DISORDER IN EMOTIONS:
AN APPROACH TO PRODUCT-USER RELATIONSHIP IN VISUAL DOMAIN

‘no design works unless it embodies ideas that are held in common by the people for whom the object is intended’

This statement of A. Forty (1986) leads us to the meaning of the product which is crucial for its attractiveness and so for the consumer response. The main channel which conveys that meaning is the ‘product appearance’. What constitutes that meaning are the judgements on elegance, social significance and even functionality of  the product, all based largely on the visual information. These judgements, as it is said by Crilly, Moultrie and Clarkson (2004), frequently centre on the satisfaction of consumer wants and desires, rather than their needs.

If the subject is satisfaction of desires then indisputably emotions lies beneath our judgements, or to be precise, our sentiments. D. Norman explains (2004) thus comprehension and interpretation comes after the emerge of emotions in the neurons when human firstly reacts. For instance, a person who goes for a cup of tea in the morning would rather see a pretty teapot for a smile despite its lack of usability than use a sample of functionality.

Emotions are personal, broad and sophisticated. Disorder in emotions is inevitable although they are not intangible. The studies on definition and measurement of  ‘product emotions’ (Desmet, 2003) have been accelerated recent years. The examination of  product-user relationship is critical in view of emotions to prevent that disorder in treatment.

This paper, more than a state of art, aims to elicit a route map to use the visual information and aims to narrow the evaluation of product-user relationship from a particular point of view. This point of view stemmed from what Levy (1959) said: “All commercial objects have a symbolic character, and making a purchase involves an assessment – implicit or explicit – of this symbolism” and the idea has bloomed till now. It is easier to obtain a reflection of this symbolic meaning, independent of the brand, in order to examine the self-image and emotional behaviour of the consumer in visual domain. That reflection exactly based on what kind of physical attributes pertain to the product’s appearance. This paper deals with those aspects and will simultaneously proceed with the related Msc. thesis in Istanbul Technical University.