Affiliations
I am a part of research group called “User centred product design” at the University of Skövde. I am also registered as a PhD-student with Chalmers University of Technology’s Division of Design and in the research school ProViking.
Research: Design and Emotion- Capturing and integrating subjective aspects in NPD
Design
First of all my research is for Design. Design should here be seen in its broadest sense, e.g. Simon’s devising a plan to change a current situation into a preferred one. In order to develop systems that meet this we must know the limitations in the current situation but also envision what is desired.
New Product Development (NPD)
Within this broad field I am specifically interested in the commercial development of mass-produced products, e.g. consumer goods.
User centred design- Capturing and integrating user’s needs and requirements
I believe that in order to develop good products we need to understand the relation between users and artefacts. My interest in this is partly due to a conviction that a successful product design must come from an understanding of the user’s situation.
I believe that products are means that exist to meet the needs of end users. Clarification of objectives is a key to successful products and we should take the users needs as starting point. However there lies a great challenge in eliciting, interpreting and integrating user requirements into the product development process. In many cases this may require shifts in perspectives and working methods.
Subjective (?) aspects
Assuming that products are seen as means to an end for the user product development should start with clarifying the desired end before choosing between alternative means. First of all we need to address what people use their products for. While this may seem obvious, it is not always so. The main function assists users in carrying out some activity to reach a goal (e.g. influencing the physical context), but we also engage in relationships with products for other purposes. We may appreciate beautiful object for their intrinsic qualities. We may choose products to somehow influence our social context. The interaction with an object may in itself have qualities-not all uses for products are strictly utilitarian in the sense that they are sometimes treated in NPD literature. Products also carry meaning that go beyond the product in the strict technical sense. The relation between users and artefacts is complex, but I believe that it can be described.
Design and Emotion
One approach in dealing with this is to look at the users experience in relation to a product. This may occur at a conscious or unconscious level. In the first case we can interpret reflective statements and behaviour. The second case is more complicated and regards the emotions a person may experience in relation to a situation in which a product is encountered. In both these cases the experience depends on the concerns of the user and what meaning is assigned to the product.
Objectives
The objectives of my research is to (1) describe what influences users emotional relation to products, (2) describe how products elicit certain emotional experiences, and (3) describe what implications this has for the development of new products.
Approach
This far the empiric results in the project have come from (explorative) focus groups. Future research that’s being planned includes also individual interviews and controlled experiments.
Teaching: Design Methods
I teach a course on design methods for our Product Design Engineering students. I also give some lectures on creativity in an introductory course on Design.