ABSTRACT
The following paper makes an ethical argument for increasing the consideration of emotion in design-in particular, it addresses the question of how to improve the quality of our emotional experiences of design rather than just increase their quantity. It proposes that in order for this question to be addressed a reappraisal of our relation to design objects is required. Other writers have already intimated the need for such an approach. For instance, David Abram (1996) suggests that there is clearly a problem with the current tendency of design objects to rely too heavily on exploiting their capacity to symbolise and to evoke associative meanings. For example, the degree that design objects play upon our desired relationship with nature is now so ubiquitous that we are in danger of feeling alienated from the very empathy that they draw upon.
