An emotionally durable product is like a constant reminder of ‘Something Worth Keeping.’ It highlights the significance of quality and craftsmanship in our choices, all the while recognizing that, above all, good design ensures a product becomes a cherished part of our homes, passing from one generation to the next. Even in our modern era, it’s the look, feel, and touch that truly matter.
Think about the office accessories you gather over time—they should be chosen because you love them, knowing they’ll seamlessly fit into the broader story of your space. They become part of the narrative alongside your art, books, and other cherished accessories
To truly become a part of your story, a product needs to stand the test of time. It calls for a product that’s not only physically durable but also ages gracefully. These two aspects are the key strategies we’re diving into today to enhance Emotional Durability (ED).
Gracefully ageing: In addition, it is imperative to carefully choose materials for products that enhance their aesthetics over time, such as walnut or padouk woods. This aspect is extensively discussed in literature, emphasizing that an object should engage the senses through delightful surprises and become more appealing with use, enabling users to discover and evolve with the product, fostering meaningful relationships.
The interaction between the user and the product significantly influences emotional attachment, motivating increased usage. Consequently, offering a satisfying user experience is considered a strategic approach to facilitate ED. Scholars have explored these experiences, particularly those related to products that age gracefully. Designing products that age well is crucial, as it imbues them with a tangible character that evolves alongside the user. This is elucidated through materiality, where items that age gracefully acquire uniqueness and exhibit signs of wear, telling the user’s story and fostering emotional bonds. Products that gracefully age allow for personalized items that reflect self-expression, a key aspect of ED. Objects accumulating character and value over time have the potential to encourage emotional attachment by embodying the signs of life through patina, sustaining a narrative.
Wooden products, with their rich history, exemplify this concept well. For instance, a walnut coaster set like Woodsaka’s triangle coaster carries impressions of users and displays evidence of their personality. As this coaster set is used, signs of wear, such as coffee stains or tea drops, accumulate over time, representing events and experiences between the product and the user. Even without such marks, a wooden product naturally ages gracefully when exposed to sunlight. Padouk wood, exemplified by Woodsaka’s padouk-cherry set, develops a deeper red color with aging on desks, with just regular use contributing to a richer tone of red each year. This quality of recording the user’s different life stages allows for aesthetic and emotional assessments by both the user and their surroundings.
Dependability & Physical durability: These are crucial elements in fostering attachment to a product. Dissatisfaction resulting from inadequate Physical Durability can relegate a product to a fate in the landfill rather than adorning a consumer’s desk. Therefore, the focus on integrity centers around maintaining quality and transparency. Instances of premature product failure, such as visible cracks in paper tray edges or loosely glued joints in an organizer, can lead to consumer frustration, with low quality being a primary cause of dissatisfaction.
Moreover, office products that exhibit Physical Durability stand a better chance of being repaired. Physical Durability becomes particularly significant when Emotional Durability (ED) is already established, and products possess attributes that extend well beyond their useful lifetimes, as perceived by their owners. In such cases, Physical Durability ensures that consumers can depend on products to remain functional and resist wear and tear. Enhancing Physical Durability from a material quality perspective has been recognized as a primary design intervention, capable of significantly impacting the longevity of a product.
Longevity is a complex concept involving technical, social, and aesthetic aspects that are intricately connected. Achieving longevity or ED requires meeting specific criteria, two of which we’ve explored here. Wood, as a material, brings inherent durability and ages beautifully. When a physically durable home or office accessory ages gracefully, it transforms into an integral part of a person’s living or working space. Following this principle, Woodsaka creates office supplies, making our designs some of the most cherished pieces on your desk.
Let’s conclude this topic in our upcoming blog post.
Bibliography
Bhatta, S. R., Tiippana, K., Vahtikari, K., Hughes, M., & Kyttä, M. (2017). Sensory and Emotional Perception of Wooden Surfaces through Fingertip Touch. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 367. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00367
Burcikova, M. (2021). Mundane Durability: The Everyday Practice of Allowing Clothes to Last. In Proceedings of the 4th PLATE 2021 Virtual Conference, Limerick, Ireland, May 26-28, 2021. Retrieved from https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/18591/1/Burcikova_Mundane%20durability%202021.pdf
Cupchik, G. C. (1999). Emotion and industrial design: Reconciling meanings and feelings. In C. J. Overbeeke & P. Hekkert (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Design and Emotion (pp. 75-82). Delft: Delft University of Technology.
Eren, G. H. (2022). Design for emotional durability: The case of household light design. Sanat&Tasarım Dergisi, 12(1), 283-296.
Fujisaki, W., Tokita, M., & Kariya, K. (2015). Perception of the material properties of wood based on vision, audition, and touch. Vision Research, 109, 185–200. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2014.11.020
Jensen, M. B. (2021). Emotional Durability– Strategies and Future Integration – A Case Study. PhD dissertation.
Jonsson, J. (2021). Reforming Consumption Habits Through Product Design: Design for Sustainable Development through prolonging product lifetime.
Jordan, P. W. (2000). Designing pleasurable products: An introduction to the new human factors. London: Taylor & Francis.
Mugge, R. (2008). Emotional bonding with products: Investigating product attachment from a design perspective. Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag.
Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. New York: Basic Books.
Walker, S. (1995). Sustainable by design: Explorations in theory and practice. London: Earthscan.
WRAP. (2015). Clothing durability report. Banbury: Anthesis & Waste and Resources Action Programme. Retrieved from https://wrap.org.uk/
Yazirlıoğlu, L. (2021). Sustainable design considerations for emotional durability and product longevity through product care activities by repair enthusiasts. Master’s thesis.