Affective design describes the design of products, services, and user interfaces that aim to evoke intended emotional responses from consumers, ultimately improving customer satisfaction. It is often regarded within the domain of technology interaction and computing, in which emotional information is communicated to the computer from the user in a natural and comfortable way. The computer processes the emotional information and adapts or responds to try to improve the interaction in some way.
Background
The notion of affective design emerged from the field of human–computer interaction (HCI), specifically from the developing area of affective computing. Donald Norman, an academic in the field of human-centered design, explored the importance of emotion in design and discussed three levels of emotional processing that influence the user's affective experience:
- Visceral design relates to immediate, subconscious responses to a product, triggered by perceptual properties and sensory experiences such as shapes, colors, and typography. These responses are rooted in biological and evolutionary processes.
- Behavioural design relates to the joy and effectiveness of use of a product, particularly in terms of functionality, understandability, and physical feel (e.g., weight or texture). It is closely tied to the user's past experiences and expectations.
- Reflective design is the highest level of emotional design, where the affective response stems from conscious mental processing. Users reflect upon their experience with the product and how it affects their self-image, often within a social and cultural context. This level is linked to customer retention and the decision to reuse a product.
Aims
Affective design attempts to understand the emotional relationships between users and products as well as how products communicate affectively through their physical features. It aims to create artefacts capable of eliciting the most pleasurable experience possible for users across all of their senses. The effectiveness of affective design is measured with reference to feeling discrepancy, which defines the disparity between the target customer's intended emotional response and the actual emotions experienced by the user. Another aim is increasing customer retention by creating memorable user experiences and ensuring brand loyalty, grounded in the experience economy theory.
Challenges
Key challenges include accurately identifying the user's affective needs, balancing emotional and utilitarian aspects of product design, and directly measuring users' emotional states. Biological markers such as heart rate, blood pressure, or respiratory rate provide only indirect measures of affective states and can be influenced by various external factors.
Applications
Applications of affective design include ambient intelligence (AmI), human–robot interaction (including emotional robots such as Erica developed by Hiroshi Ishiguro at Osaka University), and video games (affective gaming, where games analyze the player's emotions and adapt gameplay features accordingly to maintain an optimal level of challenge and facilitate a state of flow).
