Affective Design and EQUID: Emotional and Ergonomic Quality in Product Design and Development

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1 Affective Design and EQUID: Emotional and Ergonomic Quality in Product Design and Development Martin Helander a, Halimahtun Khalid a, Peter Hancock b, Myounghoon Philart Jeon c, Rosemary Seva d, Ralph Bruder e a Damai Sciences, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA; b Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA; c Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA; d Gokongwei College of Engineering, De La Salle University, Manila, PHILIPPINES; e Institute of Ergonomics TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, GERMANY. 1. Introduction to Affective Design Affective design is an emerging field in human computer interaction. Researchers from several disciplines have inquired how and in what ways products and systems evoke emotions in people, and how these emotions can be understood, measured and assessed. A diversity of perspectives from psychology, human factors engineering, product design and engineering design, has brought theoretical and methodological richness to the field, yet it difficult to make sense of the literature (Norman, 2010; Helander and Khalid, 2012). The importance of affect or emotion in consumer behavior is widely recognized. Affect has its basis in beliefs, human values and human judgment (Seva and Helander, 2009). Positive affect correlates positively with customer satisfaction and products associated with positive affect may satisfy a variety of customer needs some manifest and some latent. Besides functional and ergonomics needs in product design, affective needs are important, but they are harder to elicit since they typically remain unspoken (Khalid, et al., 2012). Affective design measures people s affective responses to products, systems and services. Approaches to affect include: 1. Understanding how one can measure and analyse human reactions to affective and pleasurable design, and 2. Understanding how one can produce affective product design for the global market. Evaluation of affective product design is more difficult than evaluation of technical and economic matters. Affect is sometimes fuzzy and is sometimes better understood from an intuitive and personal perspective. It is difficult to elicit affect, and evaluate affective design using an objective and systematic approach. Emotions are difficult to assess, especially when several emotions blend. The question of which emotions should be assessed follow the question of what the artifact would mean to the users. For product designers affect is said to be the customer s psychological response to design details of a product, while pleasure is the emotion that accompanies the acquisition or possession of something desirable. There are several models for use in affective design evaluation. We will highlight a few examples. Below we present a theoretical and methodological perspective to affective design. Our appreciation of affect starts by understanding the concept of pleasure. Hancock introduced the idea of hedonic design in 2001 (Hancock, Pepe and Murphy, 2005). This spurred several debates that affective design is merely fun design and thereby perhaps unethical. Below we clarify further his idea of pleasure. Jeon emphasized the connection between mind and product through the medium of emotion and affect. There have been discussions in psychology that affect and emotion are not the same thing. Affect is the general term for the judgmental system; emotion is the conscious experience of affect. Khalid and Helander introduced a novel concept called citarasa. Helander explained that it refers to emotional intent and describes how it can be measured. Khalid detailed the methodology for measurement in vehicle design using Citarasa Engineering. Seva proposed PROBET how products can be designed to target specific behaviors which are important for sustainable design. Users are increasingly aware of ergonomics design of products. For a variety of products in different markets it is not enough to provide many functions and an aesthetic design. To achieve economic success, there is a need for user-oriented design. This realization led to a new strategy focusing on the usefulness of 1

2 ergonomics for design processes and for strategic management called Ergonomics Quality in Design or EQUiD. This is an initiative by the International Ergonomics Association. Affective and sustainable design must incorporate EQUID. 2. Pleasure: Should pleasurable design be a goal by itself or merely a by-product of optimal design? Pleasure is a good feeling coming from satisfaction of homeostatic needs like hunger, sex, and bodily comfort (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). This is differentiated from enjoyment, which is a good feeling coming from breaking through the limits of homeostasis of people s experiences; for example, performing in an athletic event, or playing in a string quartet. Enjoyment could lead to more personal growth and long-term happiness than pleasure, but people usually prefer pleasure over enjoyment, maybe because it is less effortful. Creating usable products may not mean the same thing as creating pleasurable products. It is possible that usability and pleasure in product use are directly equated, and that making a product usable will guarantee that it is a pleasure to use (Jordan, 1998). Pure hedonism implies that pleasure is the highest goal of existence. We may ask if pure hedonism would be relevant whether this assertion is true of putative optimal expressions of design. If operational skill is characterized by semantic descriptors, such as élan, and objective criteria, such as minimal expenditure of physical and/or cognitive energy, how can one achieve a pre-determined goal? Do such non-stationary states also render the highest degree of pleasure to the user? The answer requires a multi-dimensional definition of pleasures which is discussed in this paper that relates to design imperatives and operational constraints of emerging human-machine systems. 3. Emotions and Affect as a Medium between Mind and Product Affect, Behavior, and Cognition (or ABC) are important concepts in Psychology. Summarizing the development in Psychology since 1900, the first half of the century focused on behaviorism. In s, there was a cognitive revolution. Then, cognitivism became a main stream in Psychology. Human Factors (H/F) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) are heavily based on cognitivism and the informationprocessing paradigm. Theories and models of H/F and HCI are focused on cognition, and cognitive processes are now taught as a necessary part in design courses. Affect was there first, but until very recently was touched peripherally and sporadically. Currently, with the advent of user experience and embodied interaction, emotions and affect are considered necessary. In this paper, the role of emotions and affect as a medium in the design process of products and intelligent systems will be highlighted. For example, in the Mind Music Machine Lab, product sounds (Jeon, in press), sonic logos (Jeon, 2010), and auditory user interfaces (Jeon, Gable, Davison, Nees, Wilson, and Walker, 2015) were designed. In this design process, one of the goals could be to meet user satisfaction and increase user experience with new products. Simultaneously, it became important to deliver an appropriate brand image. Regardless of the name of this process - Kansei Engineering (Nagamachi, 2008) or Emotional Design (Norman, 2004) - affect dimensions of the specific product were constructed and explored using a variety of design profiles to match user expectation with product/brand characteristics. The same method was applied to design of intelligent systems. Immersive visualization and sonification were used with the Vicon tracker and multi-visions. One of the projects used that platform to implement an intelligent system to detect artists and dancers movements and gestures, and translate those parameters into visuals and sounds (Jeon, Landry, Ryan, and Walker, 2014). Our approach is to use emotions and affect as a medium in that translation process. The system is designed to detect the pattern of movements and extract/recognize specific emotions and translate them into visuals and sounds. In other words, emotions serve as another interface layer. We believe that this approach will ultimately provide people with more intuitive mappings between design parameters and offer greater aesthetic experiences in a virtual environment. 4. Emotional Intent Customer needs are captured in a concept called Citarasa (Khalid, 2006). The term originated from Sanskrit, and is widely used in regions where Malay or Bahasa Melayu is spoken. The word Cita means hope, intent, 2

3 aspiration while Rasa means taste, feelings. In our context, affect refers to the heart and denotes feelings, while cognition refers to the head and denotes thinking. Affect is used to evaluate and judge, while cognition is used to interpret and make sense of the objects, and understand the user (Dong, Kleinsmann, and Valkenburg, 2009; Norman, Ortony and Russell, 2003). New breakthroughs in neuroscience using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fmri) have validated the assertions that cognition and emotions are unified, and they contribute to the control of thought and behaviour conjointly and equally (LeDoux, 1995). Additionally, cognition contributes to the regulation of emotion. Citarasa is different from the rather passive emotions that one may experience before a purchase of common or less costly products, such as clothes. In Citarasa, there is a strong intentional component; and customers are actively seeking design features that are important for their emotional satisfaction. The customer s Citarasa is an expression of emotional intent, needs, and taste. To investigate intent it is possible to ask customers what they are looking for, and thereby obtain an explicit identification of the user s affective requirements when buying an object. For example, citarasa offers an operational definition of the role of emotions in vehicle design, whereby customers deliberately seek out design features which will satisfy their needs (Helander and Khalid, 2009). Citarasa presupposes that when customers purchase a product (e.g. a car), the design must address customers affective needs. Figure 1 illustrates the three important components in the citarasa model: Product Design Characteristics, Emotional Intent and Response. Affect refers to feelings generated or triggered as a response to an artifact or product. Cognition is the interpreter or identification method used to decipher and understand the experience. Affect, therefore, is intuitive or experiential, while cognition is rational and analytical. Affective evaluation gives a new and different perspective in human factors engineering; it concerns emotions that arise as users evaluate a product and not an evaluation of the emotion itself (Helander and Khalid, 2012). Product Design Emotional Intent Response Characteristics (Citarasa) Product Attributes (Citarasa descriptors): : Affective Functional Cognition/ Beliefs (cita) Affect/ Feelings (rasa) Summary Evaluation of Needs and Attitudes towards Products Figure 1. Citarasa Emotional Intent Model Based on Figure 1, a set of qualitative product attributes called citarasa descriptors becomes activated and influences customer s emotional intent. To obtain a summary evaluation of customer s affective and functional needs, the intent is measured using qualitative and quantitative methods. Affective needs include product features that are associated with aesthetics and influence the consumer s visceral, behavioral and reflective aspects of emotion (Khalid, et al., 2012). For example, elegant citarasa represents product aesthetics that may be related to shape, colour or material. Functional needs, on the other hand, refer to the use and handling of the product. Usability is an aspect of functional needs. Citarasa, then, is used to operationalize the measurement of affect and in particular to identify latent patterns of customer emotional needs, and more importantly, the associative relationships between citarasa and design elements. 3

4 5. Citarasa Engineering The Citarasa concept underlies the Citarasa Engineering methodology that was developed in the EU IST- CATER project (Khalid, 2007). A method for elicitation and analysis of citarasa is detailed in Khalid et al. (2012). Unlike Kansei Engineering (Nagamachi, 2008), which was based on user s sensory experience, Citarasa Engineering is driven by user s emotional intent or desire for a product, and the evaluation is a summative experience of both affect and cognition of the user (see Figure 2). The citarasa engineering follows an explicit methodology, comprising a 5-step process from citarasa modeling, elicitation, analysis, semantic mining, to mapping using a design matrix. Kansei Engineering requires more steps to derive at a design solution. The citarasa engineering method has been validated with end users in Europe and Asia in vehicle (car and truck) planning, and also applied in the design of kitchens. PROCESS 1. Modelling citarasa OUTPUT Citarasa Model 2. Constructing semantic framework & mapping to vehicle components 3. Field capture of citarasa using questionnaire & probe interview 4. Refinement & validation via Web tools Citarasa & Design Ontologies Content Analysis of Citarasa Data Citarasa Databases 5. Data mining & analysis using Citarasa Analysis tool Citarasa System Figure 2. Citarasa methodology for elicitation and analysis 6. Product-Behavior Targetting (PROBET) Environmental mishaps are caused by numerous factors, and they are connected to human behavior, activities and/or lifestyles (Clayton and Myers, 2009; Vlek and Steg, 2007). Current environmental interventions are usually in the form of penalizing/rewarding policies, campaigns and awareness programs which, in our experience, are rarely translated into actual pro-environmental behaviors (Adams, 2006). An alternative way of solving the problem is to design products that can change human behavior. Products are designed to achieve specific purposes. In Figure 3, we illustrate how products can be designed to elicit specific emotions that can result in desired behaviors. It is known from literature that some emotions are stronger than others. This is because people endeavour to experience stimuli rather than to avoid them. One such emotion is fun, which can be used to direct people to specific behaviors. The fun theory documented a number of products that were designed to elicit fun while doing specific desired actions. These actions are culturally and socially acceptable. Another emotion that people endeavour to feel is altruism, which is related to the need of a person to make a difference in the world. Existing design frameworks have not integrated emotion in the process of designing products to elicit particular emotions that can direct behavior. Product Behavior Targeting (PROBET) is a new method that was proposed to address this. How PROBET can be used in designing products that promote sustainable behavior is addressed in this paper. 4

5 Cognitive Sustainable Behavior Target affect Sensory Product concept Product properties Affect- concept matching Behavior experiment Figure 3. PROBET Framework 7. Ergonomics Quality in Design (EQUID) Ergonomics Quality in Design (EQUID) was launched by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) to: (1) support early integration of ergonomics into the design process, (2) promote ergonomic expertise for product design and product development and (3) help the public make well-informed decisions about the ergonomics quality of products. The EQUID approach is a model that integrates two complementary processes, see Figure 4. It tackles the requirements for addressing user issues according to the product life cycle, and it deals with the requirements to ensure the quality of addressing user issues in product design (Lange-Morales et al., 2014). Within the EQUID approach seven phases of product life cycle were defined: vision, concept, development, production, transfer, use / maintenance, and final disposal. During the seven phases user requirements should be considered, and human factor and ergonomics issues are related to the complete product life cycle (Garcia-Acosta et al., 2011). The requirements to ensure the quality of addressing user issues in product design were organized into two groups and are based on a later version of EQUID (version 1.11 see Nael, 2011). They constitute the core dimensions of EQUID. On the one hand, requirements related to the organizational culture ensure the quality of HFE issues management during Product Design and Development (PDD). On the other hand, requirements related to the design and development culture emphasize the understanding of user issues and their translation into product design requirements. Requirements related to organizational culture include two processes: organisation management and documentation. The overall objective is to ensure the quality of managing (involving / dealing with) HFE issues during the PDD process; management commitment; quality policy, quality objectives, and organizational planning; responsibility, authority, and communication; management control; human talent and competence. Awareness and training regarding HFE are key aspects of organisation management. Regarding documentation, five sets of documents must be created and updated: 1) user requirements, 2) design process and decision making, 3) final ergonomic evaluation, 4) ergonomics for manufacturing report and 5) user satisfaction reports. Three processes are considered in the requirements related to the design and development culture: understanding user issues, review, and evaluation. The goal of these processes is to ensure full understanding of user issues, and how they may be translated into design requirements. Understanding user issues includes dealing with the several topics: target user(s), including their characteristics and variation limits; intended context of use, including possible variation limits and consequences for user requirements; user goals that are to be satisfied by the product (activities, influence factors, use scenarios); user satisfaction reports of previous or similar products; post-sale support planning; performance criteria for product ergonomics; relevant user issues related to health and safety and ergonomic performance criteria for manufacturing. 5

6 Figure 4. Product Development Process and EQUID 8. Concluding Remark The issues raised in this paper open a minefield of conceptual and methodological issues for research and development. Much needs to be done to develop predictive models of affect and pleasure for design of products and interfaces. The current methodology is still immature. In the future, when we understand the mechanics of hedonomics, there will be significant rewards in terms of monetary benefits for developers of pleasurable products, as well as many happy customers and users. EQUID has yet to consider affective design within its framework. We argue that ergonomics quality and affective design go hand-in-hand. Therefore, to be successful in the marketplace, it is not sufficient to merely meet ergonomics quality requirements; design must also address users emotional, pleasurable and sustainable needs. Acknowledgement We wish to thank Karen Lange-Morales and Gabriel Garcia-Acosta for their contribution to the EQUID model. References Adams, W. M The Future of Sustainability: Re-thinking Environment and Development in the Twenty first Century. Cambridge, UK: International Union for Conservation of Nature. Clayton, S., and Myers, G Conservation Psychology: Understanding and promoting humin care for nature. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Dong, A., Kleinsmann, M., and Valkenburg, R Affect-in-Cognition through the Language of Appraisals. Design Studies, 30, García-Acosta, G., Lange-Morales, K., Puentes-Lagos, D.E. and Ruiz Ortiz, M.R Addressing Human Factors and Ergonomics in Design Process, Product Life Cycle, and Innovation: Trends in Consumer Product Design. In Karwowski, W., Soares, M. and Stanton, N. (Eds.), Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Consumer Product Design: Methods and Techniques. (Chap. 9, pp ). Boca Raton: CRC Press Taylor & Francis. 6

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