A Meta-Analysis on International Research Trends of Emotional Design in Design and HCI

Background The role of emotional design as a differentiation factor for user experience in products and services is increasing. This study aims to analyze current trends and guide future studies on Emotional Design by conducting a meta-analysis on seven major international journals. Methods The study investigates papers from major journals in Design and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) on the topic of Emotional Design from January 2009 to August 2019. Journals and keywords were reviewed to extract papers related to Emotional Design. 84 papers on Emotional Design were selected through qualitative analysis. As a result, research trends in Emotional Design were sorted by the purpose, method, domain, and keyword of the study. Results The five major categories of the purpose of study in Emotional Design were emotional induction, perception correlation, expression, and classification. The three major categories of the methodology of the study were research-driven, project-driven, and theory-driven research. The design was the dominant domain in Emotional Design followed by education, IT, and games. Conclusions This study conducted a meta-analysis on 11 years (2009-2019) of Emotional Design papers. A multi-faceted evaluation of papers resulted in the categorization of the purpose, methodology, and domain of the papers. This paper provides a thorough understanding of Emotional Design with research trends and future directions on Emotional Design.