Affection Research Lab is a research, design, and facilitation studio based in Portland, Oregon. We support purpose-driven endeavors to integrate and develop new technologies for social and environmental impact.
We focus on activating the imagination and turning disruptive technologies into intuitive, planet-friendly experiences that help you and your audience learn and thrive, creating solutions that minimize harm, and developing a sustainable organization centered on authentic values.
Capabilities
Professional Guidance & Facilitation
Critical Design Thinking & Speculation Workshops
Radical Participatory Design & Empowerment
Value Discovery
Decision-making & Mediation
Radical Participatory Design & Empowerment
Value Discovery
Decision-making & Mediation
Research & Human-Centered Design
Design Ethnography
Qualitative & Quantitative User Research
Futures & Foresight
User Experience Strategy
Qualitative & Quantitative User Research
Futures & Foresight
User Experience Strategy
Sketching, Making, & Prototyping
Diegetic Prototyping
Creative Technology
Interaction Design
Immersive & Environmental Design
Creative Technology
Interaction Design
Immersive & Environmental Design
Principles
Humane Technology
Design Justice
Circular Innovation
Life-centered Design
Design Justice
Circular Innovation
Life-centered Design
About
Salvador Orara discovered the Affection Research Lab in 2012 while exploring how smartphones embedded with emotions might engender new interactions, rituals, and human behaviors. The studio was officially founded in 2024 and is supported by a very small network of academics, specialists, and generalists.
Salvador is a designer, technologist, and educator with over two decades of experience between academia and industry. His expertise spans graphic design, user experience and interaction design, product strategy, teaching and facilitation. His skills have afforded collaborations with AIGA Portland, Jaguar Land Rover, Intel, The Blanchet House, Skanska, and the School of Nursing at University of Portland, demonstrating his ability to apply design and make an impact across a wide range of domains.
With a BFA from The University of the Arts and a MFA from Art Center College of Design, Salvador was recently a Professor of Practice and Director of Innovation at the University of Portland, and an Adjunct at Art Center College of Design, Woodbury University, and OTIS College of Art and Design. He currently adjuncts in the Graphic Design program at Pacific Northwest College of Art teaching Extended Reality.