Expressions: Embodiment in the experience of design

EXPRESSIONS: EMBODIMENT IN THE EXPERIENCE OF DESIGN Products are not just objects by means of which we get things done. Apart from bringing aesthetic pleasures, for instance, they may also embody values we hold dear, communicate our fine taste to others, and help us define who we are. These widely varying functionalities are rooted in our capacity to perceive essentially lifeless forms as dynamic objects expressive of basic human experiences. This expressiveness forms the starting point for this thesis. Perceiving products as expressive in most cases comes most natural. One may readily perceive one object as distant, another as involved, and yet another as humble or proud, for instance, and at the same have an intuitive sense of what it is in a products appearance that contributes to a particular expression. However, the moment one questions why specific product features connote the expressive or figurative meanings they do, one often finds that accounting for a products expression is not always that easy or straightforward. In this thesis, we therefore seek to account for the relations between a products appearance and its expressiveness. In the first chapter different perspectives on expression are presented. This discussion revolves around the tendency, common among researchers studying product expression, to focus primarily on either the object perceived or its perceiver. In the former approach figurative or expressive characteristics are considered authentic and objective qualities, conveyed by perceptual features such as shape and size. In the latter approach these characteristics do not belong to the object but rather to the perceiver. In this line of reasoning, the objects expressiveness is primarily seen as a mental construction. Although studies originating in these approaches in one way or the other acknowledge the importance of both constituents, American philosopher John Dewey, as early as 1934, pointed out the necessity of simultaneously taking into account the contributions of both object and perceiver in studying the objects expressiveness. His notions lie at the basis of a relatively new approach that seeks to account for figurative or expressive meanings in terms of spatial-relational structures characterizing interactions between people and their environment. Since these interactions are constrained by the peculiarities of the human body, studies originating in this approach view such meanings as essentially embodied. Central to this interactional approach is the notion that specific types of interactions give rise to particular kinds of experiences. Interactions characterized by a sense of containment (e.g., seeking shelter from the storm inside a cabin, or taking refuge inside ones office to get some work done) may give rise to a sense of safety or security (for reasons of protection from threatening or disruptive influences), but at the same time to a sense of isolation from others (i.e., a container separates those inside from those outside) or constriction (i.e., a container limits ones freedom of movement). The spatial-relational structure these interactions have in common (in our example all interactions involve a bounded space in which one can be in or out) is referred to as an image schema. The central assumption of this thesis is that products can make reference to such spatial-relational structures through their visual-spatial appearance. This perceived congruence is expected to lie at the basis of the understanding of products as expressive. (Arguably, a product making reference to the containment schema is for that reason perceived as expressing degrees of security, isolation, and constriction.) In the second chapter we put this claim to a first test. Regardless of the manner in which products make reference to an image schema, ratings of products on experiences arising from the same type of interactions should be highly related. Products generally rated high on secure, for instance, should also receive high ratings on constricting (i.e., both experiences arise from interactions characterized by a sense of containment). The results of a study in which 10 chairs were rated on a wide variety of expressive characteristics were in line with this prediction. Following this confirmation, in the third chapter we explore the manner in which a product can make reference to spatial-relational (i.e., image schematic) structures through its form features. Based on a tentative discussion of the manner in which chairs and bus shelters can embody image schematic structures, in the third chapter form features of two everyday products (a jug and an alarm clock) are manipulated on the basis of the spatial-relational structure of three image schemas. Following our line of reasoning, we should be able to predict the effects of these manipulations on the objects figurative or expressive meanings. Secondly, the effects of these manipulations might be expected to show considerable consistency across cultures since interactions between people and their environment are highly similar, regardless of the region in which they take place. Our bodies, that is, show little variation, and the same applies, at least to some extent, to the environment we interact with. The results of the two experiments testing the first claim (one involving students of design, the other involving participants who had no background in design) were largely in line with our predictions. The findings from the same experiment conducted in Brazil, testing the second claim, were only partly as predicted. Having established a solid scientific basis for our project, in the fourth chapter we set out to make our approach actionable. That is, how can the insights be of practical relevance for designers intent on creating a particular expression? To provide an answer to that question we explored different ways to study the spatial-relational structures characterizing interactions giving rise to a particular experience. In one such study 11 designers were asked to design a public smoking object with a particular expression. Did these designers think of the guidelines as inspiring and useful? In order to answer these questions we discuss a questionnaire that revealed that the designers had thought of the guidelines as both inspiring and useful. However, comparison of the results of these designers to those of 11 designers receiving no special guidelines failed to confirm our prediction that the latter would be less successful in creating a particular product expression. In closing this chapter, possible explanations for this lack of differentiation are discussed. In the fifth and final chapter the most striking findings and implications of the studies discussed in previous chapters are reviewed. A large part of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of metaphor. The understanding of product expression discussed in previous chapters is metaphorical in so far as products are understood in terms of experiences that have their origin in embodied interactions in and with the environment. But not all metaphors are of this embodied type. Next to making a distinction between two types of metaphor (i.e., embodied metaphors and metaphors not, or to a lesser degree, grounded in embodied interactions), we elaborate on a fascinating aspect characterizing our understanding of the embodied metaphors discussed throughout this thesis. This understanding, we argue, presupposes an identification process by which we project our own embodied experiences onto the object via perspective taking. In closing this thesis, directions for further research are suggested. In addition, we speculate on the relevance of our findings for studies addressing facets of product experience not or sparsely discussed in this thesis, such as the expressiveness of product- materials or sounds, and the role of contextual factors.