Affective User Expectations Towards Moving Products

Abstract

Applying movement to products has emerged as a new design challenge due to the development of embodied computing technology and a design paradigm shift for affective user experience. Regarding the human sense-making tendencies, movement design for products can be expected to provide life-like qualities such as intentions, emotions and social relationships. In advance of the development of such products, this study seeks to clarify the universal knowledge of users by conducting two surveys. In Survey one, the pros and cons of moving products are envisioned by designers. Then, in Survey two, 12 cases of moving products are evaluated by users for a factor analysis. As a result, four dimensions of users' affective expectations toward moving products were identified. These were Goal Fulfillment, Rich Expression, Faithful Relationship, and Intelligence. By looking into the 12 cases with this framework, we can explain how users make sense of the human-like qualities of various moving products. The resulted knowledge of this study provides designers with structured perspectives as to interpreting and foreseeing potential acceptance of moving products.