Design for Emotion

Emotional responses to product design can incite customers to select a particular artefact from a row of similar products, and may therefore have a considerable influence on our purchase decisions. As a consequence, in current day design practice, designers and marketers are more and more challenged to manipulate the emotional impact of their products.

Intangible emotions
Emotions are influenced by characteristics of the customer (such as personality and lifestyle), the product design (such as theme, package, and technology) and the company (such as branding, marketing, and service). Consumers’ emotional responses are subjective, so there is never a one-to-one relationship between the appearance of products and their emotional impact, and it is difficult to manipulate or even reliably measure the emotional impact of consumer products.

Tools & techniques
In his lectures, Desmet demonstrates that the emotional impact can be measured, and that, with product design, it can be manipulated. He presents a model that explains how products elicit emotions, and two tools that support designers, design managers, and marketers. The first tool (i.e. the Product Emotion Measurement Instrument or PrEmo) was developed to enable evaluation of the emotional responses towards existing and new designs. The second tool (i.e. the [product & emotion] navigator) was developed to support manipulation of the emotional impact of new design initiatives. Desmet explains how emotions can be used for competitive advantage, product differentiation, and marketing & design strategy.

Conference Key Notes

May 2010
Design for emotion and happiness
Annual Usability Professionals Association International Conference (D)

Jun 2008
Emotions in multimodal product experience
Annual Eurosyn Conference (F)

Oct 2007
Managing emotional design
Annual German Design Conference (D)

Jun 2006
PS2006 (Barcelona, Spain)
Emotion and the senses

Jun 2006
Reinventing design with emotion
Annual Hong Kong Business of Design Conference (CN)

Jun 2006
Tools to design for emotion
ENGAGE international open event (NL)

Jun 2006
Emotion and the senses
Biannual Sensory Sciences Conference (E)

May 2005
Studium generale dAcapo-ArtEZ (Zwolle, NL)
Beyond Opera; emotion in cultural expression

Jun 2004
Eurosyn (Paris, France)
The role of emotions in multi-sensory product experience

Sep 2003
Euro RSCG Human-I (Amsterdam, NL)
Emotion & Communication; how to amaze

May 2003
Keynote lecture
Brand Genetics Annual Conference (Amsterdam, NL)

Apr 2003
Emotion driven design involves more than pleasure and fun
CHI 2003 (Fort Lauderdale, Floriday, USA)

Nov 2002
Emotions for strategic marketing
Dutch Market Research Association (NL)

Oct 2002
Emotion in design management
Raymond 2002 Design Management Event (NL)

Oct 2002
Studium Generale University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, NL)
Lifestyle and Emotion

Aug 2002
Design and mixed emotions
International Conference on Design & Emotion (Loughborough, UK)

International School Lectures

Aug 2008
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT; Chicago, USA)

Jun 2007
National Chiao Tung University (Hsinchu, RC)

Jun 2007
Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Daejeon, ROC)

Mar 2007
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taipei, RC)

Feb 2007
Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Hong Kong, CN)

Industry Lectures

Dec 2009
Avon (USA)
Multimodal emotions in personal care

Aug 2008
Motorola (USA)
Emotions in mobile communication

Nov 2007
Rotary International (The Hague, NL)
Human emotion in product design

Jun 2007
Siemens (ROC)
Designed emotions for differential advantage

Jun 2006
Experience Incorporated (New York, USA)
Measuring emotions in new product development

May 2006
KLM (NL)
Emotions in the flight experience

May 2006
Eurib (Rotterdam, NL)
Emotion and design research

May 2006
ACHMEA (Amsersfoort, NL)
Emotion in organisation

Mar 2006
Pentascope (Amersfoort, NL)
Emotions in changing environments

Jun 2005
Barilla (I)
Emotions in the domain of food experience

Oct 2004
International Flavours and Fragrances (NL)
Emotional flavours

Sep 2004
Schick Wilkinson Research (USA)
Emotion for durable design experiences

Sep 2004
TNS NIPO (NL)
Emotion for strategic market segmentation

Aug 2004
Unilever Research (NL)
Measuring emotional responses

Feb 2004
Procter & Gamble Research (B)
Empirical findings in emotional packaging

Jul 2003
Unilever Consumer Insight Institute (UK)
Fast moving emotions

May 2003
Brandgenetics (Rotterdam, NL)
Branding & Emotion

Apr2003
Procter & Gamble (Geneva, Switzerland)
Emotion driven package design

Feb 2003
Philips AIM (Eindhoven, NL)
Technology and emotion

Feb 2003
Johnson Controls (Burscheid, Germany)
Automotive design; the emotional challenge

Aug 2002
Mitsubishi Motor R&D (J)
Automotive emotion & corporate identity

Dec 2002
KPN Telecom (NL)
How emotions drive the mobile telephone market

Mar 2003
Johnson Controls (D)
Emotional design for competitive advantage