Unravelling the affective appearance of products: an interactive instrument for application in the packaging industry

A growing body of empirical research is available to aid design decision-making. Much of it comes from other disciplines, making it difficult to assemble and codify in an accessible form. One such area concerns people's emotional and aesthetic reactions to a product's appearance, where disciplines allied to psychology and neuroscience have made considerable headway. Various models now exist that describe the processes underlying product evaluation and identify key facets of these processes. The project to be described incorporates this information in a software instrument for use in the packaging design industry. It is interactive and multilayered and incorporates real-life scenarios to illustrate its application to different consumer markets and for different packaging products. Scenarios are used to illustrate its application in different consumer markets and for different packaging products. A feature of the instrument is its layered construction whereby the designer can dig deeper into each facet and draw upon the actual empirical research that underpins it. It can therefore be used at different levels of sophistication; its underlying goal being to unpack the complexity of this area and to make it accessible to the design team.