From the user’s perspective, emotional elements are increasingly being used in design. Researchers have indicated that healing landscapes in rural areas play a positive role in soothing human emotions. In this study, a landscape with healing functions was designed, and 32 subjects experienced emotions in a virtual reality (VR) scene while their 32-channel electroencephalography (EEG) signals were collected. This study compared the brain responses with and without the presence of healing landscape elements and conducted correlation coefficient analysis using eight different regression prediction models to examine the relationship between security, comfort, positivity, and corresponding healing landscape elements. The results show significant improvements in emotions of security, comfort, and positivity post-exposure to the landscape design, especially with certain elements, such as seating, shrubs, and tree pools. EEG data indicate enhanced emotional and cognitive states, particularly relaxation, with increased activity in specific brain regions. The decision tree regression model is the most suitable for our data. It reveals strong correlations between specific healing landscape elements and emotional responses. In the comfort category, “shrubs” show the highest correlation (R² = 0.82), while in the security category, “trees” have the highest correlation (R² = 0.77). Similarly, in the positivity category, “trees” again exhibit the highest correlation (R² = 0.71) with EEG data, indicating their significant impact on these emotional dimensions. This study demonstrates the importance of using scientific methods, such as EEG technology, to validate the principles of emotional design and also underscores the role of green environments in enhancing psychological health and emotional comfort.

This paper takes Nanlizhuang Village, Hebei Province, China, as the object and aims at improving the design of the street-space environment. The real scene of the rural streets is used as the stimulus material, and the difference in eye-movement data between villagers and tourists in the real environment is explored based on eye-tracking technology. This difference is taken as the guiding content for rural space design, and an optimized design strategy is put forward. It is found that visual attractiveness is not only affected by the visual rate of greenery but also closely related to changes in spatial enclosures. The combination of low walls and greenery is conducive to the formation of impression symbols in the village; the collective memory of indigenous villagers is also a major reason for changes in visual gravity. The experiment proves the feasibility of using real scenes as rural street design strategies through eye-tracking technology.