Design by Tangible Stories: Enriching Interactive Everyday Products with Ludic Value

The introduction of calm technologies and ubiquitous computing (Weiser, 1991) brought forth a growing number of interactive digital products. They even created new categories of digital products including digital audio players, car navigation devices and mobile phones. At the same time, they transformed traditional everyday items, such as chairs, tables and kitchen appliances, into smart, interactive products through embedded microcontrollers, sensors and new electronic displays. These new kinds of everyday products and environments shape our lives and have become major topics of design. One of the most important roles of designers in this situation is to infuse more emotional value into such technological products, being that emotional value in such products can help people be happier and more creative when using them (Norman, 2005). This supports aesthetic user experience beyond goal oriented qualities such as effectiveness and efficiency. Borgmann (1984) argued that technology is removing an important part of human life, which he clarified through defining two terms, commodity and thing. According to his definitions, commodities are objects that have no other significance apart from their main functions. Things, on the other hand, are not just physical objects, but they also include the emotional feelings and meanings that are connected with the object. He was concerned that new technologies might be creating only commodities. People’s lives are made more convenient, but at the price of losing meaning. The importance of increased emotional value has been highlighted by many design practitioners and researchers. Chapman (2009) explains the notion of emotional durability and introduced a six-point experiential framework. Papanek (1995) uses the term “spiritual values” in response to “materialistic values” and insists that design should consider spiritual values more significantly. People buy products based on materialistic values which the product provides with functions, finished quality and decoration. If the materialistic values are degraded, the product loses these values. However, if extra experiential values are added to the product, it becomes sustainable and highly valued even if the materialistic values degrade. For example, if a dish has been used by one’s family for several generations, even if it has some cracks, it holds immeasurable emotional value for the owners.