Pieter Desmet
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Current PhD projects
Jay Yoon Deger Ozkaramanli Mafalda Casais Katja Thoring Jenny Tsay Boudewijn BoonFinalized PhD projects
Steven Fokkinga Gael Laurans Erdem DemirRelated researchers
Anna Pohlmeyer Paul Hekkert Elif Ozcan Vieira Nynke Tromp Rick Schifferstein Valentijn Visch Marieke Sonneveld Annemiek van BoeijenRlated topics
Delft Institute of Positive Design Design and Emotion Society ID-Studiolab Emotion Studio
Design & Emotion
Emotion is central to human existence; all of our thoughts, motivations and behaviours are enriched and influenced by our emotions. It is possible for a product–or its use– to stir the same emotions we might experience in response to events, situations, or the words and deeds of people we encounter. Ignoring the emotional side of product experience would, therefore, be like denying that these products are designed, bought, and used by humans.
Background
Pieter Desmet is Professor of Design for Experience at the Faculty of Industrial Design of Delft University in The Netherlands. He chairs a research group that focuses on emotion- and well-being-driven design. Desmet is board member of the International Design for Emotion Society and program director of the Design for Interaction Master’s programme. In 2012, he co-founded the Delft Institute of Positive Design (DIOPD), a scientific institute that stimulates and initiates the development of knowledge that help designers in their attempts to design for human flourishing. He published over 200 scientific (journal) papers, book chapters, and books on a variety of aspects of experience-driven design, reaching an audience of both scholars and designers. Besides his research, he contributes to local community projects, such as a recently developed sensory wellness neighbourhood park, and a cultural Rotterdam-based “House of Happiness.”
In October 2010 NWO (the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) awarded Desmet an ‘innovational Research Incentives Scheme’ VIDI grant, funding five years of research with a focus on the roles of emotion in human-product interaction.
Activities
In his academic career, Pieter Desmet has followed his passion for unravelling the emotions in human-design interactions, and for developing instruments to measure these emotions. In 2002, he introduced a functional theory of user emotions. This ‘basic model of product emotion’ was one of the first to reveal the systematic nature of emotions evoked by designed objects. The model has become a global benchmark, adopted both in academic design research and education, and by the industry. In 2013 he co-founded the Delft Institute of Positive Design, a research group that studies how design can foster human well-being in collaborations with a multitude of scientific and private partners.
Current academic activities
– Director of the Delft Design Labs, IDE, TU Delft.
– Director of the Design for Interaction (DfI) Master Program.
– Section co-chair Design Aesthetics, Department of ID, TU Delft.
– Founding co-director of the Delft Institute of Positive Design, TU Delft.
– Founding board member of the International Design & Emotion Society.
Editorial boards
– International Journal of Design.
– International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology.
– Journal of Positive Psychology (applied journal in Dutch).
TIPS
Delft Institute of Positive Design
The Delft Institute of Positive Design aims to stimulate and initiate the development of knowledge that supports designers in their attempts to design for human flourishing. Check out the site for projects, tools, publications, and events.
www.diopd.org
Design & Emotion Society
The Design & Emotion society is a non-profit organisation that raises issues and facilitates dialogue among practitioners, researchers, and industry in order to integrate salient themes of emotional experience into the design profession. If you are interested in design &; emotion reserach, you may want to consider becoming a (free) member of this society. Be sure to check the student showcases and the knowledge base.
www.designandemotion.org
Positive Design Reference Guide
The Positive Design Reference Guide focuses on the why, what and how of human experience – both in general, and in relation to design for well-being. The guide provides you with a quick entry point into the variety of theories that we believe can be relevant for well-being-driven design. It comprises 29 models, theories and frameworks, separated into two sections. The first section presents a collection of theories drawn from (positive) psychology, and the second section presents a collection of theories and frameworks drawn from (positive) design research.
positive design reference guide