Design & Emotion Blog

Today I came across this very interesting initiative through Core77: Designing Happy:

Designing Happy is a set of guidelines which identifies, to practice and education, some key ideas design can incorporate which will help it to facilitate happiness. Some of these ideas include –

Natural Attraction (Genetically determined through evolution including aesthetics, feel etc) • Pleasure • Satisfaction • Engagement • Identity • Humor • Play • Flow • Fulfillment

Why Happy Design Matters

Design cannot “cause” happiness, but good design can be an occasion for and manifestation of happiness. If design can manifest happiness (usually by increasing positive emotion) then our general wellbeing or quality of life as society improves. This is because positive emotion is a major factor in creating wellbeing. The result of this is that we can experience better physical health, survival, relationships, engagement productivity, cognitive capabilities and pro social behaviour. As design is all around us and we experience it all the time it is ideally placed to be a proactive tool in improving the quality of life.

Initiative
As I started some 5 years ago with researching happiness, emotional experiences and ways to design for more pleasurable, enjoyable, meaningful and richer experiences, I very much welcome this new initiative. In the given ideas by this website, I recognize many of the concepts that I have used and advocated over the past years.

It is great to see the growing interest of designers in trying to make people happier beings through their designs. I have seen it increase a lot, especially in the past year, in which I facilitated quite a few Get Emotional! workshops for design teams. This week I will travel to Finland for another one. THAT also keeps me happy! Meeting you guys and discuss this rich and interesting topic.