Products loved by users: Developing a tool to assist designers' awareness of user emotional responses to products

Some products appear to generate strong emotional responses amongst particular user groups. The phrases 'love it' and 'hate it' can often heard. As design is becoming less about products and more about designing user experience, it becomes more important than ever that designers are sensitive and aware of user experiences. Developing empathy is proving to be a valuable element in supporting more effective design outcomes. This paper explores such emotional responses in a sample of first year industrial design undergraduates from the UK. Students were required to work in small groups and identify a product they agreed they 'loved' and one that they 'hated'. Each group then employed brainstorming techniques to explore why they responded that way in terms of the specific features or aspects of products. The pooled results were collected and evaluated. In addition a focus group discussion was conducted to explore these students' views on the relationship of design and emotion. For this study, 'love it' responses to products provide the focus of this paper. Patterns were identified and a comparison made between the two sets of qualitative data. In this way the authors intend to work towards building a form of 'checklist' of 'buttons to press' design cues, design triggers⋯. when designing. This will, of course need to be related to the practice of teaching and learning of design. Whilst it is appreciated that effective design cannot be distilled into a checklist it is hoped that such a list may represent a useful design tool.