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In this paper we discuss how an interaction design perspective on the design of interactive artefacts in public spaces can encourage us to explore certain issues concerning the inclusion of visitor input into our installations. We see the role of technology as supporting people's experiences of heritage-moving away from simple delivery of information towards enabling visitors to add to the content of the exhibition. This approach encourages active reflection, discussion and appropriation in the tradition of best practice in human-centred interaction (HCI) design. In this paper we discuss two exhibitions/installations in which we have been involved, Re-Tracing the Past and The Shannon Portal. The former was developed with the objective of engaging visitors and enhancing their overall experience of a personal museum collection; the latter had the goal of encouraging visitors and travellers to share their experience of Ireland. We then discuss the impact of this design strategy and analyse the role of visitors' contributions to each exhibit, and the particular interactions between participants and the content they produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an outline conceptual framework that may be helpful for those involved in the emerging area of 'affective design'. Historically, the shift from cognitive approaches that eschewed emotions towards a more encompassing conceptual approach that includes affective or emotive processes is understandable. A basic understanding of concepts such as affect and emotion are required in order to address many questions such as how to design to evoke affect and how to predict user emotions? We utilize concepts from Activity Theory in order to understand the world of 'feelings'. The latter involves several different levels and classes, principally those of affect, emotion and sentiment. Feelings involve important psychological processes, although they have received minimal attention within the mainstream cognitive frame until very recently. The intent of this paper is to provide a coherent conceptual frame for the discussions within the interaction design and HCI communities concerning such terms as emotional interfaces, hedonic design and affective design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]