Abstract: Despite the increasing environmental awareness, sustainable products are not routinely adopted, revealing a persistent attitude–behavior gap. While this gap has been widely studied through psychological and behavioral approaches, less attention has been given to how product design attributes shape users’ perceptions and influence their interaction with products. Therefore, this article aims to explore the literature on the role of design attributes in this context, analyzing how product design attributes and sustainability cues affect user experience and product-related decisions. Based on a systematic literature review process, 52 articles were extracted from the SCOPUS database. These articles were classified and analyzed according to their main objectives. Based on the findings, attribute centrality (i.e., whether a product feature is perceived as central or peripheral to the product’s identity) and product category (utilitarian or hedonic) are relevant to shape environmental attitudes and behavior. Specifically, sustainability cues tend to be perceived more negatively in utilitarian products, where functionality is prioritized, and more positively in hedonic products, where they may enhance emotional value, especially when perceived as central attributes. Therefore, these characteristics must be strategically integrated in product design to reduce the perceived trade-off between sustainability and performance. The review conclusions highlight the need for further investigation to identify how specific product design attributes resulting from the application of ecodesign principles trigger sustainability perception.

Keywords: Attitude–behavior gap | Design attributes | Product category effects | Sustainability perception | User perception

Abstract: The concept of User Experience (UX) in design has evolved beyond usability and aesthetics to encompass broader dimensions of emotional, cognitive, and social wellbeing. This paper explores the intersection of UX and wellbeing, proposing a shift in design thinking toward experience-driven, human-centered approaches that support holistic wellbeing. Drawing on interdisciplinary research from psychology, environmental science, human–computer interaction, and architecture, the study highlights the diverse methods and tools used to assess wellbeing, including self-reports, physiological measures, and digital technologies. It also examines how design can influence wellbeing through user-centered, positive, and ethical frameworks, addressing key challenges in conceptual clarity, methodological rigor, and practical implementation. The paper concludes with a research agenda focused on integrating wellbeing into UX design through new assessment methods, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and development of culturally sensitive, sustainable design principles. By aligning UX with wellbeing, the study aims to guide future research and practice in creating more meaningful, engaging, and health-promoting user experiences.

Keywords: Design for wellbeing | Design methods | Hedonism | Pleasure | User experience

Abstract: With the increasing attention paid to sustainability and sustainable consumption, many products are redesigned to diminish their environmental footprint. This is also triggered by changes in legislation and the growing consumers’ interest in what is supposed to be more environmentally friendly. As a consequence, more and more products are getting certified by governmental and other bodies. However, the proliferation of eco-labels leads to consumers’ difficulty in distinguishing them in terms of their relevance, actual contribution to sustainability, and genuineness. In this context, the aim of the paper is to collect from the literature and catalog the design factors influencing the effectiveness of eco-labels and other forms of sustainability- and environment-related communication. The main outcome is the presentation of recommendations as a first core of design guidelines for products including eco-labels. These guidelines, seen as the final goal of this research, should support designers in making appropriate choices when designing products including eco-labels while willing to convey sustainability-related information most successfully and effectively. However, this study also highlights that much research is still needed to get knowledge about eco-labels’ design and support designers appropriately. Hence, the paper stresses the large number of areas requiring further investigation and most pressing open issues.

Keywords: Certification | Eco-Labels | Logos | Recommendations | Sustainable design

Abstract: This study investigates how product attributes shape user interpretation of unfamiliar products in terms of functions and context of use. This was made possible through an experiment involving 71 participants who were administered three unfamiliar end-use products without any additional cue. Findings reveal that visual cues, material semantics, and contextual imagination shape understanding, with misinterpretations often arising from analogical reasoning and partial cue activation. Designers should harmonize cues and leverage material symbolism to guide user perception and acceptance.

Keywords: context of use | design evaluation | human product interaction | product design | user-designer mismatch

Abstract: This study explores how users perceive the centrality and sustainability of design attributes associated with modular design, energy efficiency, and design for disassembly, selected as illustrative eco-design strategies. 42 participants evaluated nine products through a bespoke online survey. The results show that salience and clarity of the environmental benefits associated with product attributes outweigh centrality in the perception of sustainability. This stresses the importance of clear and interpretable sustainability cues to improve users\' understanding of environmental performance.

Keywords: ecodesign | implicit sustainability cues | perceived centrality | sustainability

Abstract: Limited research has explored the delivery of sustainable design in higher education globally. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate educational practices on the topic. Through an online survey, we investigated numerous aspects of units of study exposing topics related to sustainable design with a focus on contents, teaching methods and educational objectives. The survey was accessed by almost 400 educators in the field of sustainable design. The data show that a variety of teaching methods are used, with a critical role played by project-based learning in addition to traditional lectures. Most respondents rated all investigated intended learning outcomes as relevant or very relevant. In terms of contents and methods treated by the respondents, product eco-design and design for X are the most frequently taught methods. Educational approaches and teaching objectives are poorly affected by the discipline of the degree in which units of study are taught. In terms of contents, design degrees include approaches to sustainable design at the spatio-social level more frequently than engineering degrees do.

Keywords: higher education | intended learning outcomes | project-based learning | survey | sustainable design

Abstract: Virtual Reality is used in design for both supporting design reviews and interacting with products being designed. The interactions Virtual Reality enables are often found engaging and this might affect product evaluation, as experiencing a virtual environment can be the prevalent element of an experience. This paper investigated to what extent product evaluations are affected by the sense of presence enabled by Virtual Reality, the duration of interactions with the whole products and its features, and the product information provided after exposure to the virtual environment. These effects were tested through an experiment involving the virtual tour of a tiny house whose interior was extracted through 360° images, which represents an element of originality of the paper, followed by administering participants informative stimuli. All these phases were supported by eye-tracking, also thanks to the use equipment combining Virtual Reality and eye-tracking, hitherto poorly used in design research, in the first part of the experiment. Based on the experiment results, the effects studied were limited to the gazing of few design elements on some product evaluation dimensions. These findings suggest that Virtual Reality can provide a strong product perception irrespective of sense of presence and other phenomena taking place during product interaction. This is particularly stressed by the failure of informative stimuli to make experiment participants modify the initial evaluations made just after the virtual tour. Overall, the outcomes of this study encourage the use of Virtual Reality for design interaction tasks, especially in relation to environments and building interiors.

Keywords: Eye-tracking | Product evaluation | Sense of presence | Virtual reality | Visual behavior

Abstract: Achieving reliable user feedback during design is essential for developing products that meet customer needs, but this is challenging due to limited attention to key aspects of user interaction with new products. This paper examines overlooked factors influencing product evaluations at various design stages, focusing on familiarity, contextual information, forms of representation, and visual behavior through a three-study experimental activity (N = 77). Study 1 explored the impact of contextual cues on perception and comprehension of product functions using three unfamiliar products, comparing conditions with and without contextual cues. Study 2 assessed how contextual detail and product familiarity affect function comprehension by tracking visual behavior as participants viewed product images with different backgrounds using remote eye-tracking. Study 3 examined the effects of familiarity and representation detail on evaluation and function understanding by having participants assess digital models, physical prototypes, and end-use products. Results show that contextual cues are crucial for understanding unfamiliar product functions, influencing cognitive and, to a lesser extent, affective aspects. Detailed backgrounds aid function identification, especially with moderately familiar products, with prolonged background observation indicating difficulty in function comprehension. Higher product specification from virtual to physical forms enhances function identification and evaluation, though this effect is lessened by unfamiliarity.

Keywords: contextual factors | familiarity | human-product interaction | representation form | User experience

Abstract: In the design literature, creativity of products is recognized as a combination of novelty and usefulness. However, this mainly applies to the engineering field and within a community of experts. This study investigates how ordinary people understand creativity embodied in products. In an experiment with 70+ participants, 8 products and 5 metrics were dealt with. Novelty resulted as the main predictor of creativity. Usefulness turned to play a minor effect on perceived creativity. It emerged that usefulness has to make ordinary people like a specific product in order to link it to creativity.

Keywords: creativity assessment | design creativity | novelty | ordinary people | product design

Abstract: This study explores the interplay between internal factors (e.g. personal values) and external factors (e.g. product framing and representation form) in shaping user perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards products. A between-participants experiment (N = 52) was designed using deliberately an iconic product (Haribo gummy bears) to be presented either as image or a tangible item, as well as framed either positively or negatively. The aim is to examine the impact of these manipulated internal and external factors on users’ evaluations and their subsequent behaviour. The effects of framing, and markedly negative framing, were considerably larger than those of forms of representations, whose role was limited for the studied product. However, the effect of framing on evaluations is amplified after interacting with the real product. Despite its significance, negative product framing cannot change behaviour as much as user personal values. These insights suggest designers pay attention to how products are portrayed to potential users. Particular attention should be paid to aligning products with the personal values of the target users since this turned as the main determinant for product appreciation. Hence, this research urges designers to pay attention to the fact that products have to resonate with users so to enhance their acceptance.

Keywords: negative framing | positive framing | Product evaluation | representation form | user behaviour

Abstract: The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in design is clearly growing. One of the tenets of the paper is that stimulation could be among the design processes mostly benefitting from the introduction of AI. Available contributions have been reviewed to understand the current support AI can give in design inspiration and ideation. We also reflected on what AI should and ahould not do in the future: a framework is proposed. Based on the reviewed contributions, in no case, AI is seen as a substitute of designers. Most contributions originate from the IT domain and have a demonstrative purpose.

Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI) | design process | human behaviour | inspiration | review

Abstract: User experience (UX) application in the practice of engineering and product design is still limited. The present paper provides insights into research on UX design and recommendations for design practitioners by pointing out common criticalities. These outcomes are achieved through a literature review on how UX relates to design. First, issues in benefitting from UX understanding in design are identified with a specific focus on theoretical contributions. Second, experimental papers investigating UX and design are analysed in relation to previously identified issues. Although issues are present to some extent in all the contributions, the empirical studies dealing with UX in design are overall valid. The results highlight UX\'s support in revealing design requirements, but its capability of steering design processes is arguable, as concrete guidelines for practitioners are not well described. Based on identified issues, the authors propose a checklist to make UX studies in design more reliable and their outcomes more comparable.

Keywords: best practices | design process | user experience | UX applications | UX issues

Abstract: This study examines the perception of cognitive fluency of products in accordance with the Fluency Amplification Model. An experiment was conducted to compare the differences in product evaluations between two types of product representations, a tangible product and an image thereof, each assigned to a different group of participants. The results showed that although there were no significant differences between the image and real product groups, the “image” group exhibited a higher mean value for a greater number of variables, with the “real object” group having fewer variables with a higher discrepancy in mean values. The results suggest that individuals tend to have a stronger perception of the product after physically interacting with it rather than simply observing its image. The image appeared to increase fluency in affective aspects, while the real product appears to increase fluency in cognitive aspects. These findings provide a promising direction for future research to further investigate the comparison of designs’ representation forms on perception fluency.

Keywords: Cognitive experience | Fluency perception | Product evaluation | Representation forms

Abstract: Product development stages are typically characterized by different forms of representations and degrees of specification, which potentially affect user\'s perception and evaluation. These effects are worth investigating more closely also because of the growing relevance of new technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) in the design field. The objective of this paper is to elucidate the mutual relations between forms of representation, visual behaviour, and people\'s evaluations. The focus is on differences between virtual and physical prototypes. In the illustrated experiment, participants visited a tiny house in an immersive VR (360° images acquisition). The results were compared with a past experiment where the physical prototype of the same product was similarly evaluated. The dwell times on Areas of Interest (AOIs) pertaining to the tiny house were compared and correlated to variables concerning subjective evaluations. The results show just a few similarities of visual exploration in terms of gazed AOIs. Substantial differences in terms of how the duration of gazing affects evaluations have been found too. The larger number of significant correlations between observations and evaluations in the virtual exploration emerged.

Keywords: Case study | Evaluation | Prototype | Representation form | Virtual reality

Abstract: The building design sector can benefit from the new opportunities offered by studies investigating people’s perception of urban and architectural spaces. It emerges from the literature that certain elements of environment settings and buildings such as edges, landmarks and materials can affect perception. However, their impact on people’s visual perception is still unclear, also because of the difficulty to report consciously what has been experienced. Technologies and tools such as mobile eye tracking (ET) give a chance to get insights into visual behaviors in real environments. In this work, the authors had the chance to conduct an experiment, where ET was used in a physical space of a tiny house prototype, which was the result of a research-industry cooperation project about real-world laboratories. An experimental activity involved 26 volunteers, who were asked to visit and freely observe the interior of the tiny house wearing ET glasses and fill in an evaluation questionnaire at the end of the visit. The first-view experience recordings of each visit of the tiny house were thereafter processed to acquire data to be put in relation with questionnaires’ outcomes. Preliminary statistical analysis showed potential relationships between areas of interest (AOIs), namely distinguishable elements of the tiny house, data, and evaluations. The time spent on some AOIs positively or negatively affected the evaluation reported by the questionnaire. It is also worth noting that, surprisingly, some AOIs deemed to be secondary affected the questionnaire ratings more significantly than the core qualities of the tiny house.

Keywords: Buildings | Design | Eye tracking | Sustainability | User perception

Abstract: Sustainability-related information affects people’s choices and evaluation. The literature has made significant efforts to understand the best ways of delivering this kind of information to shape consumer behavior. However, while most studies have focused on packaged products and direct information provided through eco-labels, preferences could be formed differently in other design domains. The paper investigates the effect of the perceived amount of indirect information on the evaluation of an architectural artefact. A sample of 172 participants visited a locally produced mobile tiny house, made with a considerable amount of sustainable materials. The same participants answered a questionnaire about their perceived knowledge, quality, appropriateness and sustainability of the tiny house. The general level of knowledge of the tiny house was used as a proxy of the amount of indirect information received. Although the knowledge of the tiny house was generally low, ratings regarding the other dimensions were overall extremely positive. In particular, no evident relation was found between knowledge of the tiny house and sustainability, while the latter is significantly linked to quality aspects. These outcomes deviate from the evidence from other studies; this might be due to indirect vs. direct information and the peculiarity of the study carried out in the field of buildings. The gathered demographic and background data of the participants make it possible to highlight the role played by gender and age in affecting the evaluations, but the absence of a significant impact of experience in the field, education and origin. The results are compared with findings related to the evaluation of sustainable products and green buildings in particular.

Keywords: awareness | background | buildings | consumer behavior | eco-design | indirect information | sustainability

Abstract: This exploratory work aims to understand which elements of a building mostly attract visitors\' attention. An experiment was conducted to allow participants to visit a prototype tiny house while wearing eye-tracking glasses. Identified gazed elements of the prototype were selected and the corresponding dwell times used as variables. The limited dwell times on structural elements show that they can be easily overshadowed by other features present in the building. This leads to a design problem when the novelty and the quality of a new product, markedly a building, reside in the materials used.

Keywords: architectural design | eye tracking | human-centred design | interaction design

Abstract: User Experience (UX) is a concept based on the human-product interaction. An increase of UX studies in the Human-Computer interaction (HCI) field was observed in the last decade. Empirical studies based their experimental activity on HCI products, which are characterized by two components: Software and intangible (digital interfaces and web apps) and Hardware and physical (devices). Trough an explorative study, the authors propose a research direction to compares UX studies targeting software and hardware components of HCI products. A preliminary sample of papers was considered. The authors collected contributions where UX in HCI design is investigated through case studies involving devices with software and hardware components. Objectives, methods, and tools of each case study were compared. It emerged that complex systems require both quantitative and qualitative analysis approaches, as the wide variety of tools for data acquisition and processing show. Since Hardware components are more closely related to products such as consumer goods and engineering products, it is possible that methods and tools used to study hardware components could also be applicable to other physical and tangible products, i.e., the main reference for product, engineering, and mechanical design.

Keywords: Hardware | HCI design | Intangible | Software | Tangible | User experience

Abstract: Additive Manufacturing (AM) has become an established discipline in both research and education. However, to achieve its full potential AM requires a step-change in design thinking, which makes Design for AM (DfAM) education and training crucial. This paper reports results from the first attempt to investigate the uptake of DfAM in higher education. This research required the development and administration of an articulated online survey, in which educators worldwide who teach AM and DfAM have participated. The results show that DfAM is taught in a considerable number of courses. However, the survey revealed that DfAM is seldom recognised as a distinct course or topic and the relevance attributed and proportion of teaching dedicated to DfAM within wider AM is typically marginal. DfAM is being mostly taught in North America and Europe and is also typically taught in institutions that are research active in AM or specifically DfAM, suggesting the subject has not yet reached maturity or diffusion into mainstream design and engineering curricula. It was interesting to find that currently, the contents of courses do not differ significantly between engineering and design programmes.

Keywords: 3D printing | design education | Design for Additive Manufacturing | survey

Abstract: The diffusion of Fab Labs and the continuous development of Additive Manufacturing technologies are undoubtedly two relevant phenomena nowadays. The former fuels the latter and vice versa, but their mutual relationship has not been systematically explored so far. This paper presents an exploratory study based on a survey, in which various aspects of the use of 3D printers in Fab Labs are investigated. The results show how different scales of Fab Labs are present in terms of investments made in 3D printing, as well as work purposes are not negligible for many attendees. In addition, the outcomes of the survey show that 3D printers are considered easy to use, as well as manufactured parts are deemed satisfactory. Despite this, there are still some barriers to boosting the market of domestic 3D printers for Fab Lab visitors.

Keywords: 3D printers | CAD | Design for Additive Manufacturing | Fab Labs | Skills

Abstract: The term User Experience (UX) was introduced to define the dynamics of the human-product interaction, and it was thought that design would have been a main recipient of UX research. However, it can be claimed that the outcomes of UX studies were not seamlessly transferred into design research and practice. Among the possible reasons, this paper addresses the fragmentary knowledge ascribable to the field of UX. The authors reviewed the literature analyzing the conceptual contributions that interpret UX, proposing definitions and/or a theoretical framework. This allowed the authors to provide an overview of recurring elements of UX, highlighting their relationships and affecting factors. This research aims to clarify the overall understanding of UX, along with its key components (the user, interaction, the system, and context) and dimensions (ergonomic, affective, and the cognitive experiences). The authors built a semantic construction inspired by the structure of a grammatical sentence to highlight the relationship between those components. Therefore, UX is defined by a subject/user who performs an action-interaction towards an object-system. A complement-context better defines the condition(s) where the action-interaction takes place. This work is expected to lay the foundations for the understanding of approaches and methods employed in UX studies, especially in design.

Keywords: Semantic framework | User experience | UX | UX definitions | UX dimensions | UX fundamental elements | UX influence factors | UX studies

Abstract: The concept of User Experience (UX) dates back to the 1990s, but a shared definition of UX is not available. As design integrates UX, different interpretations thereof can complicate the possibility to build upon previous literature and develop the field autonomously. Indeed, by analysing the literature, UX emerges as a cauldron of related and closely linked concepts. However, it is possible to find recurring attributes that emerge from those definitions, which are ascribable to two foci: the fundamental elements of the interaction (user, system, context) and typologies of experience (ergonomic, cognitive, and emotional). Those are used to build a framework. We have preliminarily investigated how UX is dealt with in design by mapping a sample of UX-related experimental articles published in design journals. We classified UX case studies based on the framework to individuate the UXs that emerge most frequently and the most studied ones in the design field. The two-focus framework allows the mapping of experiments involving UX in design, without highlighting specific favorable combinations. However, comprehensive studies dealing with all elements and UX typologies have not been found.

Keywords: Emotional design | Experience design | Framework | User centred design | User experience

Abstract: The concept of Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) is gaining popularity along with AM, despite its scopes are not well established. In particular, in the last few years, DfAM methods have been intuitively subdivided into opportunistic and restrictive. This distinction is gaining traction despite a lack of formalization. In this context, the paper investigates experts\' understanding of DfAM. In particular, the authors have targeted educators, as the perception of DfAM scopes in the future will likely depend on teachers\' view. A bespoke survey has been launched, which has been answer by 100 worldwide-distributed respondents. The gathered data has undergone several analyses, markedly answers to open questions asking for individual definitions of DfAM, and evaluations of the pertinence of meanings and acceptations from the literature. The results show that the main DfAM aspects focused on by first standardization attempts have been targeted, especially products, processes, opportunities and constraints. Beyond opportunistic and restrictive nuances, DfAM different understandings are characterized by different extents of cognitive endeavor, convergence vs. divergence in the design process, theoretical vs. hands on approaches.

Keywords: Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) | Design methods | Early design phases | Opportunistic DfAM | Restrictive DfAM

Abstract: The research on the use of virtual reality (VR) in the design domain has been conducted in a fragmentary way so far, and some misalignments have emerged among scholars. In particular, the actual support of VR in early design phases and the diffusion of practices involving VR in creative design stages are argued. In the present paper, we reviewed VR applications in design and categorized each of the collected 86 sources into multiple classes. These range from supported design functions to employed VR technologies and the use of systems complementing VR. The identified design functions include not only design activities traditionally supported by VR, such as 3D modelling, virtual prototyping, and product evaluation, but also co-design and design education beyond the early design phases. The possibility to support early design phases by means of VR is mirrored by the attention on products that involve an emotional dimension beyond functional aspects, which are particularly focused on in virtual assemblies and prototypes. Relevant matches between VR technologies and specific design functions have been individuated, although a clear separation between VR devices and supported design tasks cannot be claimed.

Keywords: 3D modelling | Co-design | Early design phases | Engineering design | Industrial design | Product design | Product evaluation | Technological development | Virtual prototyping | Virtual reality

Abstract: The paper offers insights into people\'s exploration of creative products shown on a computer screen within the overall task of capturing artifacts\' original features and functions. In particular, the study presented here analyzes the effects of different forms of representations, i.e., static pictures and videos. While the relevance of changing stimuli\'s forms of representation is acknowledged in both engineering design and human-computer interaction, scarce attention has been paid to this issue hitherto when creative products are in play. Six creative products have been presented to twenty-eight subjects through either pictures or videos in an Eye-Tracking-supported experiment. The results show that major attention is paid by people to original product features and functional elements when products are displayed by means of videos. This aspect is of paramount importance, as original shapes, parts, or characteristics of creative products might be inconsistent with people\'s habits and cast doubts about their rationale and utility. In this sense, videos seemingly emphasize said original elements and likely lead to their explanation/resolution. Overall, the outcomes of the study strengthen the need to match appropriate forms of representation with different design stages in light of the needs for designs\' evaluation and testing user experience.

Keywords: Areas of interest | Creative products | Eye-Tracking | Human-computer interaction | Images | User experience | Videos

Abstract: The paper investigates the relationship between the forms through which products are represented and the outcomes of evaluations made by observers. In particular, the study focuses on perceived affordances of creative designs, meant as the capability of capturing original elements and corresponding functions, for products presented through static images or videos. Also thanks to the use of Eye Tracking, the experimental results show how dynamic effects that involve salient aspects of products, as well as creative features, are critical to observers\' capability of capturing design intentions.

Keywords: design affordance | design creativity | design evaluation | forms of representation | product design