TOUCHY FEELY
Rachel brushed her hair and felt confident to start the day. Chris brushed his hair and asked himself, “should I be losing this much?” Grace brushed their hair and winced. Charlie brushed his hair and wished he were someone else.
People feel a lot of things when they interact with things, like a brush.
Seemingly mundane everyday micro-interactions can be rich with emotion. Touchy/Feely is a tool for uncovering the richness of micro-interactions to build and apply empathy during the design process. A Touchy is an interaction. A Feely is an emotional response to the interaction. It can be something you say out loud, something you say to yourself, something commonly said, specific memories or associations, a physiological reaction, or some other emotional descriptor. Some Feelies are personal because we bring our own references and memories to interactions. Some Feelies are more universal because we have shared experiences and cultural associations. By examining micro-interactions to better understand the emotional responses people have to them, Touchy/Feely helps us see patterns and connect the dots between interactions, feelings, and gestures to create good design for people.
An Exploration of Emotional Ergonomics
Touchy/Feely is an exploration of emotional ergonomics to foster empathy
for human-centered, inclusive design.
Traditional ergonomics focuses on the physical relationship between human and object. Designers and engineers ask themselves functional questions like: How will someone sit comfortably in this chair? How much force will someone need to twist open this jar?
Emotional ergonomics considers the physical interaction between human and object as a more complex dialogue between body, object, heart, and mind. It examines how touch, gesture, sight, smell, sound, and taste impact how we feel. We ask questions like: How do you feel when you ride a bike? How do you want to feel when you put on lipstick? We can only truly understand how people touch and feel objects if we also understand how objects touch us and make us feel.
Book Specs
This 6" x 6" hardcover book is 222 pages with a semigloss laminated cover finish, Mohawk super smooth uncoated 120gsm interior pages made with renewable energy, and black end pages. All paper is also FSC certified, a certification of the Forest Stewardship Council, meaning the paper comes from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits.
A Peek Inside the Book
