A design practice on communicating emotions through sensory signals

Emotional expression is an important human behavior, which enriches communication. Sensory organs play crucial role in emotional perception. Today, communication is mostly done via digital mediators, which dominantly address vision excluding other senses; therefore, communication becomes less affective. Wearable technology provides an intimate and continuous interaction with sensory organs. Hence, this technology can be used in order to make distant communication more affective by enabling multi-sensory interaction. This article presents a user-centered design practice on wearable products that simulate sensorial feedbacks (tactile, visual, and auditory) to express basic emotions. Three prototypes that transmit emotional messages were designed, built, and tested to observe user behavior. This article discusses how user experience obtained through the user test can be taken further to design new communication products, which can find solutions for different user needs.