The term “design” today encompasses attributes of artifacts that go beyond their intended functions, imbuing them with new meanings. Those meanings are deeply related to the emotions perceived by the users. This book investigates the findings deriving from the neurosciences that are relevant to design. Drawing upon up-to-date neuroscientific knowledge, the authors define what an emotion is, examine the relationship between perceptions and emotions and discuss the role of metaphoric communication. Particular attention is paid to those elements of perception and metaphoric interpretation that cause the emotions to rise. Consequences for the design process are then considered and a design process is proposed that takes into account emotional impacts as one of the goals. A solid scientific approach to the subject is maintained throughout and understanding is facilitated by the inclusion of a rich collection of successful design artifacts, the emotional aspects of which are analyzed.
For all of the tremendous advances in medicine and treatment the world has seen in the modern era, the human body’s ability to heal itself remains a (literally) vital and often overlooked facet of healthcare. Through the use of emotional design, aimed at transforming healthcare environments, such as waiting rooms, in such a way as to boost the emotional wellbeing of patients, and thus their general attitudes, including in regard to their own healing processes, medical institutions can improve outcomes for the people they treat while simultaneously lowering overall costs. Design, as an inherently transdisciplinary, problem-solving activity, is well-suited to this task. And when combined with a field of study such as neuroscience, which can literally map out the perceptions that lead to the experience of particular emotions, healthcare environments can be transformed into spaces (through such innovations as Kansei engineering) that then subsequently transform the people who rely on them the most, leading to more efficiency and less red ink.
The term “design” today encompasses attributes of artifacts that go beyond their intended functions, imbuing them with new meanings. Those meanings are deeply related to the emotions perceived by the users. This book investigates the findings deriving from the neurosciences that are relevant to design. Drawing upon up-to-date neuroscientific knowledge, the authors define what an emotion is, examine the relationship between perceptions and emotions and discuss the role of metaphoric communication. Particular attention is paid to those elements of perception and metaphoric interpretation that cause the emotions to rise. Consequences for the design process are then considered and a design process is proposed that takes into account emotional impacts as one of the goals. A solid scientific approach to the subject is maintained throughout and understanding is facilitated by the inclusion of a rich collection of successful design artifacts, the emotional aspects of which are analyzed.
For all of the tremendous advances in medicine and treatment the world has seen in the modern era, the human body’s ability to heal itself remains a (literally) vital and often overlooked facet of healthcare. Through the use of emotional design, aimed at transforming healthcare environments, such as waiting rooms, in such a way as to boost the emotional wellbeing of patients, and thus their general attitudes, including in regard to their own healing processes, medical institutions can improve outcomes for the people they treat while simultaneously lowering overall costs. Design, as an inherently transdisciplinary, problem-solving activity, is well-suited to this task. And when combined with a field of study such as neuroscience, which can literally map out the perceptions that lead to the experience of particular emotions, healthcare environments can be transformed into spaces (through such innovations as Kansei engineering) that then subsequently transform the people who rely on them the most, leading to more efficiency and less red ink.
This exploration of the environmental practices of Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime invites readers to consider the ecological connections of all political projects. “We might think we see a mountain while it was a war; a forest can actually be an engine; a monument to workers might reflect the violence of a colonial empire.”—extracted from Mussolini’s Nature In this first environmental history of Italian fascism, Marco Armiero, Roberta Biasillo, and Wilko Graf von Hardenberg reveal that nature and fascist rhetoric are inextricable. Mussolini’s Nature explores fascist political ecologies, or rather the practices and narratives through which the regime constructed imaginary and material ecologies functional to its political project. The book does not pursue the ghost of a green Mussolini by counting how many national parks were created during the regime or how many trees planted. Instead, the reader is trained to recognize fascist political ecology in Mussolini’s speeches, reclaimed landscapes, policies of economic self-sufficiency, propaganda documentaries, reforested areas, and in the environmental transformation of its colonial holdings. The authors conclude with an examination of the role of fascist landscapes in the country’s postwar reconstruction: Mussolini’s nature is still visible today through plaques, monuments, toponomy, and the shapes of landscapes. This original, and surprisingly intimate, environmental history is not merely a chronicle of conservation in fascist Italy but also an invitation to consider the socioecological connections of all political projects.
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