Emotišnal Design
Understanding how design creates emotional responses, meaning and attachment.
We don't simply use the things we own. Some products become associated with memories, experiences, identity and relationships. They can make us feel comfortable, nostalgic, proud or connected.
What is Emotional Design?
Emotional Design is an area of design research concerned with the relationship between people, products and emotion.
My research explores how Emotional Design can help us understand and create stronger relationships between people and the products they use.
Theoretical Foundations
My research builds on these established ideas, exploring how Emotional Design can be translated into practical approaches for designers.
Visceral
Our immediate response to how something looks and feels.
Behavioural
Our experience of using and interacting with a product or service.
The meaning, memories, identity and associations we attach to it.
Reflective
One of the most influential contributions to the field is Donald Norman's Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things (2004), which proposed three interconnected levels through which people respond to products:
My Research
My PhD investigated Emotional Design within furniture design, combining consumer research, analysis of existing models and design practice.
285+ Consumers
50+ Industry Experts
Creative workshops and online surveys to explore design strategies and test the Emotional Design Deck.
One-to-one structured interviews and surveys to gather rich insight about design preferences, purchase behaviour and product meaning.
Of industry professionals would use the Emotional Design Deck strategies again.
100%
Work with me
Industry
Design Research | Consumer Insight | Emotional Design | Creative Workshops
Integrating Emotional Design into Curriculum | Emotional Design Resources | Creative Workshops
Collaborative Projects | Knowledge Exchange | Papers & Publications