Emotions, Technology, and Design

Book excerpt: Emotional design explicitly addresses the emotional relationship between the objects and the subjects of design—in this book, the objects are technologies, and the subjects are technology users. The first section delves into the philosophy and theory of emotional design to provide a foundation for the rest of the book, which goes on to discuss emotional design principles, the design and use of emoticons, and then intelligent agents in a variety of settings. A conclusion chapter covers future research and directions. Emotions, Technology, and Design provides a thorough look at how technology design affects emotions and how to use that understanding to in practical applications. - Discusses the role of culture, trust, and identity in empathetic technology - Presents a framework for using sound to elicit positive emotional responses - Details the emotional use of color in design - Explores the use of emoticons, earcons, and tactons - Addresses the emotional design specific to agent-based environments