A touch of classical chinese poetry : enriching interactive everyday products with poetic metaphors

Abstract

Recent metaphor designers tend to seek expressions of meaning for richer user experience with technology beyond usability and functionality. Among those expressive attempts, cultural factors call for further in-depth investigations of their design impact. Motivated by its function in expressing meanings shaped in culture, this study examines the poetic metaphor-a less explored category in interaction design. Poetic metaphors evoke novel thinking beyond mundane expression and catalyse the use of the imagination and can be deliberately designed to assign a symbolic meaning to a product like poetry and prose. This intention refers explicitly to blending the design elements derived from a Chinese poetic metaphor with the actions and interfaces, affording functionality for everyday usage. Consequently, it evokes a poetic moment when interacting with everyday products and transforming an outwardly everyday experience into something poetically affecting, namely poetic imagery, poetic emotion, poetic meaning in this study. Therefore, this PhD study focuses on a preliminary understanding and investigation of a practical interaction design approach that deals with the experiential mechanism, metaphorical mappings, and perceptual impact of Chinese poetic metaphor. First, this study explores how an individual perceives a Chinese poetic metaphor for decision-making by designers and researchers. Second, this study addresses the design methods of integrating elements derived from Chinese poetic metaphors into functions and interfaces of interactive everyday products, namely poetic imagery, poetic emotion, and poetic meaning. Last, a measurement scale is developed to evaluate the perceptual impact of everyday products designed with Chinese poetic metaphors. This study will enrich interaction design literature by introducing Chinese poetic metaphors, which can meaningfully and culturally enhance users' experience with an everyday product. The outcomes contribute to interaction designers' and researchers' future practice with poetic intentions.