Advances in Affective and Pleasurable Design

AHFE International

Accelerating Open Access Science in Human Factors Engineering and Human-Centered Computing

Advances in Affective and Pleasurable Design

book-cover

Editors: Yong Gu Ji, Sooshin Choi

Topics: Affective and Pleasurable Design

Publication Date: 2021

ISBN: 978-1-4951-2109-8

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100544

Articles

Transforming Physiological Data from a Generic Sensor to a Specialised One for Affect Detection

Continuous reduction on hardware costs has been bringing the opportunity to employ cheap sensors to measure physiological data. However, this comes at a price of capturing some noisy information, which most likely would compromise both analysis and interpretation of the raw results. This paper investigates the reliability of a generic and a specialised sensor on capturing heart rate data and the challenge of extracting meaningful information from it for affect detection. A controlled stimulus in a laboratory setting is performed, in which participants play different levels of the game Tetris while their signal variations are observed. Since only the generic sensor does not reproduce the expected behaviour, filtering techniques are proposed to approximate its signal to the specialised one. Experimental results confirm that this goal is achieved by applying either “Grubbs' test”' for outliers detection or “three-sigma rule”. Such transformations highlight the need of filtering techniques for affective computing because they avoid misinterpretation of the results, as well as it represents a starting point towards finding a ground-truth to link possible user affect and physiological data.

Patrick Moratori, Christian Wagner, Robert Houghton

Conference Proceedings

Imitated Mind Uploading by Using Electroencephalography

In recent years, technology of brain-computer interface has been developed, and the technology has potential extensibility in combination with ubiquitous environments. In science fiction, an idea that personality is copied to a computational device by scanning brain activity, called mind uploading, ghost dubbing, and so on, has been frequently represented. If the idea becomes realized in a future ubiquitous world, design of highly human-friendly interfaces is expected. In this study, as a step towards realizing the idea, we proposed a method to imitate the mind uploading by using electroencephalography (EEG). We proposed a novel method to extract and digitize an essential feature of the EEG signals by using Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) and symbolic dynamics analysis. A sequence of symbols was obtained from each of the EEG measurement. Then, we constructed 2nd-order Markov sources from the symbol sequences. Both of the cluster analysis and identification tests by human subjects revealed that the Markov source successfully represented both personal invariants and inter individual differences in EEG signals. In sum, we concluded that the imitated mind uploading can be realized by using EEG signals.

Ryota Horie, Kenta Kaneko

Conference Proceedings

Someone to Talk To

This paper reflects upon the challenges surrounding the efforts in recognizing and classifying user’s affective state. A suitable set of rules for contextual valence shifting has a central role in the proposed lexical-based approach for automatic emotion detection, which utilizes a diverse set of publicly available lexical resources. To evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the embedded algorithm for word valence assignment, an experimental study with a suitable dataset was conducted and the performance results are discussed. A prototype multimodal mobile application that steers the conversational dialogue aligned with user’s affective states will also be presented.

Kiril Koroveshovski, Sonja Gievska

Conference Proceedings

Exploring the Innovation Application of Web Camera Based on Business Models - Taking Parent-Baby Communication as an Example

In the high technique modern society, there are many ways to communicate with others. People anticipate the technology could not only connect to others but also help to sustain the relationship of family or friends.　Recently, people turn to take internet as the main way to communicate. On the other side, in the phenomena of low fertility, the market in babies and children will be important in the future. This research wants to start from the existing web-video and web-communication technology and figures out the new ways to apply this technology in parent-baby communication or interaction. As one of the device in web-vision technology, web-camera is the device that being chosen to use in this research. Apply this technology in parent-baby communication. Let family realistically use this device, and have an interview to understand the experience that family use this device. After the interview, analyze the result and find possible way that applying this web-vision technology in parent-baby communication. Finally, use existing business models to think new application, and explore the innovation application of web-camera in parent-baby communication.

Ming-Hsin Lee, Chun-Juei Chou

Conference Proceedings

Effect of Age on Superimposition of Head-Up Display

In this paper, we investigate the effect on superimposition of the HUD (Head-Up Display) in a driving environment. The semi-transparent properties of HUD lead to the superimposition which means the overlap between HUD’s graphics and an environmental object. Especially, the elderly may have difficulties with driving in a HUD environment because of their loss of cognitive and physical capability. Therefore, we performed the experiment to investigate the effect of age on superimposition in a HUD environment. Participants (elderly, non-elderly) performed the driving task in high and low superimposition level (two simulated road conditions). The result showed that each group’s glance duration was significantly increased in a HUD environment. Moreover, the elderly’s glance duration showed more increasing in a HUD environment than the non-elderly.

Ji Man Kim, hyungjun Oh, Hwan Hwangbo, Yong Gu Ji

Conference Proceedings

Evaluation of Kawaii Size by Measuring ECG

Kawaii, which represents an affective value, includes such positive meanings as cute, lovable, and small. In the 21st century, the affective values of industrial products are becoming more important. However, since few studies have focused on kawaii attributes, we are systematically analyzing kawaii products themselves: the kawaii feelings evoked by the shapes, colors, sizes, textures and tactile sensations caused by the materials of such products. In this paper, we refocused on kawaii sizes and performed experiments using both Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to evaluate a virtual object’s kawaii sizes by questionnaires and electrocardiograms (ECGs).

Michiko Ohkura a, Yosuke Yamasaki b

Conference Proceedings

Physiological Responses Caused by Kawaii Feeling in Watching Photos

“Kawaii” is a Japanese word that represents an emotional value; it has positive meanings, such as cute, lovable, and small. In the 21st century, the emotional value accounts for a large part of consumers’ preference. The kawaii feeling might become a key factor for creating affective and pleasurable designs. In a behavior of watching photos, we have subjective, intuitive and strong preference based on our emotional values. In this study, as a study on the kawaii feeling, we conducted experiments to examine whether physiological responses of the brain can be measured when participants get the kawaii feeing in watching photos by the event-related potential (ERP) technique. We measured electroencephalogram of the participants while they were shown kawaii photos, uninteresting photos, and mosaic images. We found that event-related potentials were elicited in response to showing the kawaii photos and the uninteresting photos, while the mosaic photos did not elicit a particular response. ERPs elicited by the kawaii photos had the positive deflection in comparison with ones evoked by the uninteresting photos after about 300-400 msec from onsets of presenting the photos. We concluded that the physiological responses of the brain can be measured when participants get kawaii feeing in watching photos.

Miyuki Yanagi a, Yousuke Yamasaki a, Yoshiyuki Yamariku b, Tomomi Takashina b, Yoshikazu Hirayama b, Ryota Horie a, Michiko Ohkura a

Conference Proceedings

The Role of the Designer in the Affective Design Process: the Principle of Accordance

Affective Design is gaining much attention from academic research and companies. In this paper, a research framework for assessing Innovation through Affective Design is presented. Moreover, Affective Design is correlated to Participatory Design through some definitions. The importance of an Affective approach during the earliest phases of design process is motivated. This study introduces Affective Design as a powerful approach in order to manage interactive Virtual Prototyping (iVP) methodology. The paper deals with issues regarding the great variability that iVP offers: the questions raised find answer in the notion of Accordance, which is defined on the basis of Product Semantics. A tool to implement iVP methodology with this approach is here presented. Finally, the results of a pilot study, qualitatively tested to assess the tool usability, are described.

Serena Camere, Monica Bordegoni

Conference Proceedings

Measurement Magic to Deliver Hair Beauty

We developed the method to evaluate hair beauty in terms of hair volume and hair alignment for development of hair care products. Optical Sectioning Method (OSM) based on laser triangulation was applied to measure 3D images of hair samples, and difference of volume control and ability of hair management was sensitively distinguished among hair care conditioners, which 2D imaging could not achieve. Here we introduce you to the OSM to measure hair volume and amount of frizzy hair. .

Yoshiko Nakao, Emiko Kato

Conference Proceedings

Emotion and Interface Design

Traditionally, human-computer interaction is conceived and assessed through the restrictive scope of usability. Although this approach has led to an overall improvement of the interfaces ease-of-use, it should now be overstepped. The question of the positive affect of users has become crucial for the interface project stakeholders. Our research is mostly turned towards applied perspectives. Our general hypothesis is that design strategies may affect positively the user, and influence a better attractiveness of the interface. Our objective is to define good design practices by assessing a set of emotional design patterns. In a first section, we will report an interview session with designers in order to identify any pattern of design for an emotional interface. Then, we will present and discuss a method to measure user’s emotion during an interface interaction experience. The experimental setup gathers screen records, face recognition, galvanic skin response, and questionnaires. These complementary sources bring forward the behavioral, physiological, and subjective emotional responses of the user. We will discuss how these resources can be used in order to measure the emotional effect of a specific user interface.

Damien Lockner, Nathalie Bonnardel

Conference Proceedings

Description of Subjective Impression for the Service Experience

The goal of the service activity is to give customers a positive impression on their experiences. Recently, the service quality is discussed in the context of the “user experience”. But it should be noted that the quality of service experience is different from that of user experience for the product in terms of its intangibility, inseparability of production and consumption, heterogeneity and perishability as was proposed by Zeithaml et al. (1985). The important point of the discussions on the user experience that we can apply to the service experience is that the quality of experience should be analyzed and discussed not from the stance of the manufacturer (or the service-provider) but from that of the user (or the customer). In other words, designers and engineers cannot design the user experience per se but can only design “for” the user experience. Because of this fact, we should put more emphasis on the subjective aspects, i.e. affective and pleasurable aspects, of the service activity.

Masaaki Kurosu, Ayako Hashizume

Conference Proceedings

The Elderly’s Text Entry on Smart Phones and Tablets: Challenges and Implications

This study aimed to investigate the elderly’s text entry experience on smart phones and tablets. An experiment was designed and conducted. During the experiment, 32 elders entered Chinese characters when using four applications (i.e., Contact, Microblog, Google Search, and Email) on four devices (i.e. Apple iPod Touch, Dell Streak, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and Apple iPad). They used two input methods (i.e. handwriting and typing) to enter text. The results indicated that although text entry on smart phones and tablets could avoid certain problems with feature phones (e.g. multi-tap), it also caused new problems for the elderly. They made 13 types of errors. The number and outcome of each error was recorded. This made it possible to check which error happen frequently but is easy to recover from, and which error seldom happen but is difficult to recover from. Based on the analysis of text entry errors, design suggestions were provided to improve the elderly’s text entry experience.

Jia Zhou, Pei-Luen Patrick Rau, Gavriel Salvendy, Jie Zhanga

Conference Proceedings

Should Internet of Things Be Human-like? Exploring Social Media Users’ Acceptance on Anthropomorphic Internet of Things

This study examined how anthropomorphism of the Internet of Things (IoT) influences users’ accepting IoT services. The objective was to explore uses’ mental model of IoT, and develop an IoT mental model compatible with users’. A laboratory experiment was conducted with 36 college students. The independent variables were hierarchy of things (non-hierarchy, location-based hierarchy, function-based hierarchy) and level of anthropomorphism (no anthropomorphism, language anthropomorphism only, language and appearance anthropomorphism). Users’ ratings on acceptance, trust, and satisfaction were measured after interacting with IoT systems with different characteristics of anthropomorphism. Results indicated that uses’ mental model was more compatible with the one involving anthropomorphism of language than appearance. Compared with non-hierarchical structure, users’ mental model was more compatible with structure with hierarchy, and no significant difference between functional and locational hierarchy was observed.

Mao Mao a, Pei-Luen Patrick Rau b

Conference Proceedings

Cognitive Training Profile for Older People in China

Nowadays China is facing a serious problem of aging population. Older people suffer losses in aspects, especially in cognitive function. It is necessary and worthwhile to design effective cognitive training programs, based on our knowledge of cognitive aging mechanisms, to help older people maintain and improve their cognitive abilities. The present paper aims to introduce the development of cognitive training program for older people from the following three aspects: a) the status quo of aging society in China, b) cognitive aging and its underlying mechanisms, and c) the approach and practice of cognitive training.

Wang Dahua, Xiao Hongrui

Conference Proceedings

Constructing Interactive Virtual Scenarios for Investigating Human Behaviors in Pre-movement Time of High-building Fire

Many fires in high-buildings have indicated that behaviors of occupants in period of pre-movement are important for survival. Pre-movement time and the behaviors in the pre-movement time are currently referred as most important factors that influence on the time of start to evacuate. The objective of this study is to identify occupants’ behaviors in the pre-evacuation time and the period of the pre-evacuation in the event of high-building in the fire. This study proposes three kinds of factors based on the literature and characteristics of the domestic residential building and fire alarm, which are fire characteristics, building characteristics, human characteristics. Based on these factors, the earlier stage of the whole study constructs interaction scenarios of building interior in fire. Based on the interactive scenes, this study will investigate occupants’ performance in the period of pre-movement time.

Hua Qin, Xinxin Feng, Wenhao Hou

Conference Proceedings

Comparing Mystery Shopping with Smartphone and Traditional Mystery Shopping

This study aims to investigate different methodologies in performing mystery shopping programs, i.e. new (call, SMS, and notes) and traditional methodologies in the aspect of shoppers’ workload, satisfaction, consistency, accuracy and timing. For that purpose, a single factor experiment with four levels was designed in this research. A smartphone and computer-mediated experiment was conducted with 40 Chinese students. The results showed that the traditional method was the most consistent method and there was no significant difference among the other three mystery shopping methods. However, the results also demonstrated that traditional method was the least accurate and there was no significant difference among the other three methods. The researcher also found that when conducting a mystery shopping program, the SMS method took the longest time, followed by the calling method. Finally, this research discusses the implications of these findings for developing mystery shopping guidelines.

Catherine Gabrielle Santoso a, Pei-Luen Patrick Rau a, Yubo Zhang a

Conference Proceedings

Research based on the iOS Platform on the Interface Design of Comprehensively Informationized Teaching System

This paper introduces the UI interface design and its application based on the iOS platform of comprehensively informationized teaching system. On the basis of typical examples of interfaces, results of user’s questionnaire and relevant theories, this paper attempts to present the UI interface in detail through the stages of discussion, design and implement. Meanwhile, in order to find balance between theoretical strictness and practical effectiveness, this paper will make every effort to point out the improvement methods and put forward solutions to the defect, according to the analysis of design under usability experience criterion.

Gao Songfeng, Bian Wenjing

Conference Proceedings

Beyond Convenience: The Role of Emotions in the Adoption of Sustainable Technologies

The slow adoption of sustainable technologies is cause for concern in an increasingly resource strained world. This study attempts to build on two main bodies of research: (1) a general technology adoption framework; i.e. the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and (2) work on the psychological design for affect; i.e. affective design. The purpose of this study is to report on the development and psychometric properties of the scales that will be used to assess the adoption of the Interface® Urban RetreatTM carpets (a sustainable carpet using recycled materials and possessing biophilic characteristics) in a follow up study. The Semantic Differential Scale developed for these carpets produced a wide range of affective qualities. The scale did not, however, support the underlying structure of Evaluative, Potency, and Activity as proposed by Osgood et al. (1957). The UTAUT scales presented with reasonable to good internal reliability and with the exception of ‘perceived effort’, the subscales were correlated with intention to adopt. Based on these two preliminary studies, the scales will be revised and then administered to determine the complementary roles of the utilitarian factors (based on the UTAUT) and emotional factors (based on the semantic differential scale developed for this purpose).

Andrew Thatcher, Mpho Lekitlane, Divia Riga

Conference Proceedings

Personalizable Vehicle User Interfaces for Better User Experience

In earlier research it has been shown that a personalizable product, one that is flexible and can be tailored to suit the users’ needs, can offer a closer, more emotional and personal attachment to the product that affects the way the product is used and experienced. The possibility to personalize a product can increase both user experience of the product and usability, since unwanted functions and appearance related features can be removed and other features more usable and relevant to the user can be chosen. The objective of this paper is to show that the possibility to personalize a product is beneficial for users emotional responses towards the product. In this paper data from a study that used experience prototyping to study what happens if computerized interface personalization features are brought into the vehicle context. Twenty participants participated in a study, where a personalizable vehicle driver interface prototype was evaluated with a number of methods, for example interviews and Microsoft product reaction cards. The interface prototype was integrated in a high fidelity driving simulator and the participants interacted with the system both while driving the simulator and while standing still in order to be in the right context for increased ecological validity. All of the participants would, to some extent, like to use a system like this in their own cars. The possibility to make a product ones’ own with a personal touch was important for many participants. This makes the users feel better and the product funnier and more entertaining to use. The usefulness and flexibility of the system was the most salient features and about 22% of the words best describing the users experience with the interface were related to their emotional experiences. It can be concluded that personalizable vehicle interfaces can increase both the usefulness and the user experience with the product.

Carl Jörgen Normark

Conference Proceedings

Eliciting User Experience through Rasch-Calibrated Metrics for Latent Variables

Measurement of affective user experience is not straightforward as it is typically to measure the physical properties of the elements that aggregate a product For this purpose, it is necessary to develop metrics associating observed user experience in the real world with a relevant latent (i.e., unobserved) attribute of the product. However, metrics for latent variables can be undermined by misinterpretation, ambiguity, unfamiliarity, bias, redundancy and multidimensionality. For this reason, anomalies in data ought to be investigated through a robust measurement theory to determine to what extent they corrupt quantitative properties. This paper shows that Rasch measurement theory, which embraces a family of probabilistic models, provides procedures referred to as calibration to test the hypothesis that the metric fulfils measurement principles. As a result, linear scales of affective user experience can be aligned to physical properties of products, allowing generalization of comparisons beyond the particular sample under which a particular product experience was observed.

Fabio R Camargo

Conference Proceedings

Specification of Affective User Experience in Product Design

This contribution reviews approaches and methods for developing product design specifications that place emphasis and priority on affective user experience. Understanding customers’ affective needs is difficult to grasp. For example, if a person wants an impression of luxuriousness, then it is necessary to investigate which product design attributes make the individual sense such an impression. To answer this question, the relationship between affective features and product design attributes should be analyzed, considering an interactive, evolving, and individual perspective. Pleasure with products, Kansei engineering, product emotion, Fuben-eki and product personalities are the approaches reviewed to illustrate the existing resources for specification of affective user experience in design. The notion of a product's ecosystem as part of the design of the user experience is related to experience prototyping. With the aim of providing guidance to designers, this contribution discusses whether the affective user experience specification methods translate directly into product design features, or if these are attained by trial and error, the latter being mostly the case, except for Fuben-eki. An expanding vision of futurism and evolution, based on projected future technological capabilities, may be associated to gradually enriching affective user experiences, increasingly demanding users and enlarging and more pervasive product ecosystems.

Denis A. Coelho

Conference Proceedings

A Study of Passengers’ Real-Time Emotional Responses and Comfort Experience During the Flight Using an Experience Sampling Method

The majority of research on passengers’ subjective and holistic comfort relies on the retrospective recall of their experiences. Moreover, studies on the emotional responses of passengers to the aircraft interior are infrequent. This paper addresses the above issues by investigating the real-time comfort and emotional responses of passengers during the flight using an Experience Sampling Method (ESM). The results showed that the real time comfort remains constant during the flight, suggesting that passengers’ first impressions of the cabin could potentially determine their overall comfort. The results of emotional assessment highlighted two emotion groups as significant to passengers’ overall comfort in long haul flights. Those are wellbeing (e.g. joy/feeling good) and prospect-based (e.g. frustration/disappointment) emotions, evoked by passengers’ evaluation of several cabin features based on their concerns for a sense of security, peace and relaxation, and accomplishment. Enhancing passenger comfort should involve improving their experience with those features though fulfilling their concerns, offering higher degrees of joy and lowering frustration.

Naseem Ahmadpoura, Jean-Marc Roberta, Gitte Lindgaardb

Conference Proceedings

Reconciling Affective and Ergonomic Objectives of Product Design

This paper describes a methodology for optimizing the pleasurable affects of a product's design without mitigating ergonomic imperatives. Drawn from well-established principles of psychology and information science, it has been developed and applied in both educational and professional settings. A designer employs it by manipulating just four of a product's visual properties: contrast (objective information); novelty (subjective information); and two properties called objective concinnity and subjective concinnity that facilitate a viewer's ability to process the design's inherent information quickly enough to derive affective pleasure and/or ergonomic benefit from it.

Del Coates

Conference Proceedings

About the Nature of Kansei Information

Kansei studies refer to the more and more holistic consideration of the cognitive and affective processes which occur during user experience. In addition, few studies deal with the experience of the designers during the design process, and its influence on the final design outputs. Historically kansei engineering has been firstly focused on the semantic differential approach. Afterwards emotions were integrated into kansei approaches. The semantic differential approach enabled to evaluate products and then to generate automatically design solutions with semantic input data. Thereafter, evaluations have been completed by physiological measurements in order to reduce the subjectivity involved in those evaluations and also to capture some unconscious reactions. This implementation is still in process. Today kansei studies have been much enriched from the three disciplines of design science, psychology and artificial intelligence. The cross influence between these disciplines brought new dimensions into kansei approaches (multisensory design information, personality, values, and culture, new formalisms and algorithms) which lead progressively towards the consideration of a whole enriched kansei experience. We propose in this paper a description of the nature of kansei information. Then we present some major orientations for kansei evaluation. Finally we propose an overall table gathering information about kansei dimensions and formats.

Carole Boucharda, Jieun Kimb

Conference Proceedings

Emotional Engineering and PLM

Quickly increasing diversification and frequent and extensive changes in our environments and situations call for new frameworks for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Mass Customization and Personalization (MCP) and their effective integration.\This paper points out that if we introduce modular design and manufacturing and if we divide modules into functional ones and emotionally appealing ones, we can reduce time, cost and energy considerably, because we can substantially minimize modular diversifications and at the same time can increase emotional satisfaction of our customers.

Shuichi Fukuda

Conference Proceedings

Experience-Driven New Concept Development Projects: Differences in Context, Design Activities, and Design Information Conveyed

In this paper, twenty-seven experience-centred industrial design projects were analysed. Information was gathered from interviews with former project team members and from an analysis of the projects’ final reports. All of the projects involved at least the Toyota Motor Europe – Kansei Design (TME-KD) division. Three types of projects were identified: “exploratory concept,” “product lining strategy,” and “pre-development direction.” For each project groups, the analysis detailed specificities in terms of context (purpose, design team members), design activities (information, generation, evaluation & decision, communication), and regarding the nature of their outputs and the type of design information they conveyed. This led to a comparison of the different types of projects and a discussion about the kansei-related design information exchange in early design stages. A model of kansei-related design information based on these discussions is finally presented.

Alexandre Gentner, Carole Bouchard

Conference Proceedings

Emergence of Self Awareness Using Shared Knowledge

Because of the progress of Internet and search engine represented by Google, the value of idea is increasing instead of the value of knowledge. Mind Maps are the famous and useful method to support imagination and association. However, to make the Mind Maps by oneself causes the partial knowledge and idea. From this viewpoint, we have proposed the idea generation support system by using the shared knowledge made by the colleagues who have same background and Google Suggest. To investigate the effectiveness of shared knowledge and Google Suggest on the idea generation, we performed a couple of experiments. As a result, the performance by using the proposed system with shared knowledge was superior to others, and also the subjects tend to prefer the proposed system with shared knowledge.

Masashi Okubo

Conference Proceedings

Gender-Sensitive Product Design by Kansei Engineering: An Application Example Using Kano-Questionnaire

The paper presents a quantitative study based on the Kano-model to gender-sensitive product design by adapting the Japanese user-centered approach of Kansei Engineering. Underlying assumption of the approach is that products are not only perceived by functionality, but essentially by emotions such as joy of use and satisfaction for the fulfilment of user-centered product requirements. Thereby, the customers’ satisfaction is investigated by applying the Kano-method, a procedure to structure product requirements and to determine their influence on customers’ satisfaction. In this study, product designers overtake the role of the customer in order to bridge perspective gaps between customers and designers of products. Thereby it is analyzed, how designers perceive and evaluate products, which requirements they claim as relevant and satisfying, and to what extent the gender plays a role. The results of the study indicate that for the creation of designers’ (as customers’) satisfaction, the same product requirements are – more or less – relevant for both genders. However, there are slight differences in the perception and evaluation of product requirements observable. While women place great importance on hedonic characteristics such as attractiveness, the men are rather indifferent regarding product requirements.

Eva-Maria Jakobs, Bianka Trevisan, Robert Schmitt

Conference Proceedings

Towards Humor Modelling and Facilitation in Smart Environments

We know about word play, verbal jokes, and about humor that appears spontaneously in conversations. This humor is studied in computational linguistics, together with issues such as verbal incongruities, ambiguities, irony and sarcasm. These appearances of humor are also part of computational humor studies, where a broader view is taken, that is, a view that includes artificial intelligence, reasoning, common-sense and context representations, and machine learning. But there are other kinds of humor. We can laugh about events that appear in our physical world. We can play an active role in having these events happening. Obviously, they can be accompanied with verbal comments and interaction. Nowadays physical worlds are equipped with multimodal sensors and multimedia actuators. Environments do not only have human inhabitants, but also tangibles, wearables, social robots and 2D and 3D display possibilities that can help to create changes in the world that is perceived by its human inhabitants. The possibility of humor creation can be transferred from the purely linguistics worlds of text and verbal exchanges to virtual, mixed, augmented and physical reality intelligent environments equipped with sensors and actuators that can help to create and control humorous events. In this paper we introduce this research area and we survey what is available in humor research literature that may help to establish this research area. Applications of this research include avatar behavior in videogames, robot and product behavior in entertainment, social, and game environments, and in smart physical environments that allow for playful and humorous events.

Anton Nijholt

Conference Proceedings

Psychophysiologically Evaluated Visuo-Tactile Affection using Printed Fabrics

The present study compared to the three perceptional conditions of tactile affection−tactile tactility, visual tactility, and visuo-tactile affections−using psychological evaluation and psychophysiological methods. A comparative study was performed to fine out the differences of psychological and psychophysiological tactile perception according to the conditions of tactile perception. Furthermore, it also aims to find out the important fabric factor for tactile affection. Through the previous study, we found the fabric factors which influenced in tactile affection of fabrics: weave construction and fabric pattern. Total of six printed fabrics were developed by DTP method on naturally colored organic cotton fabrics as stimuli. Thirty participants were placed by randomized incomplete block design for the experiment. For measuring psychological affection, questionnaire was developed using a 9 points semantic differential scale. Electroencephalogram(EEG) was measured as a CNS response and electrocardiogram(ECG), skin conductance level(SCL), and photoplethysmography(PPG) were quantified as ANS responses. According to the results, perceptional condition had little effect on psychological and psychophysiological tactile perception. Significant effects on perceptional condition showed only on “showy-plain” affection and SCL response. Mostly, weave construction was more important fabric factor to perceive tactile affection than fabric pattern. However, the importance of fabric pattern also observed through the interaction effects.

Myungeun Lee, Gilsoo Cho

Conference Proceedings

Effective Design of Recreation Activities in the Group Home for the Elderly with Dementia

People with dementia spend their daily lives in solitude and anxiety. We aim to provide them with a sense of security and peace through a combination of nursing and medical care. This is the philosophy of the Kaide and Terado group homes, operated by TM medical services. The burden on family members stems more from the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, (BPSD,) rather than from core symptoms like memory and cognitive impairment. Due to this heavy burden on family members, family carers are available as one of the services of long-term care insurance. Group homes are another service covered by long-term care insurance, and allow people with dementia to receiving care in small groups while living as part of a community. The homes we discuss rely on both drug therapy and psychotherapy for treating BPSD, which presents in such forms as delusions of victimization, excitement, violence, and wandering. By providing care that encourages close connections to residents with dementia, and by arranging their living environment properly, group homes become places where people with dementia are supported by care staff and can live each day as human beings. In order to realize the principles on which we base our care, it is necessary for care staff to deepen their understanding of dementia. Also, we have developed various gimmicks based on recognized psychotherapy techniques like reminiscence therapy, music therapy, horticultural therapy, and animal therapy. One of our gimmicks is utilizing Japanese traditional arts to provide quality care in our group homes. In this paper, we report on a workshop in traditional Japanese flower arrangement, or ikebana, which was carried out in the Terado group home. This report includes results verifying the effect of this lesson on the mental stability of participants, using the GBS Scale and interviews with care staff to reveal the secret of the success of this lesson.

Teruko Doi a b, Noriaki Kuwahara b, Kazunari Morimoto b

Conference Proceedings

The Development of a Mental Support System for the Elderly Living in Depopulated Areas of Japan

We have studied a method to improve the QOL for the elderly receiving facility care, or home care in depopulated areas of Japan by taking advantage of information and communication technology (ICT). As part of these efforts, old photos of the elderly were digitized and uploaded to cloud services. We created an environment to make these images accessible to staff caregivers so that they could utilize the data in various long-term care settings. Multimedia, such as interactive digital photo albums and slide show videos were produced by using uploaded photos. The elderly, along with their families and caregivers enjoyed watching personal images which resulted in stronger relationships with family and the care staff. We also created an environment to introduce and promote video chat software in order to increase the opportunity of communication between the elderly and their significant others. Video chat software makes it possible for the person you are talking with to share reminiscent media, as described above, and to be able to listen from a remote location. Finally, we have organized human resources and collaborated with a local welfare service and a local hospital in order to provide support to the elderly living alone. A method was proposed to build a rapport between the elderly and their support systems..

Noriaki Kuwahara a, Tsuji Airi a, Taro Asada b, Yasunari Yoshitomi b, Jin Narumoto c, Kazunari Morimoto a

Conference Proceedings

The Effect of Salt-Shrinkage on the Silk Union Fabrics by Continuous Treatment System

The continuous treatment system of salt-shrinkage and their use to improve stretch and crease resistance by silk union fabrics. Calciumnitrate (specific gravity 1.43) were produced on silk union fabrics. The fabric stretch to the ASTM D3107-07(2008) test over five repetitions was determined. When applied to silk/cotton and silk/wool union fabrics by a continuous treatment procedure, in the presence of sodium nitrate, all of these fabrics gave excellent stretch and crease resistance properties, although the times required varied. The continuous treatment procedure required to achieve stretch and crease resistance, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Kyu-Beom Kima, Min-Ju Kim band Moon-Sik Kim c

Conference Proceedings

Design of Studded Paving Block and Bollard Using LED for Assisting Walk of Low-vision People at Night

Individuals with low vision tend to avoid going out at night. This is because moving around at night can be very dangerous. The number of individuals with vision-related ailments is increasing with the growing elderly population. There is a need to make moving at night safer for them. In this research, 2 devices using LED lights to guide pedestrians suffering from low vision are designed. The first device is a light emitting studded paving block. By blinking LED lights, the location of studded paving blocks can be confirmed from a distance. The second is a light emitting bollard between car lanes and sidewalks. Up until now, the position of bollards has been difficult to detect visually at night. Making bollards illuminate allows their position to be confirmed and creates a safer atmosphere for the pedestrian. In this research, the brightness level that individuals with low vision are most likely to notice was sought through experiment, and technology was developed to retain this light over a long period of time using minimal electrical current.

Kazunari Morimoto a, Noriaki Kuwahara a, Takao Suzuki b, Yoshinari Gyoba a

Conference Proceedings

Concept and Development of Personal Mobility Vehicles for Indoor Use by Persons with Walking Difficulty

This paper presents a concept of personal mobility vehicles for indoor use by PERSONs WITH WALKING DIFFICULTY and its development approach. In recent years, many persons with walking difficulty desire to live independently in the house as long as possible. Especially, existing means of personal mobility vehicles (e.g. electric-powered wheelchairs) face a lot of problems of obstacles in the house such as there exist many steps, furniture, narrow corridors and aisles and so on. In order to live in house independently, the persons with walking difficulty try to do light working. For these purposes, a new type of mobility vehicles for such persons are required to live independently in the house. In this paper, we investigate the new concept of personal mobility vehicles for persons with walking difficulty living independently in the house and its feasibility of development. The required specifications of the proposed personal mobility vehicles are to have compact size, light weight, and omni-directionality. Furthermore, this personal mobility vehicle has the elevation seat and the softness of the seat to change the person’s position for light working.

Yuichi Sawada a, Yoshiyuki Higashi a, Kazunari Morimoto b, Masanobu Nishimura c

Conference Proceedings

Creative Design of Powered Wheelchair Based on Concept Analysis and Pleasurable Ideas Proposed by Designers and Educators

We conducted the pilot study about construction design concept using the development of design ideas in collaboration with educators and designers. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of design results in which the new design method we devised brings. We set a design challenge a vehicle to assist the movement of difficulty walking person in this study. First, we share the knowledge about the physical and psychological characteristics of the user. Then, we share the knowledge about the traveling and function they understand each ideas. We figured that a point of view of driving characteristics required for the vehicle for the mobile support. Finally, designers make the basic vehicle design based on knowledge shared with educators and designers and propose design plan of educators and designers change recognition that wheelchairs are substitution of legs and understood that the consideration for difficulty walking persons makes a deeper design. Though there are a lot of design methods, we figured that we created designs full of innovative and interesting ideas with fusion of deep sensitivity and knowledge for target to design by using the design method in collaboration with educators and designers proposed in this research.

Masanobu Nishimura a, Kazunari Morimoto b

Conference Proceedings

Study on Preferred Gestural Interaction of Playing Music for Wrist Wearable Devices

Recently, many gesture-based interactive devices have been developed. Gesture is one of the most intuitive and natural ways to communicate each other, so gesture recognition technology is becoming huge issues in interaction design. Wrist wearable devices such as smart watches, Nike FuelBand, and Samsung Galaxy Gear are vitalized on the market, and there are attempts to control the wrist wearable devices with gestural interaction. In order to design more user-centered devices, development of gesture standards which gesture is appropriate for which operation becomes very important. In particular, there are two different situations gesture interaction is required: 1) people control objects that exist around then such as TV and vehicle, and 2) people control objects put on their body such as smart watch. This paper assumes that the two different situations may require different gesture interactions. The goal of this paper is to reveal preferred gesture interaction for wrist wearable devices. The function of playing music is selected for the experiment because it is most common and popular function on almost all digital devices. This paper consists of three parts: 1) collect existing gesture signal conventions and categorize them, 2) conduct a survey to find out preferred gestures for each function of playing music in two different situations, and 3) analyze the result for defining the most preferred gesture interactions and considering rationales for designing gesture interaction for wrist wearable device.

Euichul Jung, Young Joo Jang, Whang Jae Lee

Conference Proceedings

Industrial Design Modeling for a WiFi Base Station Device

This paper presents the methodologies and the systematic approaches in the industrial design development process to incorporate aesthetic and affective elements in a WiFi Base Station device. EQUID (Ergonomics Quality in Design) design approach was applied where users’ requirements were identified in early design stage utilizing Kawakita Jiro (KJ) method. Benchmarking and trend analysis were also conducted in early stage to understand market trends, compare features and faults in existing product in the market, at the same time finding opportunities for improvement in our own product. The development of the fashion driven shape of the WiFi Base Station Device, the color chosen and the branding profile creation were also discussed in the paper. By using a user centered design approach, several design concepts and prototypes have been developed and user’s emotions towards each concept in focus group have been captured. The survey was carried out at the end of this paper to assess the design effectiveness.

Soo Li Choong, Khairul Nazri Abd Wahib, Mohd Nizam Najmuddin, Saharudin Busri

Conference Proceedings

Exploring the Role of Emotion in the Design Cycle

Scholars have focused on “design and emotion” for more than a decade. Various studies, models, and theories have been proposed and adopted to explore the relationship between design and emotion, and to explain how emotion can be applied in the design process. After the theories are categorised according to the respective focuses, three main components that influence or are influenced by emotion can be identified: designers, design outcome and users or consumers in the design cycle. Based on the relationships amongst these components, numerous similar terms categorised under emotion and design that have clear and concrete rationales and definitions have been developed. For instance, “emotionalised design” refers to design in which designers introduce their emotions into the design process. “Emotional design” is viewed as design that can stimulate users’ or consumers’ emotion. “Emotion design” is design in which emotional concerns are involved in the interactions between designers and users.However, few studies have focused on designers’ perceptions of these terms and of the role of emotion in design. By conducting an empirical study, we investigated designers’ perceptions of three terms, emotion design, emotional design, and emotionalised design, and explored designers’ experience regarding emotion and design.

Amic G. Ho

Conference Proceedings

A Suggestion on the Development of Children’s Safe Clothes Design Using Complementary Colors Effect

Some of pedestrian accidents are caused the drivers can’t distinguish pedestrians from surroundings, especially on the rainy/foggy/snowy days and nights. To reduce the pedestrian accidents, some children’s raincoats are designed with evident colors. And street cleaner’s uniforms use fluorescent fabric in the same purpose. According to the recent reports, flickering lights can improve object’s visibility more than fluorescent colors in the dark environment. The purpose of the proposed study is to develop safe clothes design applying complementary colors and blinking and moving LED lights. The implementation technology of complementary color and blinking LED effect for improving visibility of pedestrians that help to reduce the number of traffic accidents. This study contains 3 contents. First, before verifying a hypothesis that complementary color helps pedestrian to be recognized, it needs to be formed an algorithm. Inevitably, general color sensors hardly detect surrounding colors. Unless they are approached to subject’s surface to detect, its accuracy would not have enough effectuality. So, in this paper tries to find the algorithm that helps effective detecting by using camera. It includes computer vision technology and helps to find accurate surrounding environment’s colors. Second, this study developed a children’s raincoat applying technology that detect main color of the surrounding environment and show LED lights of its complementary color. The raincoat would help to reduce children’s traffic accidents on a rainy/foggy/snowy or any type of day. We also developed user scenario in order to explain several situations. The last, we conducted the examination to verify the effectiveness of technology and suggest the possibility of various clothes design. The method and steps for examination are as follows. Build 4 Color sensors(TSC3200S), LEDs, Arduino platform in rain coat. The color sensors attached front, back, right, left sides on raincoat detect each main color of surroundings. Then Arduino platform convert the detected color to complementary color then, show LEDs. This study would be useful to street cleaners’ uniform design who exposed to more danger and general pedestrians’ accessories.

Yun Hee Lee, Kyungbo Min, Ji Eun Kim, Yoolee Kim

Conference Proceedings

How to Design Great Emotional Experience for Mobile User Interface?

Emotion is easily recognized but difficult to define. For example, emotion has been a famous topic for a long time in user experience (UX) design. However, it has been a question of long standing how to systematically evaluate and design emotion, while maintaining qualitative aspects of emotion (e.g., not-measurable aspects). We developed the systematic tool for emotional UX design, while leaving some room for designer’s creativity. To develop the tool, participants performed various tasks using smartphone, generating both positive and negative emotions. Once people’s emotions were identified, ideal emotional journey, consisting emotional solutions, were created. In order to create ideal emotions, general design principles were proposed. Finally, more specific UX solutions were developed based on general design principles. Some of our UX solutions were applied to design new messenger for smartphone, emotionally augmenting communicating experiences.

Dongbin Tobin Choa, Jongwoo Junga, Insik Myunga, Hyewon Leea, Patrick W. Jordan b

Conference Proceedings

A Study on the Behavioral Characteristics of the Elderly Living in a Smart Home

The purpose of this study is to investigate behavioral of the elderly living in smart home using the diary study method and to analyze the characteristic required according to behavior and smart home service. For the research of the characteristics of service-use, the seven types of main smart home services were chosen by analyzing previous research. We carried out a diary study with ten elderly people over the age of 65 in smart home environment. They recorded their every behavior for one week by themselves. Diary study items consist of four parts: 1) time, 2) activity, 3) device, 4) place. The result of this study, findings of behavioral characteristics of the elderly reveal that most of them spend their time on personal care, socializing and leisure activities. While elderly generally did not fully utilize smart home functions, there was high usage frequency and preference for automatic intelligence service compared to manual. Therefore, smart home services related to these characteristics should be considered as a top priority.

Hyo Chang Kim, Sang Min Ko, Yong Gu Ji

Conference Proceedings

Development of Visual Complexity Model Framework in Driving Context

Recently, in-vehicle environments have become smart environment with advances in IT technology. The vehicle is no longer just a means of transportation but gets the nature of information system. Therefore, in order to convey more information than in the past, a variety of displays are set up in vehicle. The object of this study is to develop visual complexity model framework for evaluating system interface. To accomplish this, we reviewed the literature about complexity measures in terms of Human-Machine Interaction and analyzed the characteristics of in-vehicle environment characteristics. Then we suggest visual complexity model framework.

Seul Chan Lee, Ji Man Kim, Hwan Hwangbo, Yong Gu Ji

Conference Proceedings

Cognitive and Affective UI for Enhanced Usability

Dynamic working conditions along with the user’s physical and emotional state have significant impact upon the usability and security of the system. As applications continue to provide increasingly sophisticated and complex functionality coupled with the widespread deployment of smart phones and tablets, critical information is at the fingertips of users. This level of accessibility substantially increases the possibilities of cyber security breaches. The impact of usability on reliability and security of the system are well understood, but what is not addressed is the impact of changing environment and cognitive load on the usability of the system. In this paper, we present the framework that constantly determines the user’s affective state, cognitive load, and context information and makes real-time adaptations to the User Interface to enhance the usability and security of the system. The framework can operate in a multi or single-mode configuration. The multi-mode configuration considers all factors before making a decision, whereas the single-mode automatically learns to use only the available information.

Sohail Rafiqia, Suku Naira, Ephrem Fernandezb

Conference Proceedings

Effects of Loading Lags and Displays on Television Viewing Experience

Information communication technology industry now focuses on the market of interactive televisions. However, user requirements in this growing market have not been fully understood. Television viewing experience can be regarded as a type of user experience, and this study aims to assess the effects of video loading lags and displayed loading indicators on users' television viewing experience. A 2×5 between-subject factorial experiment was designed. The first independent variable was the loading display with two types: a text-only animation and an animated text with a running percentage bar. The second independent variable was the loading lag with five durations: 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 seconds. One hundred university students were recruited as participants to watch two music videos with an assigned loading lag and display in between, and then to complete a questionnaire about their satisfaction and pleasure. Results showed that there was a significant effect of loading lags on user interaction satisfaction and pleasurability. A marginal significant effect of loading displays on pleasurability was also found. Post-hoc comparisons revealed that the loading lag should be limited up to 15 seconds for maintaining satisfaction, and up to 10 seconds to sustaining pleasure. Findings of this study can provide useful guidelines for the design of interactive televisions.

Sheau-Farn Max Liang, Jiunn-Horng Lian

Conference Proceedings

Impact of Multidisciplinary Teams on the End-User Consideration in the Building Industry

Building construction projects are characterized by a sequential process that includes an important amount of stakeholders. In most cases the end-user is a direct customer of the contracting body which is a direct customer of AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) companies. Literature tends to describe the consideration of end-user needs by the building construction industry as less developed than the manufacturing industry. The objective of the paper is to study how the multiplicity of actors impacts the consideration and therefore satisfaction of the end users by the companies. The study was realized with the help of a contracting body company throughout a project which allowed us to interview actors from different professions. Exploratory analysis is divided in two parts. First of all we produced a mapping of the building design process, then we identified to what extent decisions of professionals are based on identified end-users needs. The first results tend to indicate that the level of awareness of companies toward the requirement of the other stakeholders differs depending on their level of interaction with those stakeholders. Further development of this analysis will help to conclude on the interdependence between the fragmented organization and the end-users needs consideration by the companies.

Xavier Latortue ab

Conference Proceedings

Integrating User Attention for Design Evaluations in Customer-Oriented Product Development

The importance of user-oriented design enhancing Perceived Quality increases. The impact of customers’ emotions on purchasing decisions increases the interest in applying multi-sensorial measurement methods during the product development process (PDP) in order to objectify emotions. It is important that emotional information about products can be gathered and applied by the combined usage of visual impressions with different modalities for capturing and objectifying user attention and emotions. Furthermore, rules are necessary to define a sufficient level of data as well as to communicate it into product development. This paper describes a methodology based on principles of Kansei Engineering and presents selected results of the research project CONEMO. An overview is given on how to measure and to use emotion and objectified data about quality perception for decision-making during a customer-oriented product development. CONEMO aims at a standardized procedure with an easy-to-follow methodology that is based on a Quality Gate systematics which involves customers’ attention and emotional evaluation of design alternatives during early phases of PDP and contains descriptions, requirements, measurement parameters, product structure and function. Specifications were developed to transfer Eye-Tracking data into design requirements to combine both latent, objectified and explicit, conscious data during the PDP. The presented methodology intends to support product designers by evaluating product concepts and innovations.

Markus Köhler, Björn Falk, Robert Schmitt

Conference Proceedings

Development of Interactive System for the Visually Impaired using Tactile Sensations and Gestures

Even though previous studies have confirmed the superior abilities of the visually impaired to identify tactile sensations, few systems use such abilities. In this study, we developed and evaluated an interactive system that utilizes the superior abilities of the visually impaired by adding active elements of gestures to increase their enjoyment. We employed the TECHTILE toolkit as a device to give tactile sensations to players and Kinect for Windows as a device to recognize their gestures and developed an interactive system with different types of tactile sensations and corresponding gestures. We experimentally evaluated our system.

Keisuke Usuda, Syuhei Matsuoka, Michiko Ohkura

Conference Proceedings

Human Concepts Applied on School Design

The project to an early childhood school started from this problematic: why do not schools offer efficient quality spaces to early childhood education? As an answer, it was suggested that the school building, besides presenting a fitting spatial solution to a pedagogical proposition, should consider playing as a very important activity in the learning process. Have been considered the hypothesis that most schools do not present appropriate environments for child education and that playful activity in a complex scholar space is essential to this process. The confirmation of these hypothesis led to an idea which embraces the human concepts of welcoming, complexity, versatility, transparence and playfulness, determinative to the project guidelines: integration with the community; open sketch/nature interaction; school as a small learning community; natural lighting and ventilation; cozy environments; walking as a learning tour; adaptability/flexibility/variety; transparence and passive supervision; architecture that teaches/sustainability; exterior spaces and playful stimulus; material, textures and colors as identity elements.

Elza Cristina Santos

Conference Proceedings

Using Game-Based Collaborative Learning to Enhance Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is an essential quality in complex problem solving. Many researchers have proposed that collaborative peer learning could enhance critical thinking, because learners could understand more diverse views by sharing different perspectives on a given situation. The work presented in this paper aims to explore a possible relationship between game-based collaborative learning and critical thinking. A serious mixed reality business game was developed and employed in the present study. Twenty-five undergraduate students were recruited and divided into three groups: an individual learning group, and two collaborative learning groups with distinct learning conditions. After completing the experimental learning tasks, the participants were asked to create presentations, either alone (for the single players) or with their partners, to outline their approaches to solving the problems presented in the game. The results indicate that the three groups showed only slight differences in learning performance (e.g., memorization); however, the difference in their levels of critical thinking was more significant. There appeared to be a strong relationship between learning in pairs and an array of positive intellectual outcomes. Further, the different learning conditions between the two collaborative learning groups also led to significant differences in the level of critical thinking.

Hokyoung Blake Ryua, David Parsonsb, Hyunjeong Leea

Conference Proceedings

Challenges of Designing a Life-Log Sharing System – The Pensieve

Although the privacy issue is still debated, an incessant interest and attention on the life-log could be explained by its potential applications. Though there are many challenges to realize its potentials, life-log as one’s memory aiding tool has been paid much attention. A series of images captured by the wearable camera are too voluminous and useless to keep the whole data to the collection owner. What the users really want to get from the device is not to review their own whole past life, but retrieve their meaningful moments, further share their meaningful experiences with others. In this regard, the author limited the role of life-log, as resourceful life hints that could give opportunities to reminisce one’s meaningful experience and exchange their experience with others. In this position paper we discuss what is necessary to consider to build a life-log data sharing system for our future research direction, (i) what one’s meaningful experience is; (ii) How the meaningful experience could be defined with life-log data; (iii) How the meaningful data conveys to the 3rd person to exchange and share one’s experience effectively.

Ahreum Lee, Jieun Kim, Hokyoung Ryu

Conference Proceedings

A SWOT Analysis of the Gamification Practices: Challenges, Open Issues and Future Perspectives

In this paper, we present a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis for the gamification field. The analysis will begin with a review of the topics frequently discussed in relation to gamification strengths and weaknesses, by reporting existing works in the field. The work will continue by outlining an analysis of opportunities and threats, that require an examination of marketing and design trends, with the aim to provide a strategy for guessing what lies ahead in the future. We are not aiming at a complete review of all the relevant works in this field; we want to identify a useful tool to spot both positive and negative aspects of gamification, as well as its perspectives of development and its risks of decline, describing some elements through which imagine its future, showing limits, challenges, ethical issues, expectations and possible evolutions of this phenomenon.

Amon Rapp

Conference Proceedings

Content Evaluation of Exciting Feeling by Using Biosignals

Entertainment markets continue to expand, and Interactive systems are becoming more and more common, fueled by the dramatic progress in the fields of computer graphics and hardware (Tetsuro Aoto, 2007). In the content of such interactive systems, important factors include increasing excitement. Thus, we use young adult males in their twenties and assess their opinions of “exciting” by questionnaires and employed it as a keyword to clarify their exciting scene. Based on our questionnaire results, we created two game contents and evaluated whether they elicited exciting feeling using biological signals.

Yoshihiro Harada, Takahiro Furuya, Nobumichi Takahashi, Koyo Hasegawa, Tomoaki Nakazato, Michiko Ohkura

Conference Proceedings

Toys and Product Longevity

This article explores how a child’s personalization of play themes is connected to the experience of play and furthermore how such creative activity can influence feelings toward toys, and subsequently how this affects the degree of pleasure elicited by play, and finally how this influences the toys’ longevity. The basis for the study is an experiment performed with children from 6 to 9 years old, where situations of purchase and play, were observed. The empirical data is explored within the framework of pragmatist aesthetics and Art as Experience by John Dewey. This analysis brought forth the following key factors for classification: intellectual classification, recognition, resistance, and creation of personal experience. The analysis suggests that there is a tendency for children not to create their own play theme when a new toy is presented through associated media that proposes a theme for the play activity. Furthermore, it is suggested that the personalization of play themes enables the child to create personal experiences, a factor that contributes to a higher degree of pleasure, which can delay the child’s desire to replace the toy. Implications for designers: create toys that let the child in on the process of creating and altering play themes.

Tore Gulden

Conference Proceedings

Design Algorithm for Empathy

Emotional design is a design theory that takes the emotional values/effects of users into consideration in the design process. This theory has been devoted to the appearance of the final product with integration of an emotion and/or interactivity. Emotional design is closely related to user behavior research as it often incorporates physical interactions with the users. However, the study of the user behavior is often limited to the instant interaction with the users without consideration of cultural and social behavior. The article, Design Algorithm for Empathy, emphasizes a more systemic approach within the emotional design process, which should involve strategies created from service design research and that of sociology. The paper argues that the execution of emotional design should involve a significantly more comprehensive research on cultural and social sources. The article is also concerned with the focus merely on the appearance of the design, which may result in superficial and temporary problem solving tactics rather than a more sustainable strategy.

Hyuna Park

Conference Proceedings

Invisible Boundary in Design, Emotional Safety Net

As our society gets complicated and faster than ever, we have much relied on technologies in order to keep our lives intact. Moreover, new technologies are introduced every day and every month, and it is hard for the users to keep up with the technologies. This phenomenon contradicts between the users and trends, the users seek out better technologies, simultaneously, and the users tend to keep their old habits and are harder to be swayed to get into a new system than times with fewer technologies involved in because the users tend to stay in their comfort zones in scope of artifact. Nowadays, interconnected and interrelated technologies make even harder for the users to move to the new system. The comfort zone from the users plays a big role in not only design, but also marketing field, brand loyalty. Once the users create their comfort zone in scope of artifact, the users establish “emotional safety net” in scope of artifact. This paper will define, “emotional safety net in design” and explore how to incorporate to design process.

Cliff Shin

Conference Proceedings