product attachment is defined as the strength of the emotional bond a consumer experiences with a durable product. It implies the existence of an emotional tie between a person and an object�

(Boumlid, 12)

In the paper Consumer-Product Attachment: Measurement and Design Implications the authors think that the fact that a product fulfills its primary function, such as indicating the correct time for a clock does not contribute to the degree of attachment.

However, if the product performs a better than average function, for example if it’s extremely easy to use, this may contribute to the degree of attachment experienced.

The authors then go on to investigate the relationship of attachment to the concepts of irreplaceability, indispensability and self-extension.

For a product to be “irreplaceable”, it means that it has a symbolic meaning that is not present in any other product even when they are physically identical.

For example, if two people have the very same iPods, the user would still feel that his iPod is different and unique than the other one, maybe because of the fact that a particular person has physically touched the product or that the product was obtained in a special context (at a birthday party). Irreplaceability is likely to form the most important component of attachment, because they are built upon personal relationship with the product. Therefore, there is a tight relationship between measures of irreplaceability and attachment.

If the product is judged to be “indispensable” it is often so for practical reasons, not for emotional reasons. As it has been mentioned before, the attachment can occur despite the product’s success in fulfilling its primary utilitarian function. Therefore, attachment is unlikely to be related to a product’s indispensability, but if the product performs a better than average function, it can help strengthen the attachment.

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5.2 Why are people attached to certain products?

Ball and tasaki (1992) define object attachment as “the extent to which an object which is owned, expected to be owned, or previously owned by an individual, is used by that individual to maintain his or her selfconcept”, which implies that attachment is identical to “self extension”. Kleine, kleine and Allen (1995) share the same views and see attachment as “a multidimensional signifier of self extension”.

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However, in the paper Consumer-Product Attachment: Measurement and Design Implications the authors believe that self extension is related to attachments, but is not the same as it. Many times, when a person is attached to an object, it may be viewed as a part of the self, “what is mine become me”.

However, emotional attachment is not necessarily the result of self-extension. McClelland (1951) suggests that sometimes when people exert power or control over an object, they become viewed as parts of the self, for example, a carpenter may see his tools as self extensions because he needs them to do his job and without them he can not be a carpenter anymore.

The following figure shows the relationship between attachment, irreplaceability, indispensability, and selfextension.

( Schifferstein and Zwartkruis-Pelgrim,2)

Two variables that can affect the degree of attachment are, utility and the market value of the product.

Product utility does not always contribute directly to attachment, but however a product that is used often may give the consumer a feeling of being at home.

Also, the user may develop emotional attachment from the enjoyment evoked by using the product.

Although the monetary value of a product can be largely independent on it’s emotional value, but a valuable product can be used as a status symbol to impress other people, and it serves as a token of achievement. ( Schifferstein and Zwartkruis-Pelgrim,3) Basic demands like the electrical start of cars are considered a must be quality by the user, and so, often they do not express these demands since they perceive it as self-evident. However for example, special light metals rims or CD player in cars are not standard qualities and thus consumers express a desire for it. One way to increase attachment to products is to surprise customers with adding a feature that they did not expect; this is called an “attractive quality”.

When any property is newly added to a product, it is considered an attractive quality by the user and then after a certain time, the customer gets used to it and starts to express it when purchasing a new product, until the quality becomes common, “a must be” quality and available in all products. Take for example the remote control for the TV. In 1970, it was considered a very attractive feature, however nowadays, remote controls are a standard and no TV set is sold without one. (Schütte,9) Several authors have suggested that people use objects to define one’s self, to create a sense of identity, to remind themselves and other of who they are or who they would like to be, and to protect and enhance their self concept. (e.g., Ball & Tasaki, 1992; Belk,1988; Wallendorf & Arnould, 1988).

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5.2 Why are people attached to certain products?

A person’s self can be distinguished into four facets: the diffuse self, private self, public self and collective self. And a person evaluates himself based on each one of them.

People become attached to objects because they help them maintain themselves and enhance their self esteem, then these 4 facets can indicate which variables affect the degree of user-product attachment.

The authors of the paper use the four facets to propose four possible determinants of attachment:

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The diffuse self strives for innate pleasure and pain responses and suggests that product enjoyment is a driver of attachment.

The private self has to do more with individual achievement, it tries to meet the standards one sets for oneself. Products to which the private self is attached to should reflect identity, individuality, independence, uniqueness, skills, goals and achievements.

The public self is always striving for approval from other people. Products that the public self gets attached to, often symbolizes a person’s relationship to family members, friends, or groups. Also, they can be objects from loved ones, and gifts from special occasions.

The collective self looks for approval as well, but from a reference group. A reference group includes inhabitants of a country, a religious community, a subculture or an ethnic minority. The objects symbolize an idea, a philosophy of life or an intangible abstract entity.

Elements of a person’s life who strives to conform to a reference groups’ norms.

(Schifferstein and Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, 3) Jordan (2000) had a description of four different types of pleasure that people may seek in products: 1. Physio-pleasure: related to touching and holding a product.

2. Social-pleasure: related to social relationships and communication that a product enables.

3. Psycho-pleasure: gained when a product helps the user to establish a task.

4. Ideo-pleasure: related to values that a product and its use represent or support.

(Demirbilek and Sener, 6) These types of pleasure have a resemblance with the four facets of the self, and also relates to the 3 levels of information processing that result in different types of design according to Norman (2004), visceral design, behavioral design, and reflective design.

The first and most basic level in all three frameworks involves direct sensory gratification, which is chasing after pleasure and the thrill of the moment. The last level usually links individual product experience to societal, cultural and historical context.

The public self, at the intermediary level, is closely related to enjoyment resulting from relationships with others (socio-pleasure), and is considered in reflective design processes.

The lack of similarity between the frameworks happen in the remaining levels, although they partly overlap.

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Found Faces Document any naturally occuring faces you find on your travels.

Look for them in plumbing parts, fixtures (Door Hooks), in Nature (trees), in human-made objects, in the clouds..etc.

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take pictures & stick them here. We have put 3 in for you!

Source: How to be an explorer of the world by, Keri Smith.

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You do not have to own a product to have feelings towards it. For example if there’s a product you seek to buy but cannot afford, you can start fantasizing about how it will be or how will you use it. Advertisements are the key factor towards stimulating feelings in consumers.An important factor that affects emotions experienced during ownership of a product is the moment of acquisition. The product might be a gift from a special person, or the owner might have bought it in a special store far away from home. The acquisition is the very first physical contact with the product and opens up the possibility for memories to be made. Ball and Tasaki distinguished three intermediate stages objects belong to; early and mature ownership and predisposal.The user-product emotions are bound to change over time due to changes in the product (loss in functionality, change in appearance), or changes in the user (increased age, change in life style and cycle), or changes in product-consumer interaction and situational context (fashion changes, technological improvements).

Its been suggested that due to the large number in durable products that are available nowadays, disattachment for many products start soon after they are bought, only few products remain cherished forever. Enjoyment is highest for recently bought objects and is the primary reason for attachment to new objects, while memories are highest for older objects and the reason people keep the objects for a long time. So it’s suggested that designers should create products that are both useful and enjoyable, that evoke sensory (vision, audition, touch, smell and taste) and aesthetic pleasure and that can facilitate the formation of memories.

(Schifferstein and Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, 4)

SuS aTTACHEMENT Some general definitions for pleasure, ‘happiness’ and ‘joy’ may be given as follows: • Pleasure: the agreeable emotion accompanying the expectation, acquisition, or possession of something good or desirable. Related Word bliss, felicity, happiness, and thrill.

• Happiness: a state of well-being and contentment.

• Joy: a pleasurable or satisfying experiences; the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. (Demirbilek and Sener, 2) In a study done by Jordan(1996) to gain more insight about pleasurable products, users were asked to select a product that was “displeasurable” to use and talk about it’s design properties and the emotions that it caused. Lack of usability, poor performance, lack of reliability and poor aesthetics have been the main factors associated with ‘displeasurable’ products.

Philosophically, there are no ‘displeasurable’ products, but only ‘displeasurable’ emotional responses.

Associated feelings aroused were annoyance/irritation, anxiety/insecurity, contempt and exasperation.

(Demirbilek and Sener, 7) Evoking enjoyment can be done through gratifying all the senses simultaneously in a harmonious way, or by designing means of surprise into products.

However, the challenge is incorporating familiarity and originality so that consumers can easily identify the product categories. Although the memories invoked by a product are not under the designer’s control, but if the interaction with a product is so engaging, the user will use it more frequently which increases the opportunity for memorable events to occur.

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5.2.1 Time vs. Attachment Also, memories can be enhanced if the product shows physical signs of the events, if the designer uses a material that age with dignity, so that marks do not degrade the product’s appearance but rather add to its richness and history.

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IDEO chairman and founder gives the example of his father’s leather briefcase as an object that gets better with time and use and which he plans to pass on to the next generation. (Boumlid, 12) Another strategy is developing products that can be given as gifts, but it for the gift to evoke high attachment it should reflect the receiver’s personal identity.

Designing products that can be used in a social context and that encourage interaction between people is also another way to increase attachment.

(Schifferstein and Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, 8) In the article “will designers save the world”, the importance of nostalgia was emphasized and how it helps in reviving folklore art. Folklore art gives a sense of a homely romantic feel, which if combined with new modern technologies can give very effective results. It can help people keep, rather than get rid off systematically. Primitive Tribes already showed attachment towards objects that they believed had special properties, like feathers or pebbles. (Boumlid, 12) Another strategy that the designer can adopt is to design the final product and then work out greener solutions for the whole process of manufacturing, thinking backwards process for the designer to have an overview on different design steps around the production of the object, like packaging, transportation mode, material choices, etc. (Boumlid, 14)

Magic sea shells when returned to the sea save magical coral reefs from being ruined

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World of MAGIC Collect objects for their potential magic quality.

Attach a story to them, or create a fictitious history about the object.

Source: How to be an explorer of the world by, Keri Smith.

5.3 Examples from design Frog design is a famous design company whose motto was “form follows emotion.” The founder says that, even if a design is elegant and functional, it will not have “a place in our lives unless it can appeal at a deeper level, to our emotions”.

Esslinger also believes that the product would be kept longer by the user and they will take more care of it, if it has built in emotional value.

Before the Apple iMacs were introduced, Frog Design sent apple a message with “give us something new to love!” Surprisingly the result which was the desktop unit was great success. It was friendly and emotionally appealing.

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Mac World “Frogintosh”

Swatch

“Pod”

Another company that uses emotions to sell it’s products is The Swiss watch making company, Swatch.

The director if Swatch Creative Services believes that Swatch conveys something personal, not just about nice color or fitting to the outfit, but by saying something about the personality of the wearer.

Hayek, the person who conducts analysis for Swatch marketing, defines fashion and emotional design as first being about image, and second about a strong and distinct and genuine message that tells people about one’s personality.

Japan’s Toyota Motor and electronics giant Sony, developed an emotionally interactive vehicle called “Pod”, which would smile, frown and cry, take one’s pulse and measure one’s sweat amongst many other things. The form of “Pod” is more of “cute” rather than robotic because it has been suggested and widely used in product design that the attributes of “cuteness” evoke “happiness” and feelings of protection. (Demirbilek and Sener, 8)

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Living alone has wonderful perks and benefits, but the isolation and lack of human interaction can get overwhelming after awhile.

This quirky personified furniture set by Italian designer Roberto Giacomucci will put a smile on your face and make you feel less llonely. According to Giacomucci, the furniture are “entities with emotions with a personality that is capable of altering any living space into a happy mood.”

5.3.1 How to design successfully emotionally durable products?

Six different types of affect programs were developed from work from different theorists and also based on criteria to Asses good design: 1.Senses: We should first understand the human senses.

Sensorial design employs all techniques that we use to communicate to others through our senses. Music is one useful method.

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2.Fun: Characteristics of “fun” in objects can be expressed by having humor and humanity which helps in humanizing the product and conveying a sense of “happiness”.

Playing with something is often better because play is not “Serious” and therefore not “boring”.

If something is funny, warm or friendly, it reaches out to people and begins a dialogue.

3.Cuteness: When something is cute, it delivers a sense of warmth and protectiveness in humans. Expressive human gestures and facial expressions can be used as a semantic approach in products. We can tell how someone is feeling by how they carry themselves, their body posture, and their facial expressions. Providing a familiar experience in a product will allow a truly intuitive interface with the user.

4.Familiarity: Products are successful when the user knows how to use it without any instructions. Referential semantics is a way to do that by the use of metaphors or by mirroring or subtracting the human body or any other living being parts. Designers make their designs speak of their use through relating them to the human body.

5.3.1 How to design successfully emotionally durable products?

5.Metonymy: sense and function When using a certain product is related to a worshiped individual, like for example Michael Jordan for Nike.

Stories are sometimes more important than the products. Technical enhancements must integrated into a product’s story.

6.Color Colors of products have an impact on human beings; they can be stimulating or tranquilizing, exciting or depressing. Contrasting colors help generate an emotional response. While complimentary colors act as intensifiers of each other. Colors and their combinations can be used as symbols as well.

(Demirbilek and Sener, 9) In the paper “Design for emotional durability� by J. Chapman, a framework was suggested for product designers & provided them with conceptual pathways through which to initiate engagement with issues of emotional durability & design: Narrative: Users share a unique personal history with the product; this often relates to when, how, and from whom the object was acquired.

Detachment: Users feel no emotional connection to the product, have low expectations, and thus perceive it in a favorable way due to a lack of emotional demand or expectation. (This also suggests that attachment may actually bcounter productive, as it elevates the level of expectation within the user to a point that is often unattainable.)

Surface: The product is physically aging well and developing a tangible character through time and use (and sometimes misuse).

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5.3.1 How to design successfully emotionally durable products?

Attachment: Users feel a strong emotional connection to the product, due to the service it provides, the information it contains, and the meaning it conveys.

Users are delighted or even enchanted by the product as they do not yet fully understood or know it, especially with a recently purchased product that is still being explored and discovered.

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Consciousness: The product is perceived as autonomous & in possession of its own free will. It is quirky and often temperamental, and interaction is an acquired skill that can be fully acquired only with practice. (Chapman, 33) In a thesis by Claudel Arguin, several design approaches were suggested to achieve emotionally durable designs concepts, which are: 1.Timeless design is trends and style. They are the products that passed the test of time and are still available. There is no actual definite process to produce timeless design. The only way to know if a design is timeless or not is through the test of time. An example of timeless design is the iPod Nano. Although more updated versions have been released, people still keep and like to buy the old iPod.

‘When objects performs its function so well they start to have a ‘feel’ to them which has become so personal changing for a new one will simply not feel right.’ (Kunko 2010) (Arguin, 76)

2.Emotional branding is the brand identity created by the advertising agency to create an emotional attachment with the consumers. It is employed depending on the personality and culture they wish to convey to their consumers. It produces consumer loyalty and trust between the user and the company.

It also helps the company have greater success when introducing a new product to the market. An example on that is how people keep their apple objects until the next apple comes out. The company must be understanding of its consumers needs and desires.

‘Branding is not only about ubiquity, visibility, and functions; it is about bonding emotionally with people in their daily life. Only when a product or a service kindles an emotional dialogue with the consumer, can this product or service qualify to be a brand’, Quoting Joël Desgrippes on the definition of emotional branding. (Arguin, 78) 3.Price value can have an impact on an products’ usage life span; expensive and luxury products are expected to have a longer life span than other ordinary objects.

However, luxury products must have reasoning for their high price. High value must be presented in return for the high price. When consumers are contemplating the idea of purchasing this range of product a more behavioral and reflective emotional reasoning is taken, thus ensuring a longer lasting user and object relationship because they will not be buying this luxury product on regular basis. An example is an expensive Rolex watch. (Arguin, 79)

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5.3.1 How to design successfully emotionally durable products?

4.Slow design is the idea that certain objects were designed with more passion than other designs, mostly in previous decades, sometimes by talented craftsmen.

This is due to the fact that our present modern society does not take time for the product development.

Producers always need to replace products with better ad more advanced versions every month, which results in products that lack quality and personality. The limit for slow design is that companies might not be able to compete on international markets. (Arguin, 81)

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5.An exclusive design object is the idea of owning unique objects, being the only or limited owner of a particular product. When products are mass produced the ability of the user to show off their belongings becomes difficult. Limited edition, rare, unique object designs are objects that when the owner discards them the ability to get a similar object will be extremely difficult. (Arguin, 84) 6.The concept of doing it yourself or DIY designs is the concept of self-customization. The user is then made into the designer. An example is the concept of NIKEiD. Which is an online base service, the consumers personalize their own shoes (colors and materials) from a predefined frame offered by Nike.

7.Object dependent on user is an object that depends on the user to operate rather than the other way round.

An example is a radio designed by Monika Hoinkis that only plays if it is close to the human body. Another example is the lamp that has no stability, and thus needs to user to hold it in place. (Arguin, 88)

‘There’s an emotional disconnection between things that are mass-produced because, by definition, they’re made quite often for the averages, not for my specific needs and my specific tastes.

Customizing is part of how people are regaining access to an emotional connection with the object’.

(Arguin, 86) 8.Memory is one of the strongest and most important factors when it comes to emotionally durable design.

However, it is not in the hands of the designers to create objects that users have memories with, but Donald A Norman suggests that ‘Our love of objects is not even about the objects themselves. It is always about us. We grow to love the objects that connect us to other people, create meaning, and remind us that we’re alive’(Norman, Donald A. 2009). Which means that objects have to be personal to the user. (Arguin, 90) 9.User centered design places the needs and wants and limitations of the user at the forefront of the product development process. The end user is part of the product development team which helps the designe team to discover problems that were dismissed and bring a more user related final solution. (Arguin, 91)

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In conclusion, material products are described as illustrative of an individual’s aspirations, and help us define ourselves existentially. Possessions are symbols of what we are, what we have been, and what we are attempting to become. Consumers are drawn to objects in possession of what they subconsciously yearn to become. (Chapman, 34) Majority of products that make up today’s waste still perform their tasks perfectly in a utilitarian sense. It is the incapacity for evolution that renders most products incapable of establishing and sustaining relationships with their users.

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In this thesis, I aim at developing a more emotionally durable design to reduce consumption and waste of resources by enhancing the relationship between consumer and product.

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small thoughts make a list of placid small thoughts you have throughout the week (For instance, what were you thinking just now?)

Source: How to be an explorer of the world by, Keri Smith.

(not so) small thoughts make a list of placid small thoughts you have throughout THE PRESENTATION.

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5.4 Negative emotions and Product Design

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Negative emotions are not in any way less interesting or less relevant than positive emotions when it comes to design. Negative emotions could be used as positive ones to deliver rich and meaningful experiences.

(Desmet, 27) Many highly artistic or creative endeavors, or unique concepts or products, also result from the channeled energies found in our responses to negative emotional experiences. The creative self channels these strong emotions into tangible productive and memorable way. These activities often provide us, humans, with a sense of momentary or permanent relief and help us return our balance and equilibrium.

The challenge is to turn something negative or stressful into a catalyst for something productive rather than destructive and paralyzing. Strong negative emotions can move us and inspire us rather than consume us or overwhelm us. (Wilson, “The Other Side of the Coin Using Negativity in a positive way”) Dunne and Raby proposed a new genre of design to complement the prevailing “Hollywood” tradition of products that offer a limited experience.3 They proposed that design noir “could enrich and expand our experience of everyday life rather than closing it down.” Interesting design examples were used to illustrate the concept.

• Life counter by Ippei Matsumoto is a digital clock like product that lets the users decide how many years they would like to live and then It starts counting back. Once activated, the different sides of the product display the number of years, days, hours and seconds they have left, which forces the user to choose whether to see the years of their lifetime dragging on, or the seconds flashing before their eyes. It makes the user stop and think, even for a split of a second.

• Another examples, is “the tyrant” by Alice Wang. The alarm clock that wakes up the user by calling random people from the user’s address book every 3 minutes after the wake up time. The idea of bothering random friends is expected to motivate the user to get out of bed.

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Life counter

The Tyrant

The products provide a large spectrum of emotions than more conventional products and aim to avoid the pitfall of shallow amusement. What’s also special about them, is that beside provoking positive emotions, they also evoke several negative ones.

“The life counter” provokes emotions of mild horror, anxiety and sadness. “The tyrant” tries to evoke shame in users for bothering random people with their problems of waking up. Also, the user will have fear of what the product would do if he did not get up which will motivate him in waking up. (Fokkinga and Desmet, 43)

1

the monster!

5.4 Negative emotions & Product Design

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So, why do people seek out negative emotions?

In the paper “Darker Shades of Joy:The Role of Negative Emotion in Rich Product Experiences” three reasons were proposed.

1. The utilitarian viewpoint that 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. People buy clock radios with shrill alarms, because although they sound unpleasant, the sensation of distress will ensure them waking up.

2. The aftermath explanation proposes that negative emotions in experiences are taken for granted because they make the ensuring positive emotions more enjoyable. Like when a parachute jumper enjoys the moment after the jump because it compares pleasantly to the fear he experienced before jumping.

3. The intensity explanation states that people enjoy “dangerous” activities because they can successfully inhibit the accompanying fear. They seek the pleasantly arousal they get from the activities and they learn to ignore the dangers that would usually deter other people from doing these activities.

In another journal “The dark side of enjoyment”, negative emotions are proposed to have several benefits.

1.Negative emotions like fear, anger and frustration can be empowering for actions and can help people focus on solving the problems at hand.

Frustration can lead to determination and focus, anger can provide the courage and power and fear may give you strength and focus.

2.People are curious by nature, therefore negative emotions can signify intriguing boundaries. It has been found by Hemenover and Schimmack that when pushed far enough, stimuli that cause extreme feelings of disgust can sometimes be perceived as humorous, people can be disgusted and amused at the same time by the same stimuli!

3.Negative emotions intensify prospect of achievement satisfaction and makes it afterwards more rewarding. Like for example if omeone decides to go for a run in the park when it is raining, the situation can bring immediate displeasure but will result in a greater sense of self satisfaction on the long run.

4.Stories of tragedy and impressive works of art have the ability to bring tears to people eyes, they “touch” and overwhelm people emotionally which makes the users surrender themselves to the moment which makes them start to connect with the object and also mentally detach people from the direct world so they are more prone to be able to reflect and contemplate.

(Fokkinga, Desmet and hoonhout, 4) An alternative explanation proposes that people seek out negative emotions because they produce specific bodily and mental effects that transform their perception and attitude toward the situation. Which makes the negative emotion refreshing and exciting, and thus worth experiencing.

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“If taking away the negative stimulus is not possible (i.e., occasional paper jams are unavoidable), clever design might help transform this negative stimulus into a rich rather than an unpleasant experience.�

(Fokkinga and Desmet, 47)

5.4.1 What is the difference between a rich experience and an ordinary one?

All life experiences

1. Ordinary Experiences Emotions: neutral, mildly negative, mildly positive Examples: Boredom while doing the laundry Mild amusement from watching a medicore TV program Slight annoyance during a work commute

2. Notable Experiences

2.1. Notably unpleasant/ unrewarding experiences

2.2 Notably pleasant/ beneficial experiences

Emotions: highly negative Examples: panic from being in a car crash Desperation after failing an exam

2.2.1 Highly favorable

2.2.2 Rich experiences

Emotions: highly positive

Emotions: mix of positive and negative

Examples: Deep relaxation while on holiday Euphoria of winning the lottery

Examples: Joyful terror when riding a rollercoaster Nervous excitement of starting a new job

In a paper by Fokkinga and Desmet , they suggested that a rich experience is a result of three ingredients: A negative stimulus, subjective transformation, and a protective frame.

Products or product interaction can be the negative stimulus. And the negative emotions will enrich experiences as they cause the user a perception transformation and attitude transformation. Perception transformation changes how the user perceives the world around him. For example if the user senses fear, he will perceive the world around him as more lively, urgent and revolving around himself. On the other hand, attitude transformation changes a person’s view on his own position in the world and he would act upon it. For example, an angry person would feel more impulsive, direct and assertive towards his surroundings. The third and most important ingredient is the protective frame, which takes away the unpleasant aspects of the negative emotions and allows the user to enjoy its beneficial aspects.

Four different protective frames can be used in design: The safety-zone frame, the detachment frame, the control frame and the perspective frame. (21)

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The safety zone frame is when a person perceives a negative stimulus in her environment but feels protected from it. People at the zoo enjoy the awe and terror of being close to the lion only if they believe that they are safe at the same time. A person would enjoy the view from standing on a cliff only if he is far enough from the edge.

The detachment frame allows the person to observe an event but without participating in it. Watching a movie scene about a fighting couple might be an entertaining experience but would be rather awkward to experience it in real life.

When people have a certain amount of control over the interaction with the negative stimulus, it is defined as the control frame. Although the user is in the danger frame, but he trusts that he has the skills to keep himself from trauma. The user could use his physical or mental skills to deal with the situation.

The perspective frame changes the meaning of the experienced emotion by providing the big picture about the implications of the situation, which connects the negative stimulus to a universal human theme.

(Fokkinga and Desmet, 51) First, the designer should choose which negative emotion they wish to evoke in the product experience according to which transformation of perception or attitude might be desirable in the situation. If a designer is mostly concerned with the user’s subjective experience of a situation, transformation of perception might be the most relevant to consider. On the other hand, if a designer is mainly interested in changing a user’s behavior, a focus on attitude transformation might be more worthwhile.

SuS an ordinary experience Secondly, the designer should find an appropriate way to evoke the chosen emotion in the user. The product’s role can be both direct and indirect. In the direct role, the product evokes the emotion through sensory impression or through usage.

In the indirect role, the product can motivate the user to undertake certain behavior, or reveal a certain quality in the world, which in turn evokes the emotion. The designer can either introduce a new negative emotion in a product interaction, or use the negative emotion that is already present in the targeted user context.

In the last step, the designer creates a protective frame to reverse the negative emotion so that it can be enjoyable for the user. The protective frame is a mental construct that detracts the unpleasant aspects from the experience of a negative object or event.

(Fokkinga and Desmet, 22) Two limitations can be faced when designing for rich experiences through negative emotions. First limitation is the market acceptance. Consumers are more easily attracted to the benefits of products that give them pleasant experiences with only positive emotions, so it can be harder to convince them to buy products that give them rich experiences but that also include negative emotions.

Secondly, the designers can provide protective frames around the negative emotions to provide distance, but the psychological appraisal and personal differences between people will still matter. Some people will still be scared of a cliff even if there is a fence between them and the edge. Cultural differences will also play an important role in the different reactions to the rich experiences. (Fokkinga, Desmet and hoonhout, 11)

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6. Design Concept

the inspiration

After reading literature, observing and carrying out interviews, one very important aspect was mentioned frequently; memories.

Memories are the most important reason why users are attached to their belongings and products. And at the same time, memories are the only aspect designers cannot entirely control.

In a lot of interviews, people mentioned that products that remind them of their childhood are products they are not willing to give up. These products have the magic power of having the user feel nostalgic and for some unknown reason people tend to like to feel nostalgic.

But why is nostalgia good for you?

University of Southampton researchers found that Individuals who are nostalgic about their earlier lives also have a more positive outlook over the years to come.

In the study, published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, participants were asked to recall a nostalgic event and write about it. A second group were asked to record an ordinary event from their past.

The team found that the number of optimistic words included in the nostalgic narratives were significantly higher than in the ordinary stories.

In a second experiment, participants were played either a nostalgic or ‘neutral’ song. Those listening to the nostalgic song reported higher levels of optimism than the other group.

Playing

around

nostalgic

feelings

and

childhood

memories can help achieve mixed emotions which would result in delivering a rich experience for the user, which again in turn would enhance the user/ product relationship.

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6. 1 Design Concept

the play bliss

Playing with plasticine is supposed to remind the user with his/her childhood and bring back nostalgic feelings about the past. Most users relate their childhood with good memories and “the best days of their lives”.

Everyone was carefree and “playing” was always the number one priority. And this is what I wish for my design to bring back; play time.

The design should encourage the adults to become carefree again and start exploring and playing with the malleable material to build up their own cocoon or comfort zone.

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The motive behind this thesis was to challenge the assumption that all positive emotions are pleasant, and thus suitable for product experiences, while all negative emotions are unpleasant and unsuitable for design while enhancing the user/product relationship at the same time. This is achieved through the plasticine concept, the user will be allowed to exert the negative energy on playing and shaping the malleable material into something that they have made on their own which also enhances the relationship because no piece will ever end up like any other, so each user will have a unique piece of furniture that they have exerted time and effort to make.

The concept is also sustainable, as it ensures that the user will not throw away this piece as it allows for infinite reshaping and infinite possibilities. Play time will also enhance user’s imagination and creativity and make them feel a sense of accomplishment.

The end product is a piece of furniture that the user can call “a comfort zone”.

6. 1 Design Concept

the play bliss

Due to how rigid our lives has become, our lives now also lack creativity, joy and pleasure. The opposite of play isn’t work, says Brown adds, but depression.

During his 40-year career, Brown founder of the National Institute of Play in Carmel. He has peered into the bubbling inferno, studying what goes wrong when people do not play. He has conducted more than 6,000 play studies on everyone from serial killers to substance abusers to career-driven CEOs.

“Play is particularly important during periods that are sustainedly stressful, like now where we don›t see an end to this economic downturn,” says Brown.

The problem is that society pushes adults away from play, teaching them to think playful activities are for children, a frivolous luxury and immoral. Plus, Brown says, the economy has made it hard for adults to think they deserve to have fun or can afford fun.

One of play’s benefits, says Penny Donnefeld, a clinical psychologist in Manhattan, is it reduces stress hormones in the bloodstream. Because continuously high stress levels wreak havoc on our bodies, she says, the health benefits alone should give adults motivation to play.(Lloyd, Janice. USA today)

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diy

time+effort

childhood memories personalized nostalgia

Emotional attachement

frustration/anger/boredom

fun/playful/active

Induces mixed emotions (negative + Positive)

= rich experience

6. 2 Design Concept

the keywords

sustainable

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6. 3 Design cONCEPT

the mood board

118

119

6. 4 tARGET Users

120

The target users are not limited by any age group nor social class. The target users are; anyone & everyone.

The important thing that defines the target users is that they are willing to play, let go and be carefree for awhile.

Anyone experiencing negative emotions like frustration, boredom or anxiety can be a target user.

However, you do not have to be in a bad mood to use the product, the user could also be feeling playful or wishes to relax.

The product is an experience that the user will go through on daily basis whenever he/she wishes to sit/ sleep/relax/work. Or simply, when one wishes to be alone in their own cucoon.

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6. 5 the idea

122

Morphable structures 123

124

6. 6 the focus group A focus group for “number” participants was held.

The users were given a piece of plasticine and asked to visualize how they’d want their comfort zone to be like.

While working with the plasticine, the users were asked about how they are feeling about the whole experience and design concept.

INPUT All outcome pictures

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6. 6 the focus group 1. Mariam Zayed, 20 Years Old Playing with the plasticine, Zayed says she felt like the negative energy was being sucked out of her and being replaced by positive emotions even if she was not sitting at that comfort zone at the moment, but she was visualizing it while doing it.

What’s interesting is that Zayed asked for another piece of Plasticine and wanted to do another “escape” for herself.

She says if she’s alone she doesn’t mind being exposed so she would make a comfort zone like the one in right bottom picture. However, if there are people around, she’d like a one more like the picture in the left bottom.

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2. Mariam El- Shorbagy, 21 Years Old

Shorbagy says she felt the whole experience was interesting. She was doing something for herself to relax and be alone on and that was exciting as she was given the tool to “design” her own thing.

What she likes about the design concept is that she will be given a big chunk of plasticine like material that she can easily shape using her body and at times by “hitting” it.

3. Yahia Osama, 18 Years Old

Yahia thought because he did not have the “Artistic” talent that he would not be able to shape the plasticine into something, he was amazed to know he actually can “Create” something.

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4. Nesma Abdel Bary, 21 years old

128

Nesma wished she could do something more creative, and have a different outcome. She also noted that her comfort zone, the way she imagines it, will usually look like a leaf, because she will feel safe and protected inside.

5. Hanan kadry, 40 years old Hanan says she couldn’t have waited to sit in her comfort zone! She first shaped it into a ball and then she remembered that she likes to have her legs stretched so she changed it, and this is what she likes, how flexible the cucoon can be. She wanted something with boundaries around her, something to seperate her from the world. She was mostly happy during the experience.

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6. 7 tHE MATERIAL The concept is basically based upon the choice of material. It is a “User-Centered” design that would make the user and the designer switch roles.

The design concept was generally experimented using Plasticine but several properties of Plasticine do not meet the needed criteria. Therefore a list of needed properties was made and the search began.

the sought charactersitcs 130

- Malleable - Can retain it’s shape but become malleable when needed to reshape - leight weight when relatively in a huge chunk - does not stain - odourless After researching and talking with A Professor of Materials’ Science at German University in Cairo (Prof.

Brando Okolo), the materials that could fit those sought characterstics were narrowed down to the following analyzed materials.

Using elimination and comparison, the material that mostly fit the criteria was finally chosen.

6. 7. 1 analyzing materials

simil

ar p

rodu cts

1. plasticine

le - does ab e l a m ft so e il er st non toxic ts when el m ir a to re su po ex on not dry ry high ve at e l ab m m a fl at he to exposed ape when sh s t i in ta re n ca sre tu tempera mixed with wire armature 131

1. 1 Plastilina

1. 3 kanten clay studio

Made from vegetable matter - light weight - does not stain - does not dry out

odorless - safe for senstive skin - no oily stains - does no stick

1. 2 Plastilin Remains smooth over the years does not stick to fingers - offers some resistance - malleable - dimensional stability - no shrinkage - reusable - water repellant

6. 7. 1 analyzing materials 2. PlayDough the compound is primarily a mixture of water, salt, and flour.

3. slime 132

a non-toxic viscous- oozing green material made primarily from guar guma.

4. Silly Putty a toy based on silicone polymers which display unusual physical properties. - It bounces, but breaks when given a sharp blow and can also flow like a liquid. - It contains a viscoelastic liquid silicone, a type of non-Newtonian fluid, which makes it act as a viscous liquid over a long time period but as an elastic solid over a short time period.

Stretches without breaking.

5. TEMPERATURE RESPONSIVE POLYMERS they exhibit a drastic and discontinuous change of their physical properties with temperature.

5. 1 TEMPERATURE RESPONSIVE gels Thermoresponsive polymer gels show a discontineous change of the degree of swelling with temperature.

5. 2 hand moldable plastic has a melting temperature of about 58-60째C. It is great for making one-off prototypes, quick attachments and sub-assemblies, impressions to use as a temporary mold.

To start the process the material needs to be heated however this can be done with a variety of techniques including hot plates, soldering irons, or by put it in a cup of water and microwave the cup for a couple minutes to heat it up. Once it reaches it molten state the plastic will be easily molded and formed by hand.

After cooling to room temperature (or running under cold water) it again turns rigid. It is a true thermoplastic and can thus be re-heated and formed any number of times.

133

6. 7. 1 analyzing materials 6 silicon rubber an elastomer (rubber-like material) composed of silicone—itself a polymer—containing silicon together with carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. generally non-reactive, stable, and resistant to extreme environments and temperatures from -55 °C to +300 °C while still maintaining its useful properties.

Silicone rubber is a material of choice in industry when retention of initial shape and mechanical strength 134

are desired under heavy thermal stress or sub-zero temperatures.

7. polymer clay A type of hardenable modeling clay based on the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC). - It typically contains no clay minerals, but like mineral clay a liquid is added to dry particles until it achieves gel-like working properties, and similarly, the part is put into an oven to harden, hence its colloquial designation as clay.

Polymer Clay

Shape Memory Polymer

8. Smart Materials Smart materials are designed materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, temperature, moisture, pH, electric or magnetic fields.

8. 1 shape memory polymer Using thermal stimuli, shape memory polymers can exhibit a radical change from a rigid polymer to a very elastic state, then back to a rigid state again.

In its elastic state, it will recover its “memory” shape if left unrestrained. However, while pliable it can be stretched, folded, or otherwise conformed to other shapes, tolerating up to 200% elongation.

The “memory,” or recovery, quality comes from the stored mechanical energy attained during the reconfiguration and cooling of the material.

Above its transition temperature, SMP goes from a rigid, plastic state to a flexible, elastic state.

When cooled, it becomes rigid again and can be constrained in its new shape configuration. Shape memory characteristics can be engineered into most polymers.

135

6. 7. 1 analyzing materials 8. 2 programmable matter

(undergoing development)

The matter which has the ability to change its physical properties (shape, density, moduli, conductivity, optical properties, etc.) in a

programmable fashion, based upon user input or autonomous sensing. Programmable matter is thus linked to the concept of a material which inherently has the ability to perform information processing.

8. 2. 1 Shape-changing molecules 136

Molecules that can change their shape, as well as other properties, in response to external stimuli.

These molecules can be used individually or en masse to form new kinds of materials.

“If all you want is morphable furniture, though, that’s plausible. A hybrid nano/micro polymer-machine, Silly Putty with muscles, which can flow and foam out into whatever shape and, within limits, size, you want.�

A shape-shifting material would be made of many small parts, where each part has the ability to move relative to its neighbors, to compute, and likely to communicate with its neighbors as well,” explains principal investigator Jason Campbell. “By rearranging these parts, one changes the overall shape of the ensemble.” Campbell is a research scientist at Intel Research Pittsburgh, an interdisciplinary laboratory housed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Collaborative Innovation Center. (Violino, Bob. “Shape shifting material suggests morphable hardware.”)

137

6. 7. 1 analyzing materials 8. 2 programmable matter

(Source: Youtube.com)

A shape-shifting device might grow or shrink or even sprout a whole new functional structure, such as a keyboard, Campbell says. “In doing so, it would necessarily still be made of the same number of parts, so to get bigger it would also become hollower. Correspondingly, a shape could get smaller by making itself less hollow and packing the parts closer together.�

(Source: Youtube.com)

8. 2 programmable matter

Blob Motility is an attempt of actuated shape display using fluid programmable matter. They have developed an environment where they can program the shape of gel geometrically and topologically using they unique magnetic fluid called pBlob(programmable blob). This enables them to experience organic shape changes in real space. The control hardware is composed of electromagnets arranged in the honeycomb structure and their control circuits. Blob Manipulation is an interaction technique with fluidic soft matter. Most of the soft matters are substances between liquid and solid and possess viscoelasticity. A stirring rod is used as the input tool. When the system detects a user input such as touching,rubbing or tapping, the corresponding transformation will be executed.

(Source: Metamorphic architecture by Akira Wakita Laboratory.)

6. 7. 1 analyzing materials 9. jAMMABLE MATERIALS

140

(undergoing development)

Granular materials can be put into a jammed state through the application of pressure to achieve a pseudo-solid material with controllable rigidity and geometry. This phenomenon occurs in granular materials when the individual particles are packed together, causing the friction and Van der Waals forces between grains to increase. vacuum pumps can be utilized to create jammed states through the weight of the atmosphere on the jammed particles. Depending on the level of vacuum, the rigidity of the pseudo-solid system can be manipulated. While jamming principles have been long known, large-scale applications of jammed structures have not been signiďŹ cantly explored.

The morphable chair can be rapidly switched from a very exible state (top left), to a sturdy, weight-support state (bottom left) through the jamming effect.

9. jAMMABLE MATERIALS

141

14

A robot hands that uses a single mass of granular material that, when pressed onto a target object, flows around it and conforms to its shape.

Upon application of a vacuum the granular material contracts and hardens .quickly to pinch and hold the object without requiring sensory feedback

6. 7. 1 analyzing materials 10. d30

(the chosen one!)

D3O is a smart, rate sensitive material – the stress vs. strain characteristics are dependent on the rate of loading. This means that the harder the impact, the greater the resistance to the force.

The highlighted properties are the properties upon which the material was found most appropriate for the product.

Functional Level

142

- Shock absorbing - Material reacts on fast movement - Squeezable/Flexible - Elastic - Sticks on flat surfaces (isn’t sticky in hands) - Material can be expanded - When stretched out rapidly, the material becomes hard very fast and breaks. When done slowly the material stays elastic.

- Formed shape stays in position - The material bounces - Material copies really small details (E.g.fingerprints) - Water resistant - Sound absorbing - When temperature increases, the material becomes more elastic. When the material is frozen, it stays hardened - Material doesn’t float

sensorial Level -

Flashy color The material shines Looks Chemical Smells Chemical Doesn’t stick (only sticks between two flat surfaces) Material gives resistance when being moved (when rubbed against surface) - It’s silent when being used - Shock Absorbing - Moldable - Can capture air (forming bubbles)

Emotional Level -

Material reminds of clay Reminds of toys Chewing Gum Sportive Stays interesting to play with Elastic

(Source: Materials in design report by Robbert Spikman and Maarten Geraets)

143

144

7. Final Design The visualization!

This design may at times resemble a large beanbag or couch, but it is much more than that. The aim from this is to enable users to “Escape” and use it according to how they are feeling at that particular moment.

The user should be able to create a comfort zone that would supply him/her with an “intense feeling of comfort, warmth and intimacy.” The user can and might at times add cushions or blankets to increase the comfort.

The possible design outcomes are infinite and open to the users’ imagination.

However, in the coming section, i tried to visualize some of the possible outcomes.

How would your escape look like?

Grab a piece of plasticine and start visualizing your own comfort zone right now!

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7. 1 the sketches These are some possible outcomes after the user engages with the material.

The D30 can be made magnetic by adding an iron oxide powder, which is ferric (magnetic).

When the D30 is magnetized it can be held in place or manipulated using magnets.

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Magnets

Magnets

147

7. 2 3D visualization

148

149

150

151

Future Developments Having more time is one very important aspect to be able to achieve a more successful research, which would enable me to increase the interaction with focus groups. Doing more interviews, talking with more people from different age groups and social levels would help to seek a more personal and visible idea of what people own and keep, and most importantly why do they keep them. Focusing more on the consumers and less on the literature would also help gain better insight into people’s psychology.

Contacting and interviewing designers and design companies that try to implement emotionally durable 152

design would also help gain insights on how to have a 154 design process that will help produce an emotionally 155 durable design.

Having a stable and planned process would help designers produce more valuable products.

Materials that are currently under development could be used as a future development for the product.

Using programmable matter could be an option in the near future.

The material would be programmed to form morphable structures easily. However, it might not need any physical interaction from the user and this is one aspect that needs to be researched.

As when the person physically interacts with the object it enhances the relationship and help release the negative energy and makes the user feel a sense of accomplishment.

If in the future, the user does not need to physically interact with the object, will the design still be as interesting?

153

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