Make it move

Abstract

Human communication significantly relies on the expressivity of their body movements. Based on these body language experiences, humans tend to extract meanings even from movements of objects. This paper begins with the above human tendencies to create a design method that can help product designers make their products move to communicate. As a research vehicle, we created a robotic torso prototype and utilized it to collaborate with movement experts, and listed up possible expressive movement components. We then built a mapping matrix that links these movements to general product messages. A method which utilizes this mapping matrix was developed to help designers determine a set of effective movements that can communicate specific product messages. Lastly, a design workshop was conducted to identify the usefulness of the proposed method. We expect the procedures and findings of this study to help researchers and designers approach affective user experience through product movement design.