Beyond Gestalt: A Memory-Based Approach for Affective Design in Human Factors Engineering

In affective design, designers imbue products with aesthetic elements to elicit emotional responses. However, product visual features that improve its emotional response often adversely affects its perceived functionality. To address this phenomenon, we propose a memory-based approach for visual element selection based on the valence of previous memories. To test this approach, 120 older adults rated two product concepts designed with visual elements resembling previously used products with different valences (one positive and one neutral) in a between-subjects study. Participants rated the aesthetics, functionality and symbolism of the products using the Product Design Scale. Using a MANOVA, our findings show that while participants rated the product concept with the positive memory significantly higher in aesthetics, there was no significant difference between the two product concepts in the functionality and symbolism ratings suggesting that designing products with visual elements from positive memories does not diminish their perceived functionality among older adults.