Constructive Design Research (2024-2025)

This study focuses on a core design question: how can the act of ‘planning’ be redefined, transforming it from a ‘task management tool’ into an emotional regulation tool capable of alleviating the ‘Sunday Blues’? The research background highlights that the ‘Sunday Blues’—the anxiety, restlessness or fear people experience on Sundays regarding the week ahead—is a widespread yet rarely studied emotional phenomenon that directly impacts subjective well-being. Most existing emotional regulation tools do not address this specific context, whilst ‘planning’—a commonly used coping strategy—can sometimes actually exacerbate anxiety (for example, when an overly demanding schedule leads to stress). To this end, this study adopted the Studio design methodology, using first-person prototyping and autobiographical ethnography as core methods. Through four rounds of iteration, it explored two design directions: the ‘Activity Planner’ and the ‘Positivity Planner’. The former utilises colour-coding (based on activity type and urgency), size gradients (reflecting task intensity) and a timeline layout aligned with cognitive habits to help users clearly organise their schedule for the coming week, thereby fostering a sense of control and preparedness; The latter employs physical and aesthetic interaction methods (such as coloured blocks and symbolic icons) to guide users in shifting their focus from ‘tasks that must be completed’ to ‘enjoyable activities to look forward to’, thereby stimulating positive thinking through a pleasurable planning experience. The research ultimately crystallised into a set of actionable design guidelines, covering specific strategies for both ‘enhancing a sense of preparedness’ and ‘stimulating positive thinking’ (such as rational categorisation, physical interaction, aesthetic quality and personalisation), whilst also identifying design challenges (such as differences in individual planning sub-needs, resistance to transitioning between old and new planning methods, and the non-binary nature of positivity). The core contribution of this design lies in treating the act of ‘planning’ itself as the object of emotional regulation for the first time. This breaks the traditional cognitive framework that equates planning with an efficiency tool, demonstrating that it is the emotional experience of the planning process—rather than the outcome—that is key to alleviating Sunday blues. It thus provides a new perspective and an empirical foundation for emotional interaction design aimed at everyday emotional well-being.