Detecting Designers’ Emotions
Shiao ann Chang
This project is “the library of emotion” which explores methods of detecting designers' emotions through their artwork. It assists designers in detecting their emotions in the early stages of stressful situations so that they can prevent depression. In this project, I explore how designers would express their emotions in their creative production. I am interested as to whether there is a difference in personal works as compared to professional projects. Most importantly, I am interested in how designers can evaluate their mental state through their design output.
Several methods were used to collect the visual responses of designers’ emotion and I collected feedback from over 70 people and more than one hundred graphics. In addition to the asset collection, I conducted more than 20 interviews of designers to gain a deeper understanding of how people connect their emotions with their drawings.
The prototype of ”the library of emotion” was created as a platform that allows people to check visual data which might represent certain emotions. For example, currently, people look up information online when they have a dream which they believe might be meaningful. Similarly, designers can navigate information around emotion and creative output through the platform.
When people arrive at the home page they can search for either keywords for their drawing or words describing emotions. People can also lookup symbols by clicking options at the bottom of the page.
Once keywords are selected a brief introduction of the symbol is provided along with a diagram that suggests how many people would attach it to certain emotions. The symbols are animated so that people can have a better understanding of them. Finally, people can connect similar symbols to have a better understanding of a certain family of symbols.