Affective Engineering is akin to Emotional Design rooted in Kansei. Kansei is a Japanese word that roughly translates to sensitivity and sensibility. It links the customer’s emotional responses to the properties and characteristics of a product or service.
Customers purchase products based on qualities like brand, design, impression etc. People want to use products that are functional at the physical level, usable at the psychological level and attractive at the subjective, emotional level.
Affective engineering is the study of the interactions between the customer and the product at that third level. It focuses on the relationships between the physical traits of a product and its affective influence on the user. Thanks to this field of research, it is possible to gain knowledge on how to design more attractive products and make the customers satisfied.