A study by HTC, a global leader in smartphone innovation, reveals that surrounding yourself with well-designed everyday objects can have the same positive effect on your mood as looking at a work of art or participating in a form of exercise.
This scientific study involving a total of 2,177 participants from seven countries: Australia, China, Germany, Russia, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States has shown that well-designed objects are shown to reduce strong negative feelings like anger and annoyance.
The results also show that a calmer state of mind can help the creative process. Dr Simon Moore, Chartered Psychologist and Management Director of behavioural research agency Innovationbubble, explains: “Beauty induces stable long-term positive emotions and has a cathartic effect on negative emotions. Going for a walk in the countryside or on the beach can lift our mood.
Looking at a brilliant photograph or a renowned painting can move us to tears. At the other end of the scale, high impact positive emotions – elation, excitement and delight – don’t last long. They can’t – they’re too exhausting to sustain and, as such, are not conducive to creativity.” At HTC, we’ve always known instinctively that good design is important.
It’s not just about creating a gorgeous phone that looks and feels great – it is about understanding the impact that well designed everyday objects have on people’s emotions and behaviour. So we put it to the test, said Claude Zellweger (pic above), principal designer at HTC. “And what that test revealed was an interesting fact: good design makes you happy.
So when we craft an everyday object like the HTC One, that goes on to receive critical acclaim, we know that we have done something right, that we have designed a phone that consumers really want”.
