On June 29, 2007, World Industrial design Day began to be celebrated, coinciding with the founding of committee International Council of Societies of Industrial design (ICSID), currently WDO. This non-governmental organization, recognized worldwide, has as goal promote the discipline of the industrialdesign and improve the economic, social, cultural and environmental quality of life.

This year's slogan, "Let's get emotional", speaks of the objects that surround us. No matter how small they are, they generate emotional ties with people because they are linked to experiences. Therefore, if the designer is able to capture this emotional connection, he or she will translate it into better products, services, experiences and, at final, into a design for a better world.

The big question we can ask ourselves is whether it is possible to measure the emotion generated by a product and on the basis of what parameters this emotion is measured.

It must be taken into account that the product can generate different emotions throughout all its stages, from the first phases of ideation and definition to the final phases, ranging from the extraction of the raw material subject , manufacture, sale of the product and its usability. Is it possible to trace the emotion throughout this process?

What is Kansei engineering?

The industrial engineer Mitsuo Nagamachi developed in 1995 what we know today as Kansei engineering. This is an engineering tool that, based on the emotional needs of users, establishes mathematical prediction models that relate the characteristics of products to those needs.

These programs of study started from the ergonomic needs of the product, mainly a consumer product. To date, six types of Kansei engineering can be distinguished. From a first stage in which the data are introduced in a guide way by means of surveys and interviews that later are translated into measurements, passing to a second stage in which data are introduced from images to then introduce mathematical models that relate all these instructions of data. This emotion is then predicted by showing new images of the final product.

This tool, therefore, can translate customers' emotional expectations into technical specifications on design.

But today's users are much more demanding. We ask that the product not only satisfies a need or a problem, but that it is simple, kind, friendly and provokes that positive emotion based on internal parameters by which the product is judged.

The metrics by which a society moves determine the final result of products, and these metrics are variable. They vary with time, culture or experiences. The awareness of the environmental footprint that we generate with our decisions is stronger every day and the search for a design that guarantees a socially equitable, environmentally sustainable, culturally diverse and economically viable future is a parameter that is gaining strength day by day.

designAI and pattern analysis

On the other hand, we find ourselves in a world immersed in the degree program of artificial intelligence (AI). Its algorithms are capable of analyzing a large amount of data and extracting patterns and trends, which can be very useful for decision making.

Emotional artificial intelligence or affective computing attempts to teach computers how to recognize and respond to human emotions and uses a combination of deep learning algorithms to examine various data, such as facial expressions, speech patterns and physiological responses such as heart rate.

Joining this affective computing with Kansei engineering is a way forward. Although this line raises ethical dilemmas in the use of the data acquired in this way related to security, privacy or different biases, among others.

We cannot forget that society demands a world in which design goes beyond. A design that produces astonishment for its beauty and that there is harmony in the relationship between the Username and the product without harming people or the environment.