1. INTRODUCTION
The general design field spectrum is constantly increasing and shifting towards relevant issues. Designers are facing a lot more challenges due to the rising responsibilities of finding solutions for topics such as sustainability or social innovations (Banerjee, 2008, p.2). To understand the human brain and the subconscious perception especially, is a key element to find important solutions throughout the design process. Within the scope of these psychological aspects, emotion is what makes design so interesting and relevant as it influences the decision making process (Norman, 2004, p.12f.). Finding out whether design influences or even manipulates emotions is the main focus of this dissertation. The motivation behind this bachelor thesis is to find a pattern or a guideline that can be applied for general design solutions. The future of designers contains a wider spectrum and knowledge of the human being rather than just the aesthetic pleasing. In a world full of artificial intelligence and online tools that might replace designers, emotion is the main thing that can’t replace designers (Norman, 2004, p.162). Many decisions are made by us subconsciously and are influenced by our different senses. Thus, decisions can be influenced by sounds, tastes, colours, shapes or smells without active participation in the process (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.6f.). As well as decisions, emotions play a big role in the subconscious area of the human brain (Mlodinow, 2012, p.15). Designers, as well as scientists of the cognitive and neuropsychological fields have indeed stated that design elements influence or evoke specific emotions. The main goal of this dissertation is to find a plausible derivation to the question whether it is possible to create a pattern that shows general design rules that influence emotions of the human being.
2.0 GENERAL STRUCTURE
The general structure of this thesis is separated into three segments. The first segment is an analyzation of three different designers who all share the same core idea of design being connected to emotions. While Denman Waldo Ross defined general rules about the relationship between a design and harmony, balance and rhythm, Don Norman took the approach from a more scientific side. He explained the influence design has on emotions through cognitive science. Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh shared their opinions and research studies about the field of design and beauty in which they stated the importance of beauty in terms of functionality. The big counter-movement to emotional design was the Bauhaus, which is briefly explained and reflected in this thesis as well. The core idea behind the Bauhaus was the connection from designers to the craftsmanship and to create design only based on functionality. The second segment is a deeper understanding of why design would influence or evoke specific emotions. Multiple studies about the influence of typography, shapes and colours are being analyzed and summarized. Lastly, a reflection, conclusion and plausible derivation of this thesis will be made to find a possible answer to the hypothesis whether it is possible to evoke specific emotions through specific design and if it is possible to create a general pattern for future designs.
2.1 DEFINITIONS OF EMOTION
“Emotion is a system of movement that stood in the heart
without the permission of the will, and that suddenly changes
the color of the thoughts.” -Alain
To find one definition of emotion has been a struggle that Kleinginna and Kleinginna tried to solve through collecting a hundred of different definitions of emotion and trying to create a consensual and scientific definition which concluded to: “Emotion is a complex set of interactions among subjective and objective factors, mediated by neural-hormonal systems, which can (a) give rise to affective experiences such as feelings of arousal, pleasure/displeasure; (b) generate cognitive processes such as emotionally relevant perceptual effects, appraisals, labeling processes; (c) activate widespread physiological adjustments to the arousing conditions; and (d) lead to behavior that is often, but not always, expressive, goal-directed, and adaptive” (Kleinginna, Kleinginna 1981, p.355). The cognitive scientist Donald A. Norman shows his definition of emotion more vividly in his book Emotional Design. He talks about the importance and value that emotions bring to our everyday life. He further explains that even though the function and usability of a product is important, the emotion and pleasure of using it should not be suppressed (Norman, 2004, p.8). Both of these definitions lean towards the scientific side and try to visualize the process of emotions as well as emotions being influenced subconsciously. They also share the same understanding of the importance of emotions. Both definitions explain that through emotions and feeling, the human being is able to label or decide whether a process, product or situation is positive or negative, safe or dangerous.
2.2 EMOTIONS IN DESIGN
2.2.1 Pure Design
Denman Waldo Ross was a design theorist who wanted to show that there were principles and rules that artists followed to create art. In his eyes, art was not only an expression of emotions or feelings, but it was also not a matter of taste whether someone would appreciate certain art or not, nor was it created without explanations or a reason (Ross, 1907, Preface). The basic principles or modes that art follows are harmony, which is the most comprehensive and important, followed by balance and rhythm that lay right within harmony. His understanding of beauty is more being an experience triggered by these principles, which create an outcome of pleasure and joy (Ross, 1907, p.2f). Creating art or design based on these principles is what Ross called Pure Design. He defined it as an “appeal to the eye just as absolute music appeals to the ear. The purpose in Pure Design is to achieve Order in lines and spots of paint, if possible, the perfection of Order, a supreme instance of it, the Beautiful: this with no other, no further, no higher motive; just for the satisfaction, the pleasure, the delight of it. In the practice of Pure Design we aim at Order and hope for Beauty” (Ross, 1907, p.5). In his theory he defined rules for his understanding of harmony, balance and rhythm in design.
To achieve Harmony within designs, there are multiple points to consider. The first one being the order of harmony. To generate a harmonic state, directions, angles and divergence should be equal when creating repeating intervals (Ross, 1907, p. 12). Another aspect of harmony is the use of tones. Paying attention to similar color values such as hue, saturation or brightness will form a harmony within similar color ranges (Ross, 1907, p.158).
The integration of order to balance can be generated through “equal distances in opposite directions” (Ross, 1907, p. 17). To balance out tones, the key is having the same amount of contrast and distance in hues and saturations from the key tone of the composition to generate an equal focus on the overall outcome (Ross, 1907, p.172).
Through defined asymmetrical and unequal distances of objects in design or art, a feeling of movement can be achieved that creates the order of rhythm (Ross, 1907, p. 25). Incorporating different nuances of hues, saturations or brightness intensities creates a rhythm within tones. Through that rhythm it is possible to guide the eye to certain directions as it moves with the tone gaining greater contrast (Ross, 1907, p.182).
Ross’s theory of pure design shares similarities with Don Norman’s and Stefan Sagmeister’s understanding of beauty or emotion in design. The core idea of design being able to evoke joy, beauty or emotions in general when applied correctly is what all designers concluded from different perspectives.
2.2.2 Emotional Design
The cognitive scientist Donald A. Norman invested a lot of his time into researching human-centered products, functionality and usability. He later focused a whole book on the emotional side of design. The field of cognitive science discovered the importance that emotions actually have. They don’t just influence feelings, behaviors or thoughts. Emotions also affect the decision-making process as it judges situations subconsciously to transmitter potential danger or comfort (Norman, 2004, p.10).
There are three terms that need to be defined to fully understand the connection between emotion and design: Emotion in combination to affect and cognition. The fundamental part of the human brain is the subconscious which ensures survival by sensing and responding to perception, memories, knowledge and judgment. Each second, the human brain registers about 11 million bits of information, where only an estimated amount of sixteen to fifty bits per seconds get registered consciously (Mlodinow, 2012, p.17ff, p.33). The affective system lays within that part of the brain. Based on censoring and judging situations the affective system defines whether it is safe or dangerous. The outcome of these determinations are experiences of emotions which cannot be controlled but one can be consciously aware of it through the cognitive system that interprets the situations logically (Norman, 2004, p.11). Another way to explain cognition is “The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses” (“cognition | Definition of cognition in English by Oxford Dictionaries”, n.d.).
To connect the affective system and emotions to design and in which way they influence or direct each other has been studied in multiple tests. Two Japanese researchers, Masaaki Kurosu and Kaori Kashimura examined the effect of different ATM control layouts on user experience. The functionality was identical in each layout, the only difference was within the arrangement of buttons and screens. Some layouts had more attractive arrangements than others. The result was that the operation of the attractive layouts was more likeable and perceived as more understandable. This experiment was also carried out in Israel, which showed the same results. A plausible conclusion from these studies would be to consider aesthetics as a source of influence on the emotional state (Norman, 2004, p.17f).
Another example that visualizes the importance of emotion in design or products is the evolution of computers. The usage of computers was only for work-related reasons with monochromatic screens until Apple decided to add color to the monitors in 1977 for games. A few years later the first color screens were brought to the market of computers for personal use which started a conflict between the actual value and need for it. But still, people decided to buy it and businesses invested more money into it (Norman, 2004, p.9).
Even though the Apple computers contained the same hardware of previous models that did not sell as well in the market, the interest and affection increased heavily when colours were added to the screen (Norman, 2004, p.68). The marketing of a product is influencing the experience subcounsciously while the consumer thinks it is based on the quality of it (Mlodinow, 2012, p.24). The subconscious plays “a critical role in shaping the way our conscious minds experience and respond to the world” (Mlodinow, 2012, p.29). The philosopher Immanuel Kant described the human being as the creator of its own perception as the brain does not objectively perceive information, it generates its own picture of the world (Mlodinow, 2012, p.30), which describes the connection between cognition and emotion. Creating a lasting emotional connection to a product or design can be accomplished through enduring interactions with it. This means if a consumer interacts with a product regularly, associations and memories are generated through these experiences which create an interpretation of whether the experiences were positive or negative in the long run (Norman, 2004, p.40f). A plausible suggestion for why operating with aesthetically pleasing products seem easier could be that “attractive things make people feel good which in turn makes them think more creatively. How does that make something easier to use? Simple, by making it easier for people to find solutions to the problems they encounter” (Norman, 2004, p.19).
The most natural response to failing while using a product is to try again with more effort. Since the digital change and the increase of digital products, the mindset of focusing on repeating the same process until achieving the desired result shifted to finding solutions or alternatives for the issue. Studies from the psychologist Alice Isen explain that the creative thinking process and problem solving happen to be easier when people are happy. When a problem occurs, the solving process tends to be harder with a negative mindset as the focus narrows down to the significant angles of the issue. These come from the natural survival instinct as the priority lays in escaping the problem rather than understanding it. This instinct does not activate when the thought process gets triggered by positive emotions (Norman, 2004, p.19). “With positive affect, you are more likely to see the forest than the trees to prefer the big picture and not to concentrate upon details. On the other hand, when you are sad or anxious, feeling negative affect, you are more likely to see the trees before the forest, the details before the big picture” (Norman, 2004, p.26). From a design perspective it shows that to create a product both solution operations are required. In the research and ideation phase the priority lays on creative thinking and therefore positive feelings and an open mindset are a necessity. After the ideation phase the focus shifts to concentration and execution to pay attention to the details. This phase often contains deadlines to increase the pressure and therefore the tense and negative feelings (Norman, 2004, p.27).
Another example to visualize the importance of emotion and affection in design is the invention of the first cake mix from the Betty Crocker Company in the early 1950s. The thought behind this product was to guarantee a good result without effort by only adding water to the mix and baking it. Taste tests showed that the product was working but it still failed. The reason for this was the missing emotional connection to the product. The process of baking the cake seemed too artificial as there was no other ingredient than water that had to be added. After modernizing the recipe and the process through adding an egg to the mix, the product increased its value as the feeling of baking was created. “The real problem had nothing to do with the product’s intrinsic value, but instead represented the emotional connection that links a product to its user” (Norman, 2004, p.55f).
The journey and process a user goes through while encountering with a product can be broken down into three levels that are called visceral, behavioral and reflective. The visceral level is building the first part of the affective system. Through the visceral process, external information is sensed and sent on to the muscles and the brain in form of signals after being classified as dangerous or safe. This fundamental level can be found in all human beings. The behavioral level processes the majority of behavior which is then followed up by the reflective level. This process watches over a situation and senses information to draw logical conclusions. The reflective level as well as the behavioral level are more influenced by culture, experience and education (Norman, 2004, p.22, p.33).
These three levels can also be applied to the operational side or the consumers’ view of a product. The visceral level would be the first encounter with a product. Here, the appearance and the feelings that it triggers through materials, colors or shapes are the core. The behavioral level processes the usability and functionality of a product and the efficiency (Norman, 2004, p.39). Through the behavioral level, cultural aspects are influencing human perceptions and build a foundation for later reflection. These two levels influence a reflection and interpretation on the reflective level. Here, the consumer generates an opinion which forms experiences and memories for future operations (Norman, 2004, p.39). Whether a product is successful or not depends on the number of benefits and deficiencies. Thus, there are main differences between the Western and Asian culture for example. While the western culture focuses on individuals, the Asian culture is based on group perspectives which influences the behavioral and reflective level (Norman, 2004, p.54).
To summarize the general function and effects of these three levels, visceral design focuses on the first encounter and appeal of a product or design. The priority here is to generate a physical value, regarding shapes, colours, sounds and materials. Visceral design is there to create the first emotional attachment to the product so the consumer invests time, attention and money to it (Norman, 2004, p.69). In behavioral design, the focus lays upon the performance of the product and its usability as well as the aspect of fulfilling the consumers’ needs. Understanding the user experience and customer journey of a product through observation is a key element of behavioral design. The outcome of that can happen in two ways, the product either enhances old products through understanding the issues and solve them or through innovating a complete new perspective and idea, which is the more difficult solution out of the two (Norman, 2004, p.71). Lastly, the reflective design interprets behavioral and visceral design. This is the part where the consumer forms and opinion about the value and meaning of the product. This happens after a longer period so the consumer fully experienced either positive or negative memories (Norman, 2004, p.88).
Other than Ross, Norman evaluates the process of generating emotions from a consumer’s perspective and explains the influence of design through cognitive science. He also looks at the cultural differences between different countries and share examples of design having the same impact regardless of cultural differences. The plausible derivation from his examples would be the process of emotions happening subcounsciously and that design therefore influences the subconscious mind and behaviour of human beings.
2.2.3 Stefan Sagmeister – Beauty and Design
“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.” – (John Keats, 1818)
The Austrian designer Stefan Sagmeister worked on the Beauty Project after launching The happy show back in 2016. The main focus of this project was to find out whether beauty is an essential in design and functionality. Throughout the twentieth century, the job of designers became more and more rational. The focus was to create consistent designs, with consistent lines, shapes and a small amount of colours to visualize the functionality of a product and to solve problems. This led to unemotional and unauthentic designs, which showed no value to the world. Stefan Sagmeister and his partner Jessica Walsh share their opinion and studies with the outcome that beauty is a core of humanity which not only increases the likelihood of a product or design but also the functionality (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.5).
“Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder” (Hungerford & Duchess, 2016), is a well-known quote that people use to underline the variety of beauty and perception. This quote had not been scientifically proven as it was first written down in a novel by Hungerford in 1878 and since then it had been interpreted as a true fact which is not the case. Studies showed that there is the same fundamental understanding of beauty in human beings (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.118). Beauty is in fact more than a subjective opinion, it is a principle that changes emotions and influences behaviour (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.152). The architect Louis Sullivan changed the design understanding completely with his principle of “form follows function”. This principle explained that every design and its shape and structure should be influenced and created based on its function only. This principle was mainly visible in architecture which led to house complexes being built based on functionality, which in the end were not used as people did not want to live in there (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.59,62). One of Louis Sullivan’s colleagues Frank Lloyd Wright reinterpreted the meaning behind this principle and added that Form and Function should unite to create a balance in between (“Form Follows Function”, 2016), which Sagmeister & Walsh also wrote down in their Manifest. Additionally to that, Sagmeister & Walsh underline that beauty itself is not enough as well as function itself is not either (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.268). The best example of form replacing function is the Juicy Salif by Philippe Starcks from 1990. This product was beautiful but did not fulfill its purpose which started a big controversy around it and its design in general. Starcks wanted to create something that was more than a kitchen utensil. He created an aesthetically pleasing sculpture, that was being invested in regardless of its lack of function (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.90f).
One study from Dr. Helmut Leder concluded that the human understanding of beauty happened subconsciously. His research found out that showing Alzheimer patients a series of artworks and pictures and let them rate the images from most appealing to least. No patient had issues following the instructions. The test was repeated a few weeks later and the results where the same even though the patients did not remember taking the test in the first place (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.23f). He also created the hypothesis that beauty might be a quick response to situations or objects in order to find out whether something is good or bad without using up too much energy from the brain. This would conclude that the most beautiful would automatically be the most likeable (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.100). Sagmeister & Walsh created surveys around the field of beauty over social media. They asked which shape was the most appealing, which color was the prettiest, as well as the look of different brand products. The most appealing shape turned out to be a circle, followed by an organic shape and a rectangle coming last. Regarding the most beautiful colour, purple and blue seemed to be the most likable and brown being the least likable. The result of which shade of blue would be the prettiest was a light pale blue. The conclusion of this study was that the least likable shape had to be a brown rectangle (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.119ff).
The main message or opinion that Stefan Sagmeister stated with his beauty movement, was the misinterpretation of the basic role of a designer in today’s world. As well as Norman, he shows through research that the same objects or elements evoke specific emotions or feelings. He also stated that the movement of the Bauhaus and the core message of form following function is incorrect and that design or beauty instead of following a function should be one itself.
2.2.4 Bauhaus
The Counter-movement to emotional design is the in 1919 created unit called “Bauhaus”. After the world war one, Walter Gropius realized his vision of fusing art and technology to reconstruct the fallen cities from the war. The focus of the Bauhaus was comparable to Sullivans form follows function movement (Feierabend & Fiedler, 2016, p.8).
Yet the most famous building, the Bauhaus itself shows a lot of flaws in its function. The aesthetics express modernity and simplicity. One part of the building is made out of glass, which creates issues through winter and summer, as it is not heatable in winter and too hot in summer. Additionally the overall building seems to be lacking a good acoustic. These examples show that the focus while building the Bauhaus was not the functionality, but more the aesthetic message of modernity and simplicity (Feierabend & Fiedler, 2016, p.8ff).
The educational aspect of the Bauhaus was according to Gropius the way to unite craftsmanship with art to create innovations and shape the future. Instead of creating another design style, he wanted to increase the influence and value of design. To achieve that, the students had to break free from past styles such as the Jugendstil. In one class, students were asked to draw circles with charcoal in three different sizes and therefore they had to use different techniques. The first one being a big circle in a full arm sweep, then a circle by focusing on their elbows and lastly a small circle only created by movements coming from their thumbs and second fingers.
Breaking the students free from past styles was achieved by giving them task such as drawing the abstract feeling of rain with charcoal or the feeling of spring or winter. They referred to a chinese artist who created landscape paintings based on the emotions he absorbed rather than replicate the visual components. Being free from all previous rules or styles created the foundation for the fundamental change in 1922 where the focus shifted to the constructive side to design. In the beginning the struggle of the students to adapt to this change showed within their works as they were perceived as formeless, bad and primitive (Von Erffa, 1943, p.14ff).
The Bauhaus did not pay attention to the emotional response of users or consumers. The main focus laid on the functionality of things only which exists to this day. Being completely distanced from functionality is one extreme that does not work in reality, which Norman already stated in his theories. But also being completely distanced from emotions or the end-effector which is the consumer does not work either. Both, Norman and Sagmeister visualized the issues of functionality based designs but also showed that there are general rules that must be kept in mind while creating designs.
2.3 DESIGNING EMOTIONS
These three designers describe the influence of design on emotion in their own way. Nevertheless when breaking it down, the core message is the same. They all agree that there are rules one must follow to achieve emotion or beauty in design. This thesis interprets the message of pure design and beauty as the same message emotional design wants to evoke. While Stefan Sagmeister explains that beauty does not follow rules or functions, it is its own rule, he does state that beauty needs harmony and rhythm just like denman waldo ross justified with his theory of pure design.
The previous chapter clarified the possibility of design influencing emotions. This chapter is focusing on how one can achieve that. There are three dimensions to design: typography, shape and colour. Each section will be explained briefly and the section of colour will be prioritised in this thesis based on studies and experiments.
2.3.1 Typography
“Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts.
Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy”
(Tschichold, 1968, Homage to the Book).
Typography is the main source of transmitting information and capturing ideas or thoughts as well as being the key element of communication (Tsonos and Kouroupetroglou, 2008, p.2). There are different sections that typography can be divided by: the meaning of the words, the shape of the letters and the colour and the texture of it (Alenquer, Borisch & Stone, 2004, p.212). These sections not only form typography but also affect emotions through the tone that is created with the information it wants to transmit.
By the meaning and sound of words, emotions can be expressed. A good example for that is the mythical language called Elvish from the movie “The Lord of the Rings”, which was invented by a british philologist. The words tinko and losse have the meaning of metal and snow. Without knowing the language, the guess would fall to tinko being metal and losse being snow which is right. The structure of the words and the pronunciation of letters play a big role in perception, thus the sound of a word influences the emotion it triggers in the human brain. The reason why tinko is being connected to the metal is because of the letters “t” and “k” which are both harsch and plosive letters based on pronunciation. The “l” and “s” in losse show more of a softer touch which lead to translating the word to snow. The same explanation can be applied to the word feminine and masculine. The best example of when emotions are evoked purely through the structure and sounds of words is poetry (Norman, 2004, p.31f).
The shape of certain letters or the general structure of a typeface can evoke different emotions which lead to context driven usability. Some typefaces are more appropriate in certain situations than others (Amare & Manning, 2012, p.1).
An empirical study from Amare and Manning shows certain characteristics that 36 typefaces elicit in 102 participants of this study. Each typeface had to be placed on the scale of amused, organised, focused and challenging. Typefaces like Garamond, Arial, Futura, Times New Roman, Santa Fe, Papyrus and Comic Sans had been part of study. The results of the study show that overall serif typefaces evoked a higher characteristic of being organised, focused and calm than sans serif typefaces. However, a significant difference between actual readability as sans serif typefaces evoked high characteristics of focus and being organised as well. Comic Sans elicited a similar peak throughout the entire range of characteristics, the highest ones being amused followed by diverted. The study shows that similar typefaces induced similar results. Thus, a derivation of the study would for example be to use typefaces that raised a high focused and organized characteristic, for body texts and paragraphs, such as arial, garamond or times new roman (Amare,Manning, 2012, p.3ff). This study concludes that typography evokes moods or states that fit more appropriately to specific situations. The structure, shape and perception of it plays a big role as well as the pronunciation.
2.3.2 Form
“Lines as edges kill a sense of form” (Paul Brandford).
Forms and shapes build the fundament of layouts and compositions which can be generated through circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, organic forms and inorganic forms. As well as with typography, there are forms that affect the human brain in a more pleasant way than others. Stefan Sagmeister concluded after a survey with 4.694 participants, that with 44 percent, the circular form is the most pleasant followed by the organic form with 31 percent. The least pleasant forms were angular forms such as the rectangle with two percent or the square with five percent (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.123f). Asking the same question with three-dimensional shapes led to the same results, the most pleasant shape with 50 percent was the sphere and the least pleasant with only two percent the cuboid (Sagmeister & Walsh, 2018, p.143f).
There are two explanations that substantiate the results from Stefan Sagmeister’s survey. The first one is a connection between shapes and the mimic of emotions on a human face. In 1979, Bassili came to the conclusion that circular shapes evoked happiness while angular shapes evoked feelings of anger after painting participants faces black and adding white dots over it. The participants then mimicked smiling and angry faces. While smiling, the dots arranged into a circular composition while the angry face arranged an angular composition. The second one refers to the evolution of the human being where sharp and edgy objects triggered the feelings of danger while circular and soft objects gave a feeling of safety and support. Another study showed that even five months old babies shared the preference of looking at curved objects. Yet, the perception of shapes can vary between different cultures. Multiple studies showed that there is a significant difference between collectivistic and individualistic cultures in the perception and affection of shapes. Where collectivistic cultures, found in East Asia for example, perceived circularly shaped graphics as powerful or beautiful, individualistic cultures, found in the western world, rated them as the complete opposite: ugly and powerless (Batra, Brei & Seifert, 2015, p.93f). To summarize the results of these researches and studies, circular forms evoke safety which can be traced back to evolution and the survival instinct as angular shapes are perceived as dangerous or powerful.
2.3.3 Colour
“Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” – Wassily Kandinsky
Colour is a core element of an aesthetic value to design, thus multiple studies have made the assumption that there is a connection between colours and emotions. There are colours which can be assigned to certain states of mind, for example would the colour yellow be characterised as cheerful, red as exciting and blue as sad or serious (D’Andrade & Egan, 1971, p.49). Yet, it needs to be clarified, that the meaning and usage of colours between cultures is different. The Islamic culture for example defines the colour green for water, blue for earth, yellow for air and red for fire. Indian cultures see the colour red as the colour of luck or beauty and the colour white as the colour of sorrow (Liebmann & Welsch, 2018, p.20f).
Taking colours in consideration with emotions, it is important to define the structure of colours and the influence it has on perceiving and interpreting them. Colours can be divided into three different sections: hue, brightness and saturation. Hue can be defined through the colours red, green, yellow and blue, which are the purest primary colours. Another dimension of colour that plays a big role in its structure is the brightness which labels the intensity of light and dark, medium and bright. Lastly, the saturation is defined by an either low, medium or high level of added neutral greys or whites to the primary colours (Oberfeld & Wilms, 2017, p.896). The saturation is the variable of a colour intensity which defines the purity of a colour (Hallock, 2003).
Oberfeld and Wilms study about the affection of colours on emotions was taken by a different approach. While previous researchers asked participants to assign an emotion to the colour they have seen on screen, this study focused on the actual emotional affect a colour has on the participant. While actively asking the participants how they felt during viewing different colours, the skin conductance and heart rate were parallelly measured. The studies about colour in connection to emotion have been previously studied gaining different results. Some studies state that the level of skin conductance with regard to hue was higher with the colour red than blue, but other studies claimed that there were no effects showing (Oberfeld & Wilms, 2017, p.897). After presenting 27 chromatic colours and three achromatic colours which are three levels of different greys, a notable effect of hue, saturation and brightness on emotions had been observed. The results showed that the self-reflected arousal increased with the intensity of saturation of colours which was also measurable through the skin conductance. The most arousal was noted through the colour red, followed by green, blue and grey showing the least arousal. In terms of valence, blue showed the highest interaction followed by green and red. Looking at the heart rate, it showed that achromatic colours caused a degradation and chromatic colours an increase of the heart rate with a higher level of brightness. This study shows that it is not possible to state that the colours evoke certain emotions only by looking at one of the three dimensions as hue, saturation and brightness influence the general result (Oberfeld & Wilms, 2017, p.908ff). One thing that can be noticed, is that long-wavelength colours such as red and yellow, show higher arousal than short-wavelength colours, like blue or green (Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994, p.396). In terms of choosing colours as an indicator of specific emotions, it is important to use “color in applied design contexts, and when using colors to communicate a certain meaning or to induce a certain mood: it is important to consider the interactions between hue, saturation, and brightness” (Oberfeld & Wilms, 2017, p.910). In regard of hue, a study from Valdez & Mehrabian states that it is possible to determine the most pleasant and least pleasant colours which have an order from blue, green, purple and violet, to red, orange and yellow. Additionally to that, another study showed that with an increase in brightness and saturation, the level of pleasure would rise as well (Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994, p.396).
To connect these results with emotion and colours was part of Schaie’s’ study. He defined the characteristics of colours through an experiment by assigning moods to them through the participants. The overall results stated, that the colours yellow and orange were most interpreted with the moods of excitement and stimulation. Blue was associated with the words secure, senere, calm, peaceful and comfortable while black was transmitting the mood of power, strength, contrary, hostile and unhappy, but also upset and melancholy. Purple was linked to dignified and stately while red was characterised with protecting and defending (Schaie, 1961, p.270). A study from Suk showed that blue was the most pleasant and ruling colour in the hue category while red was measured to be less noticeable. His study was taken in Germany and South Korea, where the level of arousal turned out to have a significant difference. The colour red was interpreted as an exciting colour in South Korea, therefore the level of arousal turned out to be higher than in Germany, where it was rated much lower. However, red was the most arousing colour in both countries (Universität Mannheim & Suk, 2006, p.161).
Even though colours are interpreted differently throughout different cultures, the general effect colours have on human beings can be measured. Some colours evoke more arousal than others, show a higher heart frequency or differences in the skin conductance. This can be connected to emotions or feelings that can then based on the culture be applied to each colour.