/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// SUGAR RUSH: UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONAL VALUES IN UTILITARIAN PRODUCTS AKIYOSHI, Ricardo/ BITTENCOURT, Paulo/ GRAÚDO, Margarida/ SCHÜLER, Gabriel/ COSTA, Filipe, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - Unisinos. São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. ricardo.yudi@gmail.com/ paulo@saraucom.com.br/ margarida.graudo@ig.com.br/ gabrielkschuler@gmail.com/ filipecxc@gmail.com. ABSTRACT Search for innovation, from a socioeconomic point of view, has been an interesting area of study for many fields – including Design. Traditionally focused on form and function, now the Design research field has targeted the experience (aesthetic, symbolic and emotional) as one of its main topics. This challenge becomes more complex when we try to understand the emotional values and meanings that can possibly coexist within a utilitarian type of product. Therefore, this article studied the sugar and its emotional values by using the laddering technique along with stimuli application during the interviews. We will conclude that there’s potential to achieve innovation if we can establish attachment bonds and improve the contexts of user experience. Keywords: emotional design, laddering, sugar. INTRODUCTION In the last decades, Design has been through important changes when we talk about research and product development. The traditional approach towards form and function is now focused on user-centered ideals, which happen when the user is the main focus in the research and development process. The premise of product development is that every product is designed to perform a certain task or to attend a certain goal. A car, for instance, is used to transport people. However, along with this utilitarian perspective, a product could also acquire a distinctive meaning according to which brand it belongs to, its characteristics and so on. Therefore whoever drives a certain vehicle could be associated with a certain socioeconomic class. This concept of adding connotative attributes to a certain object, service, people, is studied by Barthes (1972). The author presents us a “function-meaning” concept, which deals with the possibility of a certain object sustaining multiple meanings. Nowadays variables such as needs, emotions, desire and experiences, which result from the interaction between users and a product or service, are much more noticed than they used to be. This change can be explained by Cross’ (1999) concepts where he states that Design research must be encouraged through development, articulation and communication of Design knowledge. Knowledge may be firstly perceived in people, on how designers are represented or in human abilities when they are used to transform nature into artifacts. It might also be perceived through Design processes, tactics and strategies; and on how products, services, shapes and materials are used to represent or serve a function. Therefore, it is understandable that many fields and study areas may benefit from Design’s academic research expansion. It is also natural that the issues to be found in such researches increase dramatically. The process of evolution of a problem is described by Dorst and Cross (2001) when they suggest problem solving through the use of Design’s creative processes, which could be either while developing and refining both the problem and the solution. The definition and solution of a problem – called co-evolutionary processes – embrace study moments which are