Designer’s Emotions in the Design Process

Abstract

This is a position paper towards the establishment of a research network to address the impact of tacit experiential knowledge, emotion, and cultural perspective on a designer’s decision-making during a design process. With this network, we are aiming to start a focused discussion across geographies and cultures regarding the role and impact of designers’ emotions within their own design process. The function of this is to foreground the experiential and emotional domain of designers’ practice and examine the role of tacit experiential knowledge in design decision-making. The paper sets up the basis and context of discussion, exploring the three key areas to be addressed by the network: designers’ emotions as key drivers in decisionmaking; tacit experiential knowledge; and addressing emotion in culturally-situated design practice. This is followed by our proposed methodology and network objectives and expected impact and outcomes.