Design for Breathtaking Experiences: An Exploration of Design Strategies to Evoke Awe in Human–Product Interactions

Jialin Ke,Jungkyoon Yoon

doi:10.3390/mti4040082

Abstract

From looking up at a skyscraper to the Grand Canyon’s vastness, you may have experienced awe in one way or another. Awe is experienced when one encounters something greater or more powerful than themselves and is associated with prosocial behavior through a diminishment of self-importance. In design research, most studies on awe have been conducted in lab conditions by using technologies such as virtual reality because of its efficiency to simulate typical awe-stimulating conditions (e.g., nature scenes). While useful in inducing awe and assessing its effects on users, they give little guidance about how design can deliberately evoke awe. Most attempts focus on the response of awe instead of its eliciting conditions. With an aim to support designers to facilitate awe, this paper explores design strategies to evoke awe. Based on appraisal theory, the cause of awe was formulated, and its relevance to designing for awe was investigated. The conditions that underlie awe in design were explored through a survey in which participants reported 150 awe experiences, resulting in six design strategies. The paper describes these strategies and discusses how they can be used in a design process, giving attention to addressing the experiential value of awe.

Highlights

Positive emotions improve our health and well-being through broadening our mindsets, promoting creativity and bonding, allowing us to build our long-term intellectual, social, and psychological resources [1]
This paper aims to explore design strategies to design for awe, so that it can serve as a reference for designers to develop an understanding of the experience of awe in human–product interactions and how awe can be purposefully evoked through design
The patterns that was that many people contemplate humanity, humanity’s progress, and innovation, and what it means described the effects of awe rather than eliciting conditions of awe were screened

Summary

Introduction

Positive emotions improve our health and well-being through broadening our mindsets, promoting creativity and bonding, allowing us to build our long-term intellectual, social, and psychological resources [1] These beneficial effects have increased interest in designing for positive emotions [2]. Awe has unique beneficial functions such as making people more prosocial, diminishing their sense of self, which results in certain behavior tendencies such as inclinations to share, collaborate, and engage in collective action [9]. Another beneficial function is that people feel more connected to others and view themselves as part of a larger entity such as “member of the universe” or “inhabitant of the earth” [10]

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