Emotional product design : merging industrial and engineering design perspectives

Abstract

Increasingly competitive markets are putting pressure on product development teams to design products which exploit an emotional connection to users in order to distinguish them from their competitors. Researchers at the University of Malta have been engaged in understanding the challenges of designing emotionally pleasing products by studying the product development process of a number of artefacts ranging from cosmetic packaging for the make-up sector, camera enclosures to hand prosthesis. Based on the experience garnered from these case studies the researchers have been able to generalize an approach they term Engustrial design that systematically merges industrial and engineering design. This paper explains this innovative approach by applying it to the design of a camera case enclosure and further argues that a new educational approach is required to help minimize such diverse designer mindsets.