7.5 Beyond Usability
Essential idea:
Usability is not the only factor for a designer to consider; products can be designed to evoke pleasure and emotion.
Nature and Aims of Design
Nature of Design
A designer’s ability to provide satisfaction through aesthetic appeal and pleasure can greatly influence the success of a product, service or system. Understanding attitudes, expectations and motivations of consumers plays a significant role in predicting product interaction. Designers need to be empathetic and sympathetic to user emotion, which acts as a critical component to determine how he or she interprets and interacts with a product, service or system. (3.8)
Aims
Aim 4: The ability to express emotion through a product can not only build appeal for the consumer, but also build affinity between a product and consumer. It can enable a product to communicate how one should interact with it.
Guidance
As DP Design Technology student you should:
The four-pleasure framework: socio-pleasure, physio-pleasure, psycho-pleasure and ideo-pleasure
Design for emotion
The attract/converse/transact (ACT) model
How designing for emotion can increase user engagement, loyalty and satisfaction with a product by incorporating emotion and personality
How the ACT model can be used as a framework for creating designs that intentionally trigger positive emotional responses
Concepts and principles:
When designing for Emotion, designers can create stronger products that satisfy users on a deep level. Consider the three products below. How might users feel about or engage with them on an emotional level? Which would they choose to use over the others? By understanding how to appeal to users' emotions, designers can create successful products.
The Four Pleasures Framework and the ACT Model are ways designers can focus their thinking in order to appeal to the user's emotions.
Rietveld Chair
Panton Chair
Ergohuman V2 Office Chair
The Four Pleasures Framework
The Four Pleasures Framework are considerations that can be used when designing a product or service. Successful products and services have the right balance between the four pleasures.
Socio-pleasure
Pleasure derived from social interaction
Examples:
Products that allow people to communicate: Email, WeChat, Facetime
Products that communicate identity or belonging to a social group: traditional clothing; t-shirt with the logo of a mountain biking brand; professional-level DSLR cameras that communicates the user is serious about photography.
Products that promote or encourage social interaction: Unique furniture, artworks, or jewelry, or objects that "start conversations."
SNS help users communicate and connect with others.
DSLR camera and specialized camera bag communicate the users passion for photography.
Psycho-pleasure
Pleasure derived from the cognitive demands of using the product. these are products that satisfy our intellect.
Examples:
Complex but easy-to-use devices like an iPad. The intuitive design allows the user to easily accomplish complex tasks like editing a movie, creating a digital artwork.
Games that are cognitively challenging to play.
Complex devices that require careful attention and focus to use such as a 3D printer.
Boardgames like Blokus challenge the player to user their cognitive skills to win.
Using an iPad and iMovie to create a stop-motion animation.
Ideo-pleasure
Pleasure derived from how the product appeals to the user's values and beliefs.
Examples:
A product made from a biodegradable material, such as a bamboo handle toothbrush.
A product made in a sustainable manner, such as Fair Trade coffee or organically grown local food.
Small design features that highlight careful attention to detail, such as Dieter Rams' designs for Braun
Products and services that align with your moral or religious beliefs such as religious branded objects.
Bamboo handled toothbrushes by SenzaBamboo seek to replace plastic handles with biodegradable bamboo.
Physio-pleasure
Pleasure derived from the feel of the product during use. These are related to the aesthetic qualities of a product: how it looks, feels, sounds, smells, or tastes. In particular, physio-pleasure is related to how the aesthetic qualities combine to enable the an action to be performed.
Examples:
The soft, "puffy" texture of a down jacket
The smell of a new car or freshly made food.
The solid weight of a hand tool that communicates its strength and durability.
Engineering smells and sounds
Miyabi knives are renowned for their balance, sharpness, and aesthetic quality, and are used by professional chefs around the world.
The Four Pleasures Framework, particularly ideo-pleasure and physio-pleasure, can be particularly useful in developing aspects of your IA. These could be elements you explore and confirm in Criterion B, but include in specifications in Criterion A.
Designing for Emotion
Designing for emotion creates products that increase user engagement, loyalty and satisfaction. By satisfying the emotions of the user, a product can stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Donald Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things, describes emotional design as consisting of three components: Visceral Design, Behavioral Design, and Reflective Design.
Attract - Converse - Transact (ACT) Model
The ACT model is a framework for intentionally triggering an emotional response in the user. The goal is to create emotionally rewarding experiences for users.
Attract
Design Goal: The product is desirable because it is aesthetically appealing. The look and feel of the product attracts the user. Unconscious and automatic responses
Converse
Design Goal: The product is usable. The user interacts with the product in order to understand, learn, and utilize the product. Unconscious and automatic responses occur through interactions
Transact
Design Goal: The product accomplishes what it was designed for and is deemed useful by the user. This relationship is built over time.
Resources:
Boxes and Arrows, Article by Trevor van Gorp, author of the ACT model.