The adventure of a hospitalization: Bringing the reversal theory to life

The design & emotion research domain has produced a rich palette of theoretical and methodological approaches that support designers in their attempts to ‘design for emotion’. In this paper, we focus on situations that involve negative emotions that cannot easily be ‘solved’ through design (for example, sadness caused by the loss of a loved one). The main question addressed is: is it possible to use reversal theory for designing products that transform given strong negative emotions into positive experiences? This question is particularly relevant for situations in which the cause of the negative emotion cannot be removed or solved through design. The paper describes a design case in which this question was explored by designing a product that supports children who are hospitalized for a surgical procedure. One concept was developed by means of the reversal theory and protective frames, transforming the experience of a hospitalization into that of an adventure.Industrial DesignIndustrial Design Engineerin