Publications

Liminal design: A conceptual framework and three-step approach for developing technology that delivers transcendence and deeper experiences

Abstract As ubiquitous technology is increasingly mediating our relationships with the world and others, we argue that the sublime is struggling to find room in product design primarily aimed at…

more

Emotion Deep Dive for Designers: Seven Propositions That Operationalize Emotions in Design Innovation

Abstract This paper presents a five-day intense course that teaches “emotion-driven design” (EDD) to graduate students with a broad variety of disciplinary backgrounds at the Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal…

more

Design for balance: Wellness and health

Abstract Health and well-being are areas that undoubtedly have a significant relevance in people’s lives. Design from research and practice has the challenge of responding to the needs and challenges…

more

Games for COVID-19: A need-based exploration of gamified interventions

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in various unpleasant affective responses and dysfunctional behaviours, which created an urgent demand for effective interventions to support people’s coping and resilience. In addition to…

more

Positive design during a pandemic

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a worldwide health crisis with a major negative impact on the subjective well-being of large populations. Over time, people, including non-vulnerable groups such…

more

Harmony in Design: A Synthesis of Literature from Classical Philosophy, the Sciences, Economics, and Design

Abstract Classical theories of harmony have been used to explain phenomena like beauty, happiness, health, virtue, pleasure, peace, and even ecological sustainability. With the intent of making these theories more…

more

Chill, Fiery, Slack, and Five Other Vibes: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Group Mood

Abstract Even though group mood has a significant impact on organizational functioning, there is no typology available to describe distinct group moods. We propose that designing products and services to…

more

The Eye Inward and the Eye Outward: Introducing a Framework for Mood-Sensitive Service Encounters

Abstract This article introduces the concept of mood sensitivity: a service agent’s ability to detect mood during service encounters and customize their interaction style accordingly, with the purpose of improving…

more

The architecture of creativity: Toward a causal theory of creative workspace design

Abstract The question of how the physical work environment can affect creativity is gaining interest among companies and educational institutions. This paper introduces ten propositions outlining possible relationships between spatial…

more

Thirteen Fundamental Psychological Needs

Although individuals may have different goals and wishes on the surface, deep down we all want the same things. Our fundamental needs are universal: Regardless of culture, age, and lifestyle,…

more

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…

more

Émotions à la carte: Exploring emotional paradoxes through edible DIY-Materials for product design

Abstract The exploration of emotions has become a fundamental aspect of product design. Researchers in the design field have proposed approaches to Materials Experience that supports emotional exploration. The following…

more

From Discovery to Application: What to Expect when Designing with Dilemmas

Abstract Personal dilemmas are inspiring phenomena, which can stimulate design creativity and reflection on users’ goals and values. This paper aims to provide an overview of the main challenges involved…

more

Collage for Designers: Invent, Involve, Inspire

Why do we need a manual for something a two-year-old can do? The basic techniques of collage like tearing, cutting and gluing are so simple – and materials can be…

more

Mood Granularity for Design: Introducing a Holistic Typology of 20 Mood States

Abstract This paper introduces a holistic typology of 20 mood states that are presented with a componential approach, describing six aspects: subjective feeling, perception, reaction, tendency, liking and disliking. In…

more

The Same Person Is Never the Same: Introducing Mood-Stimulated Thought/Action Tendencies for User-Centered Design

Abstract How people think and act is influenced by their transient mood state. Different moods stimulate different (thought/action) tendencies, such as the tendency to be attentive (when cheerful), to be…

more

Objects with symbolic meaning: 16 directions to inspire design for well-being

Abstract The symbolic meaning of a product can contribute to people’s well-being. Previous research (Casais et al., 2016) has identified six distinct well-being enhancing symbolic meanings in products (based on…

more

Researcher introspection for experience-driven design research

Abstract We challenge the unquestioning pursuit of the appearance of objectivity and ingrained designer-user dualism in human-centred design research and propose a resurrection of introspection as a valid approach to…

more

Product Emotion Inspiration Booklet

700+ Product Emotion (inspiration booklet) Think of emotions – what comes first to mind? Perhaps joy, anger, fear, surprise, or love. Indeed, these are some of the emotions that all…

more

Billy Cash: Digital piggy bank for meaningful saving behavior

Abstract Virtue is a fundamental aspect of well-being. Past research has proposed that emotional-driven design can be a powerful mediator towards supporting virtue. However, virtue-focused solutions generally target isolated actions.…

more

Positive Design in Journal of Positive Psychology

In his recurring column in the (Dutch) Journal of Positive Psychology (Tijdschrift Positieve Psychologie), Pieter Desmet describes inspiring well-being-driven products and services designed by students and researchers of the TU…

more

Long-term goals or immediate desires? Introducing a Toolset for Designing with Self- Control Dilemmas

Abstract: This paper suggests that designers can frame user behaviour in terms of the conflicts between long-term goals and immediate desires (i.e. self-control dilemmas), and address these conflicts by facilitating…

more

When ‘Feeling Good’ is not Good Enough: Seven Key Opportunities for Emotional Granularity in Product Development

This paper reports a study that explored the usefulness of positive emotional granularity (PEG) in the product development process. PEG re ects the ability to interpret and represent the experience…

more

Developing Usage Guidelines for a Card-Based Design Tool: A Case of the Positive Emotional Granularity Cards

Card-based design tools have gained popularity as a means to communicate research insights and to make them usable in a design process. There are various examples of card tools and…

more

Meaningful Things: Exploring the Symbolic Meaning of the Material Environment and its Impact on Happiness (videography)

Symbolically meaningful possessions have the ability to make intentions tangible, to remind of aspirations and to keep successes fresh. This videography is a compilation of stories about objects with symbolic…

more

Mood measurement with Pick-A-Mood: review of current methods and design of a pictorial self-report scale

This paper introduces Pick-A-Mood, a character-based pictorial scale for reporting and expressing moods. Pick-A-Mood consists of three characters that each express eight mood states, representing four main categories: excited and…

more

Beyond Resolving Dilemmas: Three Design Directions for Addressing Intrapersonal Concern Conflicts

A potent way of designing for emotion is to design for concerns. However, people have multiple, and often, conflicting concerns. Such conflicts create emotional dilemmas: One may need to spend…

more

Form Matters: Design Creativity in Positive Psychological Interventions

The current article explores the effect of design on the efficacy of behavioural intervention technologies (BITs). With a user-centred design process, colourful key ring coins were created as a means…

more

Using symbolic meaning as a means to design for happiness: The development of a card set for designers

Using design to improve the lives of people towards a positive flourishing state is the main premise of Positive Design. Our contribution to this growing field focuses on making use…

more

Design for Mood: Twenty Activity-Based Opportunities to Design for Mood Regulation

This paper introduces a theory-based approach to design for mood regulation. The main proposition is that design can best influence mood by enabling and stimulating people to engage in a…

more

Feeding Your Piggy Bank with Intentions: A Study on Saving Behaviour, Saving strategies, and Happiness

The act of saving money can connect one’s present state to a meaningful future state, es- pecially if we consider money not as a direct source of happiness, but as…

more

Extending product life by introducing symbolic meaning

Because products are often discarded while still fully functioning, it may be possible to support durability with design that stimulates a more enduring product-owner relationship. This paper is based on…

more

Positive Design Reference Guide

How does design mediate, facilitate, or foster user well-being? What are the universal principles of human experience? If you find yourself asking these questions, then this guide is for you.…

more

The Mood Street: Designing for Nuanced Positive Emotions

This paper addresses how design activities can be supported to evoke nuanced positive emotions through a design case. The topic of nuances of positive emotions and values of differentiating positive…

more

Enjoying Joy: A Process-Based Approach to Design for Prolonged Pleasure

User experience research has reached a good understanding of the importance of hedonic attributes and how to evoke emotions through design. Yet, there is only little knowledge on how to…

more

Learning from the Positive: A Structured Approach to Possibility-Driven Design

This paper discusses an approach to possibility-driven design as an alternative to traditional problem-driven design approaches. The first parts discuss merits and challenges when designing for possibilities, and present some…

more

Positive Design: New Challenges, Opportunities, and Responsibilities for Design

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the scientific study of happiness and wellbeing. However, so far, there has been only little discussion about the relevance and…

more

Positive Design: An Introduction to Design for Subjective Well-Being

This paper addresses the question of how design can contribute to the happiness of individuals–to their subjective well-being. A framework for positive design is introduced that includes three main components…

more

Ten Ways to Design for Disgust, Sadness, and Other Enjoyments: A Design Approach to Enrich Product Experiences with Negative Emotions

This paper demonstrates how designers can enrich user experiences by purposefully involving negative emotions in user-product interaction. This approach is derived from a framework of rich experience, which explains how…

more

Design for Happiness

A framework – the Design Well-Being Matrix – will be presented that combines theoretical aspects of positive psychology and ataxonomy of design roles, illustrating numerous design opportunities. There is no single,…

more

Design for Interest: Exploratory Study on a Distinct Positive Emotion in Human-Product Interaction

This study explored the possibilities to design interactions that evoke user interest. On the basis of appraisal theory, it was predicted that interest is evoked by a combined appraisal of…

more

Faces of Product Pleasure: 25 Positive Emotions in Human-Product Interactions

The study of user emotions is hindered by the absence of a clear overview of what positive emotions can be experienced in human-product interactions. Existing typologies are either too concise…

more

I Knew I Shouldn’t, Yet I Did It Again! Emotion-driven Design as a Means to Motivate Subjective Well-being

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of conflicting concerns to emotion-driven design and to demonstrate their translation into emotionally appealing design concepts. People have an endless…

more

Towards happiness: possibility-driven design

This chapter suggest possibility-driven design as an alternative to the common problem-driven approach. A first part explores the concept of “possibilities” and how it relates to happiness and well-being. We…

more

Three levels of product emotion

This paper introduces an approach to emotion driven design that was based on the process that underlies emotional responses to consumer products. Three levels, and nine associated classes of product-evoked…

more

Special Issue Editorial: Design & Emotion

This ‘emotional’ issue marks the 10th anniversary of the International Design & Emotion Society. In November 1999, the society was established after an event organized in Delft that became known…

more

Emotional Design; Application of a research-based design approach

In this paper, we discuss an approach to ‘design for wow’ that focuses on the emotions that constitute a wow-experience. In this approach, the eliciting conditions of these emotions are used to…

more

Framework of Product Experience

In this paper, we introduce a general framework for product experience that applies to all affective responses that can be experienced in human-product interaction. Three distinct components or levels of…

more