The UX of Warmth
Brief: Design an Emotional Experience using Heat
Research Methods: Body Storming, Behavioural Mapping
Team: Diya Paode • Ojaswi Kejriwal • Sarthak Joshi • Anwesha Basu • Jeanne • Prim Adam
Week 1
Exploration and Secondary Research
What is warmth? A physical sensation based on external temperatures? Or can our emotions also evoke the feeling of warmth? Is it a survival measure?
These references broadened my understanding of warmth as both a sensorial and emotional experience; focusing a lens on sustainable, adaptive environments that foster comfort, connection, and authenticity.
We then kickstarted the project with a pool of themes;
Through devil’s advocacy, we narrowed down on ‘ectothermy’ — a concept which showed promise to leverage both physical and emotional warmth;
Ectothermy serves as a powerful metaphor for the human need for emotional warmth. Just as ectotherms are attuned to the warmth in their environments, humans are attuned to the warmth of social interactions and meaningful relationships. These connections provide us with a sense of comfort, energy, and resilience and so we asked ourselves;
Can humans be considered emotional ectotherms? Do we regulate our emotions by drawing from our surroundings?
Primary Research
To dig deeper into this theme, we carried out a Bodystorming exercise. Participants were invited to step into an “end of existence” simulation, where the world as we know it has ended and the only survivors are the people in the room. We aimed to observe individual and group behaviours to better understand if the emotional ectotherm hypothesis held true.
Feedback and Next Steps
Using incubation to explore the idea of emotional ectothermy was deemed unpredictable and interesting, and we were nudged to explore ‘social’ incubation in contrast to its otherwise solitary nature. Drawing biomemetic inspiration from ectotherms was also suggested.
Week 2
The insights from our bodystorming exercise indicated that people do mirror emotions of those around them. However, can the same be said with respect to our environments?
The subtlety of light and its demure warmth in Japanese culture, the parallels drawn between indigenous and borrowed technology — how they have a stark influence on the perception of artefacts; adeptly described by Junichiro Tanizaki; sheds some light on how environments do in fact affect emotions, in obvious and softer ways. The visual that stood out to me the most was how gold intricacies on lacquerware feels vulgarly ostentatious in bright light, but upon catching the light of a flickering candle, they feel dignified; the environment informs our perception (Tanizaki, 1980).
Tanizaki’s critique on the Western culture of “precipitous progress” also struck a chord with me and ties in with Adam Greenfield’s notes about how we keep transforming the texture of everyday interactions, dematerialising them, to fit our whole world into one device. This state of constant upgradation has multifold consequences; ruthless depletion of our natural resources, invisible, exploitative human labour practices; to name just a few (Tanizaki, 1980; Greenfield, 2017).
I strongly believe the “invisibility” of these consequences is perpetuated by the era of supersonic-paced living that leaves us detached from emotions, with no room for introspection and mindfulness.
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One may argue that evolution is a survival instinct and there may be no escaping our DNA here; but can we, at the very least, not let this percolate into our personal lives? Can we preserve our emotional warmth?
How might we create such a restorative experience, to amp down from our workdays and return to our lives with renewed empathy, energy, and connection?
Primary Research
Through behavioural mapping, we studied bus stations on a particularly sunny day. Interestingly, although the bus station itself was shaded and the area surrounding it was sunny, people preferred to wait in the shaded structure. It seemed like a physical and psychological shield — offering shelter and creating a feeling of safety and separation from the flow outside.
Final Outcome
We have thus created an immersive spatial experience, one that feels like a safe niche, to help people recharge after tiring days. Drawing inspiration from ectothermy, we recognise that humans need moments to recharge mentally and emotionally to keep functioning optimally.
Drawing inspiration from nature, we explored biomimicry of incubation and the ploceidae family of birds’ weaving technique became central to the design.
This life-sized Human Nest is crafted to nurture growth and relaxation, offering a sanctuary to the mind and soul.
We tested our experience with 10 participants, at the end of the day to observe if there was a shift in mood before and after.
Feedback
The experience was positively received by peers and tutors, the scale of the prototype and cardboard weaving technique were especially lauded. The critical feedback from tutors was to think about the next steps of how this experience could be scaled to different spaces, paediatric clinics, office spaces and so on; how the design of the pod could be informed by these different contexts and user groups.
In Retrospect
Research Methods
Bodystorming: We used this method to understand the theme of ‘warmth’ better. I believe it may work better to deconstruct and empathise with existing product experiences as illustrated by ThinkDesign. Additionally, by assigning roles to participants we may have been able to illicit more generative responses.
Behaviour Mapping: Our behaviour mapping exercise was done at a particular time of day and so acts more as a “snapshot in time” rather than a heat map “over” time; by observing our peers’ presentations I have a better understanding how to conduct this method for future projects.
As team full of strong voices, it was of paramount importance to ensure we did not get lost in conversations. Wherever we faced deadlocks while making decisions, we employed a “sell it to me” approach, where ideas would be elevator pitched to the group and we would proceed with the majority vote.
Prim’s perfect notemaking and documentation, Ojaswi’s focus, Sarthak and Anwesha’s solid research and Jeanne’s energy, coupled with my ability to mediate, synthesise and propel, made for a rather warm work experience!
Reference List
Greenfield, A. (2017). Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life. London: Verso Books.
Tanizaki, J. (1980). In Praise of Shadows. Translated by T.J. Harper and E.G. Seidensticker. New York: Leete’s Island Books.
