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Emotional Attributes of Urban Furniture

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Book cover Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018) (IEA 2018)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 824))

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Abstract

This article presents a research on emotions, which emerge from the interaction among user, urban furniture and its use setting. Three empirical studies aimed to: (i) identify and characterize emotional reactions (either positive or negative) raised from the interaction among users, urban furniture and public space; (ii) evaluate one positive emotion (pleasantness) and (iii) one negative emotion (fear) raised from the use of urban furniture/public space. Regardless of gender, the most mentioned positive emotion was pleasantness associated to safety. Fear was the main negative mentioned emotion, being a drawback in the use of public spaces. Attributes of eight constructs (users; activities performed in the public space; accessibility; privacy; urban furniture; vegetation; maintenance; buildings) were related to four space types (pleasant/safe; pleasant/unsafe; unpleasant/safe and pleasant/unsafe) resulting in basic elements to be used in guidelines for design and evaluation of emotional urban furniture/public space. Products with emotional appeal tend to be less vandalized, and to be more intensely used, therefore contributing to people’s well being and more livable cities.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Design and Graphic Expression, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Osvaldo Aranha 99/408, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035-190, Brazil

    Gabriela Zubaran Pizzato

  2. Graduate Program in Industrial Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Osvaldo Aranha 99, 5o andar, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035-190, Brazil

    Lia Buarque de Macedo Guimarães

Authors
  1. Gabriela Zubaran Pizzato
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  2. Lia Buarque de Macedo Guimarães
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gabriela Zubaran Pizzato .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of the Republic of San Marino, San Marino, San Marino

    Sebastiano Bagnara

  2. Centre for Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety, Tuscany Region, Florence, Italy

    Riccardo Tartaglia

  3. Centre for Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety, Tuscany Region, Florence, Italy

    Sara Albolino

  4. Fraunhofer FKIE, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Thomas Alexander

  5. International Ergonomics Association, Tokyo, Japan

    Yushi Fujita

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Pizzato, G.Z., de Macedo Guimarães, L.B. (2019). Emotional Attributes of Urban Furniture. In: Bagnara, S., Tartaglia, R., Albolino, S., Alexander, T., Fujita, Y. (eds) Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018). IEA 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 824. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_218

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