Toward a Better Understanding of User Emotion: An Emotion-Aware Requirements Elicitation Support Tool—EmORE Tool

Requirements engineering plays a pivotal role in software development, but overlooks the subjective emotional perspectives of users. However, capturing user emotions effectively is essential for designing engaging systems aligned with pragmatic needs. This paper presents the EmORE tool for generating emotional journey artifacts that provide novel insights into user affect dynamics during the requirements elicitation process. The tool implements a customizable interview technique to evoke usage-specific emotional responses. Emotions are quantified using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) rating technique to enable consistent measurement. Machine learning classifiers categorize expressed emotions, while clustering algorithms identify cross-user patterns to construct comprehensive emotional journey maps—the core contribution of this work. The customizable elicitation workflow and quantitative emotion capture capabilities help mitigate subjectivity, variability, and context-dependence. The tool was evaluated through case studies, interviews, and usability assessments. The accuracy analysis showed 80-96% precision in predicting users’ emotional responses across diverse touchpoints. Thematic analysis revealed positive perceptions of the tool’s potential but concerns about interpretability and adoption. The System Usability Scale (SUS) scores indicated high usability with opportunities to improve learnability. Overall, the results validate the tool’s capabilities while highlighting areas for enhancement, such as simplified onboarding and seamless integration with existing project management techniques. This research facilitates the inclusion of complex emotional perspectives in software engineering to drive user adoption and satisfaction.