Designing the ground for pleasurable experience

ABSTRACT

In this article we present a theoretical framework and some models for assisting the conception of tactile communication devices. In order to propose relevant concepts and successful innovative products, designers need to anticipate as early as possible the user experience that will emerge from actual use of the product they are developing. The way the designer imagines the qualities of the product has strong consequences for the possible experience that will be available to the user. However, it is very difficult to accurately anticipate the actual experience of the user; and the lack of knowledge concerning the final user is particularly drastic in the case of high-technology applications, where the potentialities of the technology are hugely superior to the acceptability of the final users. In order to remedy this difficulty, this article presents research from the fields of design, cognitive science and Virtual Reality, in order to understand how lived experience is constituted by the use of a technological device. The aim of this research is to provide guidelines for anticipating user experience in the design process. We found that there are two kinds of perception over time: perceiving the other as part of environment, versus perceiving the activity of other perceiving me. It is by switching between these two kinds of perception that it becomes possible for one subject to understand the position from which the other subject perceives the scene. We call this process the constitution of a « point of view ». From this ability to constitute a system of "points of view", the feeling of sharing a common space with another intentional being can emerge. Finally, we present the application of these considerations to the design of devices for interindividual interaction.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.0 GENERAL

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)