Designing for Positive Emotions: Issues and Emerging Research Directions

Abstract

Central to the present paper is the question of how designers can be supported to deliberately facilitate positive emotional experiences. Related to this, the paper provides an overview of the research on design for positive emotions, its issues, and opportunities for further investigations. The practical relevance of transcending the notion of generalised pleasure is discussed, highlighting the benefits of developing and applying a nuanced understanding of positive emotions. Overarching challenges and opportunities that underlie in stimulating such understanding are delineated along with the review of characteristics of positive emotions. Ethical issues of designing for positive emotions are reflected regarding its implications for well-being with suggestions to resolve them. Besides, the paper discusses emerging research directions, ranging from design tools to distinguish diverse positive emotions, the added value of exploring expressive interaction qualities of positive emotions, to advantages of involving tool users (e.g., designers and project stakeholders) in the development process.

Keywords:

• design for emotion
• emotional design
• positive emotions
• emotional granularity
• user experience
• experience design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In this paper, we focus specifically on the phenomenon of positive emotions, including the underlying conditions that elicit them and their expressive and behavioural manifestations. It embodies universal principles of emotions that are widely applicable without being restricted to particular types of stimuli and users (Frijda 2007). This means that the knowledge of positive emotions discussed in this paper is applicable to all kinds of design created for users, including products and product-service systems.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

JungKyoon Yoon

JungKyoon Yoon is Assistant professor in the Department of Design + Environmental Analysis at Cornell University. His research focuses on experience design with an emphasis on affective experiences, subjective well-being, and design-mediated behaviour change.

Anna E. Pohlmeyer

Anna E. Pohlmeyer is Assistant Professor at Delft University of Technology and co-Director of the Delft Institute of Positive Design. With a background in psychology, engineering, and design, her research focuses on experience design, long-term user experience, and design-mediated subjective well-being.

Pieter M. A. Desmet

Pieter M.A. Desmet is Professor at Delft University of Technology. His main research interests are in the fields of design, emotion, and subjective well-being. He is a board member of the International Design and Emotion Society and co-founder of the Delft Institute of Positive Design.

Chajoong Kim

Chajoong Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Design and the founder of Emotion Lab at UNIST. His main research interests range from user experience design, design for well-being to sustainable design and design for behavioural change in the human-product interaction. With these research topics, he has published in, among others, Design Studies, Interactional Journal of Design, Journal of Design Research and The Design Journal.