Interior Science.ca maintains the Design-Induced Emotional Response Case Study Archive (D.E.R.C.S.A.).
Architects and interior designers regularly attempt to design creative spaces to trigger an emotional response from the visitor. The emotions that a project generates can impact the visitor’s perception of an experience, and are crucial to making a space rewarding and/or meaningful for the visitor.
Large firms sometimes have the in-house benefit of ‘cultivated intuition’ carried by the Principals and talented Team within. However, even at that level, many interventions miss their mark for lack of testing or validation of the proposed approach. Design-induced Emotional Response Case Studies can assist designers of human spaces by providing examples of measurable, repeatable features and experiences that have been assessed researched, and proven effective by behavioural scientists. The purpose of the DERCSA is to distil the essential, repeatable elements of past projects that have successfully elicited a predetermined emotional response in a target audience, allowing architects and designers of the future simple access to valuable, meaningful insights for incorporation into new projects at any scale.
Three Key Aspects of Design-Induced Emotional Response Strategy:
We consider three types of emotional interaction that are largely interconnected and have a great influence on human emotional interpretation of a designed space. The three aspects of design-induced emotional response are as follows:
- Visceral Design
Visceral design is a subconscious level of reaction when users encounter a space. Generally, it deals with beauty and distinguished quality from look and feel, and sensory involvement. Users give immediate and strong reactions to visceral design. Reaction to a visceral design is induced by the initial sensory scan of the experience. Did the colours, materials, volume of the space set the desired psychological tone? - Behavioral Design
Behavioral design is related to the usability of the space, users’ perception of how well it functions, and how user-friendly it is. In behavioral design, function, physical feel and ease of navigation matter the most. In this level, users form a firm opinion about the space. When you really understand your visitor’s physical flow requirements, you can ensure a good behavioral design. Are the visitors inconvenienced, confused, or missing crucial aspects of the experience? Will this interfere with the emotional experience, or enhance it’s interpretation? - Reflective Design
This is the final level of emotional design, which is concerned with the visitor’s cultural/historical/aspirational interpretation of a space. At the reflective level, visitors interpret and consider their surroundings through their carried biases about the world, with subconscious reflections from their own past experience and through their vision for the ideal future. At this level, designers can impart ‘meaning’ if highly familiar with the target audience.
In short, all the above-mentioned three aspects of emotional design are important in order to make the space rewarding, or meaningful for the visitor. Visceral design refers to the appearance of a space, behavioral design refers to physical functioning, and reflective design refers to the long-term psychological impact of the space. When these three levels of emotional design are combined appropriately, a great experience is achieved.