Abstract
The development and application of aesthetic theories in design have predominantly focussed on the visual sense. Here, we focus on designing for the sense of touch to provide insights into designing products with haptic aesthetic qualities and to contribute to aesthetic theory development and validation. As a case, we designed a pair of novel concept headphones through which we explore new ideas of haptic aesthetics using the aesthetic principles of most ‘advanced yet acceptable’ and unity-in-variety. These principles were applied in the iterative design of the concept headphones. In addition, they were validated in a study where we manipulated haptic qualities in three prototype headphones that were evaluated by participants (N=22). It was found that the aesthetic principles apply to the haptic sense, with a larger effect of unity and novelty on haptic aesthetic appreciation. Insights from the study were incorporated into a final design which was evaluated in a qualitative study, focusing on haptic novelty–typicality with audiophiles. Insights from this evaluation showed the potential of haptic aesthetic design for high-end headphones.
Keywords
aesthetics; haptics; headphones; research-through-design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.303
Citation
Coope, M., Huisman, G.,and Hekkert, P.(2023) Haptic aesthetics in product design: designing headphones that feel beautiful, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.303
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
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Haptic aesthetics in product design: designing headphones that feel beautiful
The development and application of aesthetic theories in design have predominantly focussed on the visual sense. Here, we focus on designing for the sense of touch to provide insights into designing products with haptic aesthetic qualities and to contribute to aesthetic theory development and validation. As a case, we designed a pair of novel concept headphones through which we explore new ideas of haptic aesthetics using the aesthetic principles of most ‘advanced yet acceptable’ and unity-in-variety. These principles were applied in the iterative design of the concept headphones. In addition, they were validated in a study where we manipulated haptic qualities in three prototype headphones that were evaluated by participants (N=22). It was found that the aesthetic principles apply to the haptic sense, with a larger effect of unity and novelty on haptic aesthetic appreciation. Insights from the study were incorporated into a final design which was evaluated in a qualitative study, focusing on haptic novelty–typicality with audiophiles. Insights from this evaluation showed the potential of haptic aesthetic design for high-end headphones.