How to Use Emotional Usability to Make the Product Serves a Need Beyond the Traditional Functional Objective to Satisfy the Emotion Needs of the User in Order to Improve the Product Differentiator – Focus on Home Appliance Product

Abstract

A traditional definition of usability cites the successful attainment of some related control within a specified period of time and a minimum number of errors. Therefore, most of attempts focused on the function of the product. At present, user centered design is highly emphasized; in addition, more entertainment-oriented products has received high attention by consumer. So, whether or not the product can meet the emotion needs of the consumer is significant for the brand. This paper provides the definition of emotional usability based on the traditional usability research and introduce one of the most famous home appliance company Haier how to use it during the course of product development through case study and provides the process to apply emotional usability to make the product serves a need beyond the traditional functional objective to satisfy the emotion needs of the user in order to improve the product differentiator.