Positive emotions for inciting behavior: Playing with paintings to enhance museum experiences

In this paper we propose a new design approach in which positive emotional experiences are used to incite desirable behaviors, based on the insight that specific experiences can motivate particular behaviors. In the approach, designers first identify users' concerns and expectations and deduce from those the psychological needs that underlie them. Positive emotions are then sought that match the identified psychological needs. The positive emotions with their related thought-Action tendencies then inspire the designer to formulate design intentions in terms of experiences and behaviors to target for, aimed at guiding the design process. The approach was developed for, and applied to a design case for the Mauritshuis, a museum for classical art in the Hague, the Netherlands. An app was developed for engaging a new target group of young adult travelers: To enhance their art appreciation and to motivate them to explore the local Dutch culture. We explain the various phases including user studies, generating ideas and testing designs, and discuss our experiences with applying this approach.