Augmenting subjectives experiences (part I)

Product design deals with a broad number of aspects, as it is the link between different product characteristics, functions, usage and user’s needs, desires and fantasies. The role of the designer consists of designing new complex and dynamic interactions with converging hardware and software, spaces and services. This emerging field demands new design approaches, specific considerations and, ultimately, the design of integrated experiences set in context, rather than of individual components to go beyond and attain a deeper relational sense with the user, especially on the emotive level. Too much effort has been put into the functional area of perceived experience (form, color, texture and material). In fact, dynamic aesthetics not only considers how humans perceive products, it also shows how to respond to them (i.e. the resulting effective relationship ensuing from the encounter between the product and the user). Therefore, the design effort and creativity have to be focused on creating enriched interfaces that fulfill users’ expectations and desires and also evoke pleasurable experiences. Precisely, interaction design has to move from communicating product characteristics and functions through physical appearance and behavior to envision contexts for enriched subjective experiences. This article explores the complex field of study of understanding user experience and focuses on defining the users’ subjective experiences. It then describes the design for experiencing as an approach for augmenting subjective experiences, positioning it in user experience frameworks and, in a second part, illustrating it with some examples of smart textiles designs.