ABSTRACT
Over the years, numerous studies on the role of emotions in a wide variety of research fields have been conducted. Research programs were initiated not only within the field of psychology, but in recent years also increasingly within the field of industrial design. These research projects are based on the assumption that ‘good’ design should address the wishes and needs of future customers, including their inner emotional experiences. Notwithstanding the successes of design firms, popular for their emotion-eliciting designs, the processes by which products may elicit emotions remain obscure and vague to the human mind. At times it may even seem that these processes are so dynamic and changing, that generalisations with regard to these processes are simply impossible. However, if our aim is to understand the way people experience emotions, we may have to change our strategies. Rather than treating emotions exclusively as affective feelings potentially coupled to action tendencies, we may also consider studying the conceptualising processes that are at the basis of emotional experience.
