Hedonomics—affective human factors design

Affective or pleasurable appreciation in design is nothing new. Affect is what we admit to when we buy clothes, admire beautiful objects, or select a birthday card. But it is a fairly new area in research. And it is fairly new in ergonomics and in human-computer interaction. In the past there were two sets of dependent variables: those related to human performance (time and error) and those related to physical or psychological pain. We will now consider affect or pleasurable design. The measurement of systems performance has taken one step further: from performance and pain to pleasure. The research on hedonic values and seductive interfaces will be a welcome contrast to safety and productivity. The most urgent in research is to address the measurement issues and theory formation.