The notion of affective design emerged from the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) (Norman, 1986) and more specifically from the developing area of affective computing (Picard, 1997).

Aims

Affective computing aims to deliver affective interfaces (Reynolds, Picard, 2001) capable of eliciting certain emotional experiences from users (McCarthy, Wright, 2004). Similarly, affective design attempts to define the subjective emotional relationships between consumers and products and to explore the affective properties that products intend to communicate through their physical attributes. It aims to deliver artefacts capable of eliciting maximum physio-psychological pleasure consumers may obtain through all of their senses.

References

Carliner, S. (2000) Physical, Cognitive, and Affective: A Three-Part Framework for Information Design [online], available: http://saulcarliner.home.att.net/id/newmodel.htm [accessed 10 January 2007]

McCarthy, J. and Wright, P. (2004). What is enjoyment doing to HCI? In ECCE 12: Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Cognitive. European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics, Le Chesney, France. pp. 11-12

Norman, D. A. (1986). Design principles for human-computer interfaces. In D. E. Berger, K. Pezdek, & W. P. Banks (Eds.). Applications of cognitive psychology: Problem solving, education, and computing. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Reynolds, C. and Picard, R. (2001) Designing for Affective Interactions. In Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, August 5 - 10, 2001, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. [online], available: http://vismod.media.mit.edu/pub/tech-reports/TR-541.pdf