This two-part article explores the concept of emotional connoisseurship—the art of appreciating lived emotional experiences in emotion-driven design (EDD). In Part 1, we aim to establish and position the concept within the current EDD theoretical landscape. We first review the concept of connoisseurship, its origins, development, and relevance to professional practices. Second, building upon the existing design literature, we scrutinize the relationships between design connoisseurship and design expertise. We then conceptualize emotional connoisseurship as an essential skill that designers aspiring to practice EDD must actively cultivate, along with learning EDD theories, methods, and tools. After that, we reflect on how previous EDD research outcomes (i.e., emotional granularity design tools) can support the development of a designer’s emotional connoisseurship, especially in a schema-oriented or top-down manner, and argue the need for a sensibility-oriented or bottom-up approach. Part 1 sets the stage for Part 2. Part 2 will detail our pedagogical initiative supporting the self-cultivation of emotional connoisseurship among novice designers through a sensibility-oriented approach.@en

Part 2 of this article introduces the Experience Design Introspection (XDI) workshop. This educational initiative aims to nurture designers’ emotional connoisseurship through a sensibility-oriented approach. We begin by discussing the philosophical underpinnings of XDI, which include non-dualism, pluralism, and long-termism. We then outline three operational principles that guided the development of the XDI and the techniques used to achieve them. To illustrate the practical application of the XDI workshop, we provide a comprehensive walkthrough of a two-and-a-half-hour trial version, which also served as a platform for reflection and iterative improvement. In the final sections, we present participants’ feedback and envision the evolution of the XDI from a time-bound workshop to a community-based learning model. This model aims to foster long-term engagement, personalized cultivation, authentic social learning, and a culture of introspection and sharing that extends beyond the lecture room and studio.@en

Nature experiences, especially the visual aspects of nature, have been widely used to facilitate relaxation. Fueled by digital technology, simulated visual nature experiences have gained popularity in creating healing environments that induce relaxation. However, while easily applicable, not all nature-imitating visuals lead to relaxation. How to effectively design relaxing visual nature experiences remains largely unexplored. This paper investigates how different nature qualities facilitate relaxing visual experiences and the roles of two personal characteristics (mood and nature-relatedness) play. Through an online survey and interviews, we assessed 16 nature video clips, representing eight distinctive nature qualities, and compared perceived experiences while considering the influence of personal characteristics. The results indicate four types of visual qualities (engaging, instinctive, ambient, and derivative) underlying nature-induced relaxation, and show that nature relatedness influences the degree to which nature video clips elicit relaxation. We discuss design implications for creating personalized digital nature.@en

With the surging number of digital devices penetrating our daily routines, the risks inherent to cybersecurity—the protection of data on digital products connected to the Internet—have also increased since these devices (e.g., connected home devices, personal monitoring) collect, process, analyze and store users’ sensitive personal information. Thus, there is a pressing need to assist users in being aware of and dealing with potential cybersecurity threats. With the proposition that fulfilling the need starts with developing an in-depth understanding of the user behaviors in the context of cybersecurity, an exploratory study was conducted that employed three mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods—a trend analysis, an interview study, and an online survey study. The paper reports the user characteristics on (1) awareness levels of cybersecurity issues, (2) uses of digital devices, and (3) means of dealing with the privacy issues in product use. The results of the studies were translated into eight personas that systematically reflect distinct characteristics of users, which can help designers empathize with their potential users vulnerable to cybersecurity risks.@en

As more digital devices with sensing capabilities are introduced into users’ daily lives, the risks of threats to data and privacy and security have increased. While cybersecurity has been acknowledged as an important concern in developing products with digital services, currently available design methodologies and practices offer limited effective guidance to designers to explicitly address cybersecurity issues. In this paper, we present a case study from a product design course at the University of California, Berkeley, where the course’s teaching team implemented an intervention in the form of cybersecurity- focused educational materials into the design process. The baseline and post-intervention survey results indicate that the cybersecurity intervention throughout the course had positively influenced the students’ awareness of cybersecurity (p<0.001, SD=0.79, 26% increase in score, Cohen’s d=0.81). The intervention provoked the designers to consider and include aspects of cybersecurity in developing their design solutions throughout most of the design process. However, their increased awareness aside, the extent of the student teams considering cybersecurity had tapered off over the 6-week design course with little noticeable influence in the final design.@en