Abstract
Touch serves as a bidirectional emotional channel in human-computer interaction. However, current affective haptic systems remain constrained by static design paradigms that overlook both the temporal dynamics of emotion and the cultural situatedness of touch. Through a systematic review of 80 HCI publications, this study explores how to design haptic interactions that transcend stimulus-response paradigms (RQ1) and establish emotionally dialogic frameworks (RQ2). Findings reveal gaps in temporal adaptability, cultural inclusivity, and multimodal expressivity. To address these, we reposition haptic interactions as bidirectional emotional dialogues through five design considerations: time-sensitive adaptation, culturally calibrated haptic semantics, multimodal actuation, ethics-embedded protocols, and real-world wearability. This work advances affective design by centring adaptability, inclusivity, and ethical responsibility to ensure emotional validity in haptic interaction.
Keywords
haptic; emotional dynamics; systematic review
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.319
Citation
Yang, M., Hu, R., Li, Q., Lin, C.,and Hua, M.(2025) Navigating affective haptics towards emotionally valid interaction design: a systematic review., IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taipei, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.319
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 3 - Design, Art & Technology
Navigating affective haptics towards emotionally valid interaction design: a systematic review
Touch serves as a bidirectional emotional channel in human-computer interaction. However, current affective haptic systems remain constrained by static design paradigms that overlook both the temporal dynamics of emotion and the cultural situatedness of touch. Through a systematic review of 80 HCI publications, this study explores how to design haptic interactions that transcend stimulus-response paradigms (RQ1) and establish emotionally dialogic frameworks (RQ2). Findings reveal gaps in temporal adaptability, cultural inclusivity, and multimodal expressivity. To address these, we reposition haptic interactions as bidirectional emotional dialogues through five design considerations: time-sensitive adaptation, culturally calibrated haptic semantics, multimodal actuation, ethics-embedded protocols, and real-world wearability. This work advances affective design by centring adaptability, inclusivity, and ethical responsibility to ensure emotional validity in haptic interaction.