Comfort through an Emotion-Aware Office Chair
M.P. de Looze C.J. Overbeeke · 2004
When two office chairs basically have the same functionality, we prefer the one that gives us a pleasant, desirable, or inspired feeling. The challenge is to design the appearance that evokes the emotions that are wanted by the chair’s users. These emotions are important because they primarily and strongly influence the decision to purchase the chair (Holbrook 1985). Chairs that do not look good at first sight are not even tried in the showroom (Chapter 2). In the long run, the emotions experienced at first sight are likely to increase the pleasure of owning and using the chair after the purchase (Desmet et al. 2001). For designers, it is important to anticipate human emotions. One manufacturer even call its chair Emotion (Fig. 14.1). However, it is difficult to understand precisely how these emotions influence the purchase of a chair.