The main theme of the conference is Design and Emotion with this year’s special focus on “Dare to Desire”. Contributions are invited on the overall theme and in particular on the following sub-themes:

Values & Culture
Emotions are closely linked to values; our strongest emotions we experience in response to things we value most. Some of our values we shared with all humans, and some differ across cultures. This theme invites papers that focus on the relationships between design, values, culture, and emotion, and in particular papers that address the Asian lifestyle; East vs. West; social culture and design; globalization.

Usage & Interaction
Product usage and user-product interaction evoke emotional responses that go beyond the initial emotional impact of product appearance. Interaction can generate emotional episodes that involve emotions such as pleasure, frustration, delight, boredom, interest, and so forth. This theme invites papers that propose interaction models, design solutions and theories for design interaction and emotion

Modeling Experience
In spite of the subjective and personal nature of emotion and experience, design for experience allows for structured approaches that are based on, or identify, opportunities for modeling experience. This theme invites papers that propose tools, methods, theories and techniques, that focus on the relationships between objective design parameters or product attributes and subjective experiences.

Technology & Materials
Although materials and technology cannot experience emotions, their objective properties, which are perceived with our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and sense of touch, will generate subjective impressions. This theme invites papers that address the emotional impact of materials and technology, affective computing, and the challenges of building emotional machines, such as emotional robots.

Brands & Consumption
Emotions are closely related to motivations, and they will influence our consumer behavior, such as, purchase intentions, in store decisions, and price willingness. Brands are often carriers of these experiences, and the success of a brand is inevitably linked to emotion. This theme invites papers that explore the relationship between brand, emotion, and consumer behavior.

Design & Emotion: Methodological issues
This theme invites research that is purposing tools and techniques for designing emotions. These can be, for example, tools and techniques that serve a purpose in generating design visions, in generating design, and in evaluating design.

Design & Emotion: Theoretical issues
Still there are many unanswered questions about design and emotion. This theme invites discussions about the validity of existing models, proposals for new models, and the applicability of models in other domains.

Special interest themes:

Desire & Lust
Which products do we desire for? What qualities of products are desirable? Can we experience lust in response to product design? How to design for desire? Are desire and lust the exclusive domain of luxury products and brands? This theme invites papers that discuss the role of desire and lust in design.

Food & Fragrance design
What emotional responses do we experience in response to foods and fragrances? Are these particular and distinct emotions, or are these the same emotions we also experience in response to product appearance? How can we describe and design for food and fragrance emotions? This theme invites papers that discuss the experiential impact of food and fragrance design.

Toy & Game design
Why are we attached to our childhood toys? How can toys be used to teach emotions? How can games be designed to elicit specific emotions? This theme invites papers that address toys and games with emotional properties, toys and games that teach emotions, and models of how toys and games elicit emotions.

Design for hospitality
What emotions are experienced when checking in a hotel, or when dining at a restaurant? How to understand the emotional episodes experienced when using complex services? This theme invites papers that address the emotional impact of hospitality services and approaches to design for service and emotion.

Emotion in design education
What is the role of emotion in design education? How are students stimulated to understand their own emotions and those of the users of the products that they will design? This theme invites papers that discuss (examples of) the role of emotion in design education.