Interactive experience design evaluation of community emotional healing installations based on analytic hierarchy...

Mental health issues among community residents are becoming increasingly serious, but the proportion of individuals actively seeking professional psychological assistance remains significantly low. Public interactive installations have the potential to serve as touchpoints for community emotional healing, but scientific and effective healing strategies remain unclear. Therefore, discovering an evaluation framework for the healing interactive installations is increasingly urgent and meaningful. This research establishes a framework based on the affinity analysis, comprising 3 levels, 5 categories, and 25 design indicators. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to construct data matrices, calculate the global weights, and reveal healing design strategies, such as incorporating dynamic, rhythmic interactions driven by gravity or external forces, echoing interactive installations with the surrounding environment and childhood games, and focusing on emotional triggering and experiencing depth in short periods. Cross-category analysis reveals differences in healing preferences among various groups. For instance, Western designers prefer dynamic interactions, such as jumping, sliding, and swinging, while pursuing cultural inclusivity. Eastern designers prefer more static healing actions, emphasizing the role of multi-sensory experiences in healing installations. Architects focus on the overall atmosphere, prioritizing the connection between interactive installations and their surroundings. Interaction designers are concerned with how installations foster community collaboration, favoring experiences like seesaws that require participation from two or more people. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis is used to verify the stability of the AHP matrix. These findings provide rigorous empirical foundations for future healing research and offer practical strategic guidance for healing interactive installation design.