Feelings for products- Sensations, intentions, beliefs and emotions

Products challenge us, thrill us, upset us, and remind us about our past- they elicit feelings. A better understanding of this can help design contribute positively to user experiences. However a several different phenomena fall under the umbrella of feelings with products. The discussion is disparate and terms are used interchangeably which makes it hard to advance knowledge on the relation between different affective phenomenon and design. This paper discusses some meanings of the word “feelings” together with their respective relation to design. Three types of meanings of “feeling” frequently occur in texts on design and emotion; feelings as sensations, feelings as beliefs, and feelings as emotions. These are all relevant but in order to plan meaningful studies and to choose what explanatory models we use we must make a distinction between them. Further there are explanatory factors that are not under our control in design and also these should be included if we are to analyse how products elicit feelings. While sensations are closely related to product properties, beliefs depend on several properties interacting with the person’s prior knowledge. Value laden beliefs need to be explained in relation to the persons concerns. If we really aim to address the emotions elicited by a product we need to look at situations in which it has impact on the user’s activity. By designing products that help rather than hinder the user we can reduce negative experience and enable positive ones.