Designers' own emotions and the practice of designing: a literature review and preliminary research agenda
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the role that users' emotions may have in design, but little work has been done on how designers' own emotions may influence design cognition, action, and outcomes.
Abstract: There has been growing research attention to the role that users' emotions may have in design, but little work has been done on how designers' own emotions may influence design cognition, action, and outcomes. This article explores the topic by first considering psychological research on emotion and creativity (which is a close correlate with design activity from a design thinking position). Available research studies on designers and their emotional states is then discussed. While there are consistencies between the two lines of inquiry, the professional design context requires original research separate from the psychological literature to understand how emotions differentially influence designers in real-world contexts. Finally, considerations for future research on designers' own emotions are outlined and explored.
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01 Jan 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, a limited number of studies have addressed the dynamics of the designer's emotions during the design process, focusing mainly on the product generated by the designers and the emotional experience felt by the users while using the product.
Abstract: Research on emotion and design literature has relied primarily on the product generated by the designers and the emotional experience felt by the users while using the product. A limited number of studies have addressed the dynamics of the designer's emotions during the design process. This exploratory study attempts to understand the emotional experience of designers during the design process with supporting empirical evidence. Twenty-five designers were asked to carry out a design task for a limited period of time. The data was analyzed using the FBS ontology framework, linkography, and PANAS ratings to establish the dynamics of the emotions during the design process based on the video and audio recordings of the task. This study demonstrates mostly positive affect throughout the design process with associated high entropy scores and high outcomes, where the affective states varied between different time intervals and at different phases of the design process.
2 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the importance of emotions for ethical reflection on technological developments, as well as the role that art can play in this, is discussed, and the role of art that engages with technology is explored.
Abstract: In this article, we discuss the importance of emotions for ethical reflection on technological developments, as well as the role that art can play in this. We review literature that argues that emotions can and should play an important role in the assessment and acceptance of technological risk and in designing morally responsible technologies. We then investigate how technologically engaged art can contribute to critical, emotional-moral reflection on technological risks. The role of art that engages with technology is unexplored territory and gives rise to many fascinating philosophical questions that have not yet been sufficiently addressed in the literature.
2 citations
01 Jan 2021
TL;DR: In this article, a specific inspiration scenario is taken wherein a design student, while perceiving stimuli, thinks aloud to denote an emotion, and it is then shown that this utterance could instantiate a detailed multipronged analysis in the framework of the core affect model, which delineates various constituent parts of emotion such as core affect, affective quality and so on.
Abstract: Inspiration is an important stage in conceptual design, wherein designers interact with different stimuli to generate creative ideas. Various cognitive processes like analogical reasoning have been described in design inspiration scenarios and have also been mapped to ontologies of cognitive psychology. However, the emotional processes in design inspiration are not clearly explained through ontological frameworks. In studies which report the significance of emotion in design inspiration, various aspects of emotion tend to get conflated. This conflation may lead to inappropriate choices of methods to measure emotion. To address this gap, this paper adopts the core affect model of emotion to offer a constructivist understanding of emotion in design inspiration contexts. The components of the core affect model are mapped to aspects of emotion reported in design inspiration scenarios which involve the use of stimuli. The paper then briefly outlines the potential of this ontological approach to study emotion in design inspiration. For this, a specific inspiration scenario is taken wherein a design student, while perceiving stimuli, thinks aloud to denote an emotion. It is then shown that this utterance could instantiate a detailed multipronged analysis in the framework of the core affect model, which delineates various constituent parts of emotion such as core affect, affective quality and so on. These constituents of emotion are broadly linked to different methodological frameworks with which they can be captured and analysed. The implications of this approach for future design research is also discussed.
2 citations