Design for Desirability: A Collaborative Innovation-Initiative between New Zealand Design Academia and Industry

This chapter outlines an innovative and collaborative design research project that connects New Zealand SME manufacturers with advanced design thinking about affective design. This project was developed and implemented by the centre for affective design research (Affect) at Massey University. Design researchers and five NZ companies have collaborated to foster ‘design-for-desirability’ thinking and develop capabilities by means of knowledge sharing, enterprise training and individualised projects. This created visionary product concepts utilizing the perceptual product experience framework (Warell, 2008). The chapter provides a novel model for collaboration between industry and academia that focuses on implementing ‘design-for-desirability’ thinking in SME companies with the aim of improving their international competitiveness. Well-designed, functional products are expected in today’s competitive global markets. Gaining success in global markets requires a step beyond this level of usability in order to develop products that are desirable and appeal to the users on emotional, social and intuitive levels