Content uploaded by Paul Hekkert
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Paul Hekkert
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Design aesthetics: Principles of pleasure in design
Abstract and Figures
In this paper I propose that only part of our experience of events, and products in particular, should be coined aesthetic. This part, the aesthetic experience, is restricted to the (dis)pleasure that results from sensory perception. The main part of the paper is devoted to explaining why we experience certain things as gratifying to our senses. Following thinking in evolutionary psychology, it is argued that we aesthetically prefer environmental patterns and features that are beneficial for the development of the senses’ functioning and our survival in general. Four general principles of aesthetic pleasure, operating across the senses, can be explained on the basis of such argumentation: (1) maximum effect for minimum means, (2) unity in variety, (3) most advanced, yet acceptable, and (4) optimal match.
Figures - uploaded by Paul Hekkert
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Paul Hekkert
Content may be subject to copyright.
... Today, there is a dominant perception that striving for simplicity is crucial to achieving a 'good design' (Eytam et al., 2017;Karvonen, 2000;Maeda, 2006;Mollerup, 2006;Mollerup, 2015;Norman, 2013). While not as extreme, Paul Hekkert (2006) argues for reducing complexity and clutter with his MAYA principle (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) (Hekkert, 2006). Also, in modern popular culture, we find the desire for simplicity, for example, in Netflix shows such as Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo. ...
... Today, there is a dominant perception that striving for simplicity is crucial to achieving a 'good design' (Eytam et al., 2017;Karvonen, 2000;Maeda, 2006;Mollerup, 2006;Mollerup, 2015;Norman, 2013). While not as extreme, Paul Hekkert (2006) argues for reducing complexity and clutter with his MAYA principle (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) (Hekkert, 2006). Also, in modern popular culture, we find the desire for simplicity, for example, in Netflix shows such as Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo. ...
... Reducing complexity, disorder, and clutter from a design by moving towards simplicity (Hekkert, 2006;Karvonen, 2000;Maeda, 2006;Mollerup, 2006;Mollerup, 2015;Norman, 2013): ...
... These could be particularly important when the device is designed for bodily interaction (Jarrasse et al., 2015). Experience results from the interaction between users and products (Desmet & Hekkert, 2007), encompassing sensory gratification, associated meanings, and elicited emotions (Hekkert, 2006). Accordingly, various factors, including physical actions, perceptual and cognitive processes, contextual elements, and user characteristics, contribute to the experience (Desmet & Hekkert, 2007). ...
... The unique color, grain, and other appearance properties of wood cause the visual stimulation from human eyes, create a warm and gentle visual sense and a comfortable and relaxed state of mind, which has a positive impact on human psychology and physiology (Sakuragawa et al. 2005;Rice et al. 2006;Ikei et al. 2017;Jalilzadehazhari and Johansson 2019;Lipovac and Burnard 2021;Ojala et al. 2023). Nowadays, product design is increasingly focused on meeting consumer psychological preferences and emotional needs (McDonagh-Philp and Lebbon 2000;Hekkert 2006). The visual properties of materials have a significant influence on the product design process, and they play an important role in consumer acceptance and decision-making (Bumgardner et al. 2007;Artacho-Ramírez et al. 2008;Zhu et al. 2023). ...
Heat treatment of wood is an attractive, environmentally friendly modification, which can change surface visual properties of wood including color and grain, but it is unclear how heat-treated wood is perceived and evaluated compared with untreated wood. In this paper, Chinese fir was heat-treated at 160, 180, 200, or 220 °C for 2 or 4 h. The changes of wood surface color and grain contrast were measured. A subjective questionnaire and eye-tracking technology were used for psychological evaluation. The results showed that changes in the visual properties of heat-treated wood had a significant effect on psychological preference—heat-treated wood was generally more preferred than the untreated, particularly at 200 °C for 4 h. Grain contrast and hue played an important role in the preference for heat-treated wood. The preference gave people the positive psychological impression of warmth, weight, cost, prevalence, and comfort. Eye-tracking analysis showed that Chinese fir heat-treated at about 200 °C with high hue value and clear grain contrast was easier to gain more visual attention. The results would have a high technical reference value for the heat-treated wood in product visual design.
... Kettles that align with these expectations or norms for kettle designs are more likely to be seen as typical or representative of the product category. This relationship has always been meaningful for industrial designers to consider when creating new products, as deviating too far from the expected norms might impact consumer acceptance, aligning with the Most Advanced, Yet Accepted (MAYA) principle by Raymond Loewy (1951), perceptual fluency (Reber et al., 2004), and mere exposure paradigm and maximum effect for minimum means (Hekkert, 2006;Kumar and Garg, 2010). ...
... From practical observations in teaching on the interdisciplinary master's programme in Integrated Design Engineering (IDE) (Vajna 2020), it can be concluded that teaching design based on the inclusion of perceptual needs is suitable for imparting knowledge to people who are less artistically inclined. Heckert et al. also teach aesthetic principles that help to orientate design towards people and their needs to design for wellbeing (Hekkert 2006) at TU Delft. Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky of Riverside University in California defines well-being as the experience of joy and satisfaction associated with a sense of living a good, meaningful and rewarding life. ...
This paper presents a toolkit of heuristics for enabling non-professionals to design for wellbeing, merging design, psychology, and ergonomics. It demystifies design, focusing on happiness and long-term wellbeing, making design principles accessible to all. This toolkit narrows the divide between design theory and practice, advocating design as a tool to enhance life for individuals and society.
... Formal appearance is delivered through the distinctive features of the architectural form that come through the arrangement of visual elements [17]. However, Hekkert [18] explains that formal appearance has an objective effect on applying the imaginative view to the observer through the visual experience. ...
The sustainable breadth of architectural identity is a remarkable phenomenon with many dimensions. These dimensions are melded together to produce an architectural form. Form as the final architectural product is shaped by the visual cues that produce symbols as a powerful tool in identifying a specific architectural trend. This study aims to construct a theoretical framework for the permanence of local identities to answer the main assumption, which is the following: Can identity be measured? It endeavors to clarify the main effective parameters that affect the permanency of architectural identity. It assesses the measurement variables of architectural identity based on multiple architectural perspectives and different points of view. The methodology of this study contains two broad approaches: a checklist and a questionnaire. The results provide a new model that includes three significant poles of architectural identity (mental images, originality, and building regulation). The findings enhanced the sustainability concept of architectural identity, which forecasts the permanency of architectural identity.
... Metaphor has long been a powerful tool for artists, poets, and songwriters to express complex feelings and ideas in simple language. Similarly, metaphor in design can be used to achieve Maximum Effects for Minimum Means (MEMM), as Hekkert (2006) proposed. Humans naturally seek efficiency in perception, feeling, and action; in other words, everyone gravitates towards productive and energy-saving ways of functioning. ...
Addressing sustainability challenges requires shifts in consumption patterns and lifestyles. Design for Sustainable Behavior (DfSB) aims to cultivate sustainable attitudes and behaviors through product-based interventions. However, there can be a disconnect between design strategy and its embodiment and sometimes conflicts between designers’ intent and users’ interpretation. This paper explores the role of metaphors in DfSB in terms of using metaphorical thinking during the design process and/or creating product metaphors in the final design. It begins by identifying barriers that prevent people from engaging in sustainable practices, such as human nature and ambiguity in design. It then examines the roles of metaphor in design and its key strengths in DfSB. Furthermore, the paper outlines three methods to generate metaphors in DfSB: (1) The source domain implies the target domain. (2) The source domain serves design goals and strategies. (3) Cross-domain mapping is based on embodied experience. In conclusion, the paper discusses potential issues surrounding its use in DfSB.
... Furthermore, the user's mental state, the system's characteristics, and the context in which the interaction takes place, according to Hassenzahl and Tractinsky [3], all influence UX. According to Hekkert [4] and Desmet and Hekkert [5], UX encompasses the complete range of user impressions about product influences on their person. Sward and MacArthur [6] define user experience as the value gained from interacting and engaging with a product. ...
A literature content analysis strategy was used to synthesize extant literature sources to comprehend and capture the approaches to the design, evaluation and modeling of user experience. From the analysis, two main methods were identified for the UX research. These paradigms are holism and reductionism. The holist approach stresses on sense making and interpretative approaches to user experience, leading to construction and reconstruction of users’ quality perceptions about their experiences with technological artifacts. This paradigm is design based. Conversely, the reductionism approach is concerned with the deconstruction of users’ experiences. This approach conceives experiences as a model that can be broken down into aspects and dimensions that facilitates understanding of user experience. The debate among researchers on these differing viewpoints conceived and drove this study. The findings of the research show that the two paradigms are insightful, rich and unique and can be independently used in UX research, nevertheless, as both approaches a limited and address the peculiar concerns of the two respective paradigms, this paper advocates and endorses the use of a mixed paradigm especially in longitudinal studies to amalgamate the rich components of both varying approaches, thus implying the interdependent use of the two paradigms in UX research.
The Meaning of Things explores the meanings of household possessions for three generation families in the Chicago area, and the place of materialism in American culture. Now regarded as a keystone in material culture studies, Halton's first book is based on his dissertation and coauthored with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. First published by Cambridge University Press in 1981, it has been translated into German, Italian, Japanese, and Hungarian. The Meaning of Things is a study of the significance of material possessions in contemporary urban life, and of the ways people carve meaning out of their domestic environment. Drawing on a survey of eighty families in Chicago who were interviewed on the subject of their feelings about common household objects, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Eugene Rochberg-Halton provide a unique perspective on materialism, American culture, and the self. They begin by reviewing what social scientists and philosophers have said about the transactions between people and things. In the model of 'personhood' that the authors develop, goal-directed action and the cultivation of meaning through signs assume central importance. They then relate theoretical issues to the results of their survey. An important finding is the distinction between objects valued for action and those valued for contemplation. The authors compare families who have warm emotional attachments to their homes with those in which a common set of positive meanings is lacking, and interpret the different patterns of involvement. They then trace the cultivation of meaning in case studies of four families. Finally, the authors address what they describe as the current crisis of environmental and material exploitation, and suggest that human capacities for the creation and redirection of meaning offer the only hope for survival. A wide range of scholars - urban and family sociologists, clinical, developmental and environmental psychologists, cultural anthropologists and philosophers, and many general readers - will find this book stimulating and compelling. Translations: Il significato degli oggetti. Italian translation. Rome: Edizione Kappa, 1986. Der Sinn der Dinge. German translation. Munich: Psychologie Verlags Union, 1989. Japanese translation 2007. Targyaink tukreben. Hungarian translation, 2011.
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"--metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them.
In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.
Anthropologists have long recognized that cultural evolution critically depends on the transmission and generation of information. However, between the selection pressures of evolution and the actual behaviour of individuals, scientists have suspected that other processes are at work. With the advent of what has come to be known as the cognitive revolution, psychologists are now exploring the evolved problem-solving and information-processing mechanisms that allow humans to absorb and generate culture. The purpose of this book is to introduce the newly crystallizing field of evolutionary psychology, which supplied the necessary connection between the underlying evolutionary biology and the complex and irreducible social phenomena studied by anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and historians.
