Exploring emotions for design of your future chair

The User Compass Chart (UCC) was used for eliciting middle-age subjects’ experiences of 33 photo-represented easy chairs, including consumer products and chairs designed for nursing-homes as well as institutions in general. The chairs were represented in black and white photos measuring 50 x 50 mm. The vectors used in the chart were most inviting - most repellent and most homelike- most nursing-home like associating adjectives. Subjects were asked to position each representation on the chart, according to hers/his emotional experiences and to think-aloud. When the UCC was complete the subject had the possibility to adjust the positions of the representations. The experiments were recorded with video and digital camera. Key-sentences were transcribed. The positions of all subjects’ markers were summarised in “flag diagrams” for each represented chair and frequencies were compared of different products in different sectors. Key sentences of significant products and sectors were classified according to design elements (defined elements or whole body) and products values (functional and ergonomic or appearance and image). Some chairs were identified as more significant (homelike and inviting, institutional and inviting, institutional and repellent). The UCC proved to be a stimulating and useful tool, and some product qualities could be recommended on basis of the results.