Emotional matter. Materials in our emotional relationship with objects

Abstract

When people interact with products, emotional relationships arise. Designers must be aware of those relationships to create meaningful products. In the last two decades, research around the emotions occurring between products and users revealed how materials play a crucial role in the development of emotional relationships. This article presents the theoretical background around the investigations of emotions in the design field, focusing on the influence materials have between the products and the user’s emotional relationships. Besides, we will present two classes of emerging materials known as DIY-Materials and ICS-Materials and the relevance they have in the design field, as they are enablers of emotions, not only to the user but also to the designers who create them. Different from the traditional materials produced by science and engineering, those emerging materials maintain a healthy emotional relationship with the designers during the development phase. These ties exalt the expressive-sensorial qualities of the materials over the physical properties and make them essential components of the whole project.