Limits of Kansei – Kansei unlimited

This article discusses momentary limitations of the Kansei Engineering methods. There are for example the focus on the evaluation of colour and form factors, as well as the highly time consuming creation of the questionnaires. To overcome these limits we firstly suggest the integration of word lists from related research fields, like sociology and cognitive psychology on product emotions in the Kansei questionnaires. Thereafter we present a study on the wide range of Kansei attributes treated in an industrial setting. Concept words used by designers are being collected through word maps and categorized into attributes. In a third step we introduce a user-product interaction schema in which the Kansei attributes from the study are positioned. This schema unfolds potential expansion points for future applications of Kansei engineering beyond its current limits

Implementation of Kansei Engineering in Designing Train Passenger Seats for Enhancing Travel Experience

Research and implementation of the Kansei Engineering has been done by the product developers for the current products on a wide range of products oriented to consumer choice. One topic has been discussed is public transportation that focuses on improving the travel experience. This study discusses the role of Kansei Engineering to design the products and services of travel experience in public transportation based on the experience factor identification. In Indonesia, improvement of travel experience programmed into the strategic plan of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) through reduction of train classes. This affects the interior design of train class, especially the design of the passenger seat. With the trend of Kansei Engineering research and strategic plan of PT KAI, this study discusses how the role of Kansei Engineering in the design of the passenger seat to improve the travel experience. The research starts from the collection of Kansei Words and product samples as the representation of customer perception related to train passenger seats. By using KJ method, Kansei Words are into technical specifications through a tree diagram with qualitative treatment. The technical specifications visualized through CAD modeling into the design concept of the passenger train. The result of this study proves that Kansei Engineering can be used to design the railroad passenger seat as an effort to increase travel experience in public transportation

Trends integration process as input data for Kansei Engineering Systems

This paper aims at studying new ways of users integration in “emotional Design” or “Kansei engineering systems”. The main goal of this study was the integration of the trend factor in design, with an early emotional evaluation of “Trend cards” produced by the designers. After a definition of the study context, we explain the experimental protocol which was followed. It was based on a questionnaire method involving 56 French subjects and applied in the field of shoes design. The data analysis was mainly proceed by the way of a Principal Component Analysis. The expected results were centred on the emotional evaluation of the Trendcards in order to establish further design rules for a Kansei Engineering system. In conclusion, we can recognize important semantic effects and influences which can be used as information for the implementation of the design elements data base

Customer perception of switch-feel in luxury sports utility vehicles

Successful new product introduction requires that product characteristics relate to the customer on functional, emotional, aesthetic and cultural levels. As a part of research into automotive human machine interfaces (HMI), this paper describes holistic customer research carried out to investigate how the haptics of switches in luxury sports utility vehicles (SUVs) are perceived by customers. The application of these techniques, including an initial proposal for objective specifications, is addressed within the broader new product introduction context, and benefits described. One-hundred and one customers of SUVs assessed the feel of automotive push switches, completing the tasks both in, and out of vehicles to investigate the effect of context. Using the semantic differential technique, hedonic testing, and content analysis of customers’ verbatim comments, a holistic picture has been built up of what influences the haptic experience. It was found that customers were able to partially discriminate differences in switch-feel, alongside considerations of visual appearance, image, and usability. Three factors named ‘Affective’, ‘Robustness and Precision’, and ‘Silkiness’ explained 61% of the variance in a principle components analysis. Correlations of the factors with acceptance scores were 0.505, 0.371, and 0.168, respectively

Kansei engineering as a tool for the design of in-vehicle rubber keypads

Manufacturers are currently adopting a consumer-centered philosophy which poses the challenge of developing differentiating products in a context of constant innovation and competitiveness. To merge both function and experience in a product, it is necessary to understand customers’ experience when interacting with interfaces. This paper describes the use of Kansei methodology as a tool to evaluate the subjective perception of rubber keypads. Participants evaluated eleven rubber keys with different values of force, stroke and snap ratio, according to seven Kansei words ranging from “pleasantness” to “click- iness”. Evaluation data was collected using the semantic differential technique and compared with data from the physical properties of the keys. Kansei proved to be a robust method to evaluate the qualitative traits of products, and a new physical parameter for the tactile feel of “clickiness” is suggested, having obtained better results than the commonly used Snap Ratio. It was possible to establish very strong relations between Kansei words and all physical properties. This approach will result in guidance to the industry for the design of in-vehicle rubber keypads with user-centered concerns.Projecto HMIExcel - I&D crítica em torno do ciclo de desenvolvimento e produção de soluções multimedia avançadas para automovel/Critical R&D no enquadramento do ciclo de desenvolvimento e produção de soluções multimédia avançadas para automóvel (AICEP-PIN-HMIEXCEL)

Affective Perception of Disposable Razors: A Kansei Engineering Approach

AbstractIn recent decades, the market of consumer products has changed from the production-oriented point of view to a more market-focused, i.e. aiming to attend consumers’ expectations. Today, consumers turn their attention not only to the logical and rational aspects of the product, but increasingly symbolic and emotional factors have gained an important role in buying decision. Some methods have already been used to design emotional meaning in the products, such as the Kansei Engineering with reported results in literature. This study had as a goal to investigate affective aspects of disposable razors perceived by the users and how they relate to product features using Kansei Engineering. Thus, 40 disposable razors commonly found in the international market were evaluated in a virtual system through a variety of pictures (photographic representation) of the products. In order to identify the most relevant product features Morphological Analysis was performed. To evaluate the disposable razors, 321 male adults volunteered in this study. Semantic differential with 17 pairs of bipolar adjectives were employed to construct the semantic space in Kansei Engineering. The results showed no high correlation in the sample. Moderate correlations, however were found in 12 pairs of bipolar adjectives with 13 product features. Thus, it can be assumed that affective responses can be mildly related to product feature, considering limitation of statistic treatment

Cognitive Designers Activity Study, Formalization, Modelling, and Computation

This study aims to explore how designers mentally categorise design information during the early sketching performed in the generative phase. An action research approach is particularly appropriate for identifying the various sorts of design information and the cognitive operations involved in this phase. Thus, we conducted a protocol study with eight product designers based on a descriptive model derived from cognitive psychological memory theories. Subsequent protocol analysis yielded a cognitive model depicting the mental categorisation of design information processing performed by designers. This cognitive model included a structure for design information (high, middle, and low levels) and linked cognitive operations (association and transformation). Finally, this paper concludes by discussing directions for future research on the development of new computational tools for designers