Cuteness Engineering by Aaron Marcus

Cuteness Engineering by Aaron Marcus

This state of the art monograph presents a unique introduction to thinking about cuteness and its incorporation into modern, especially computer-based, products and services. Cuteness is defined and explored in relation to user-centered design concepts and methods, in addition to considering the history of cuteness and cuteness in other cultures, especially in relation to eastern Asia.

The authors provide detailed analyses and histories of cuteness in Japan and in China, the rise of Kawaii and Moe cultural artifacts, and their relation to social, psychological, and design issues. They also attempt an initial taxonomy of cuteness. Finally, detailed interviews with leading designers of cute products and services, such as Hello Kitty, provide an understanding of the philosophy and decision-making process of designers of cuteness.

Cuteness Engineering: Designing Adorable Products and Services will be of interest and use to a wide range of professionals, researchers, academics, and students who are interested in exploring the world of cuteness in fresh new ways and gaining insights useful for their work and studies.

“The book provides a new theoretical model to understand the cultural and contextual meanings of personality design, specifically cutenessThis model has the potential to lead user-experience professionals and software developers toward the future of personality design in artificial intelligence.” (Laura Rokey, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Vol. 62 (1), March, 2019)

Simone Borsci holds a PhD in cognitive psychology at the Sapienza University of Rome and currently works as a researcher at Brunel University of London. His researches are focused on different aspects of interaction: the user experience evaluation of interfaces and artifacts, the user preference analysis before and after use, the application of estimation models for determining an optimized sample size for an evaluation test, and the matching between assistive technologies/medical devices and users' needs. He is also an author or a contributor of more than 30 publications.

Masaaki Kurosu is a professor at the Open University of Japan. He is also the president of Human-Centered Design Network in Japan. Based on his experience as a usability professional in industry and academia, he proposed the concept of user engineering and the idea of artifact development analysis as well as the new concept of experience engineering. Professor Masaaki received his MA in psychology from Waseda University. He served as a conference chair in many international conferences and is an author or a contributor of more than 40 books.

Stefano Federici, PhD, currently serves as a professor of general psychology and psychology of disability at the University of Perugia, Italy. He is a member of the editorial board of Disability and Rehabilitation: AssistiveTechnology and Cognitive Processing as well as of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference on Space Cognition. He has authored more than 150 international and national publications on cognitive psychology, psychotechnology, disability, sexuality and disability, and usability. He currently leads the CognitiveLab research team at the University of Perugia.

Maria Laura Mele is a psychologist. She received her PhD in cognitive, physiological, and personality psychology from the Interuniversity Center for Research on Cognitive Processing in Natural and Artificial Systems (ECoNA) of the Sapienza University of Rome. Her main research topics are focused on usability and user experience of visual and sonified human-computer interfaces, with a focus on both implicit and explicit cognitive components involved in human interaction processes. She is currently a member of the CognitiveLab research team at the University of Perugia.