About the nature of Kansei information, from abstract to concrete

Designer’s expertise refers to the scientific fields of emotional design and kansei information. This paper aims to answer to a scientific major issue which is, how to formalize designer’s knowledge, rules, skills into kansei information systems. Kansei can be considered as a psycho-physiologic, perceptive, cognitive and affective process through a particular experience. Kansei oriented methods include various approaches which deal with semantics and emotions, and show the correlation with some design properties. Kansei words may include semantic, sensory, emotional descriptors, and also objects names and product attributes. Kansei levels of information can be seen on an axis going from abstract to concrete dimensions. Sociological value is the most abstract information positioned on this axis. Previous studies demonstrate the values the people aspire to drive their emotional reactions in front of particular semantics. This means that the value dimension should be considered in kansei studies. Through a chain of value-function-product attributes it is possible to enrich design generation and design evaluation processes. This paper describes some knowledge structures and formalisms we established according to this chain, which can be further used for implementing computer aided design tools dedicated to early design. These structures open to new formalisms which enable to integrate design information in a non-hierarchical way. The foreseen algorithmic implementation may be based on the association of ontologies and bag-of-words.AN

Applying Kansei Words to Japanese Bread Store

Indonesia’s consumers choose to eat bread rather than rice is because of lifestyle, instead of substituting rice. In Surabaya, there are some stores selling Japanese bread, however their stores’ design is not been influenced by Japanese authentic style. The purpose of this paper is to discover the importance of Japanese bread store. A structured questionnaire has been developed to collect the data. Kansei words were used to identify what conditions the consumers need. Result of the study shows that consumers demand 'interesting store', 'suitable' and 'cleanliness' as the important factors. As a result, these Kansei Words will be converted into the store’s physical design

Food as Experience A Design and Evaluation Methodology

This research, conducted for Frito Lay-North America, Inc, demonstrates how new product designs, package designs, concepts, and prototypes can be created based on the social, emotional, cognitive, and sensory information gathered through a combined methodology based on activity theory, Kansei Engineering and the ZMET process. The study examines how activity theory can be used to observe situational settings mediated by products for the purpose of collecting significant social and behavioral data. It also examines how Kansei methods can be used to evaluate sensory experiences and how the ZMET process can be used to gather demographic and marketing data. The outcome of this research concludes that activity theory, Kansei engineering, and ZMET are each useful, however, none of these methods used in isolation are sufficient to inform all aspects of marketing, new product development, and package design decisions. However, as a combined design and evaluation methodology they can provide more useful data for these processes. Keywords: Experience Design, Kansei Assessment, Food, Activity Theory</p

Mapping a multi-sensory identity territory at the early design stage

This article presents a kansei design methodology. It is placed at the very beginning of the design process and aims to influence the following steps in order to improve the user's understanding and experiencing of the designed product. The experimentation combines in a subtle way the design thinking approach of learning by doing and the kansei engineering quantitative approach. The research presented is based on the results of a previous study that defined the semantic and emotional scope of future hybrid cars for European using visual stimuli. This kansei design methodology creates and assesses multi-sensory atmospheres is order to provide tangible direction composed of vision, touch, hearing and smell stimuli. From the cognitive and affective responses of the 42 participants we were able to detail 3 directions for future cars interiors that aim to enrich the styling design briefs and to influence the design strategies such as the management of the different grades. The research presented here was supported by the Kansei Design department from Toyota Motor Europe (TME-KD). This collaboration also brought an industrial context to it.SUPPORTED BY TOYOTA EUROP

Creating a better product experience in organic cereal packaging design

Organic foods have been in great demand lately, and more and more people tend to buy them to enjoy their healthy benefits. However, packages of organic food are not distinguishable from those of conventional food as a unique identity of the food that contains higher values. In grocery stores, most organic foods are placed with conventional foods together on shelves and present little attractions to consumers. As a result, they are often overlooked by organic food buyers due to designs similar to those of conventional food packages. Therefore, it is necessary to redesign organic food packages and explore design elements that can help the enhance product experience of organic foods. With that purpose, the current study focuses on an exploration of both materials and designs in organic cereal packaging design and tries to add emotional and sensory elements to the design by applying different materials, color palettes, and imagery styles. The study adopts Kansei Engineering methodology, a method that incorporates people\u27s sensory and emotional responses into product design and services, in the design of new prototypes of organic cereal packages; the methodology is also used to measure people\u27s sensory and emotional responses to those prototypes through a list of Kansei words that are related to people\u27s sensory and psychological feelings. Results of the study indicate that different physical materials used in packaging elicited different sensory and emotional responses from study participants, and color variations in packaging also led to differences in participants\u27 emotional and sensory responses to organic food prototypes. However, different virtual materials and imagery styles (computer mockups) used in virtual packages didn\u27t produce a significant difference in eliciting emotional and sensory responses from the participants

Understanding and modeling of aesthetic response to shape and color in car body design

This study explored the phenomenon that a consumer's preference on color of car body may vary depending on shape of the car body. First, the study attempted to establish a theoretical framework that can account for this phenomenon. This framework is based on the (modern-) Darwinism approach to the so-called evolutionary psychology and aesthetics. It assumes that human's aesthetic sense works like an agent that seeks for environmental patterns that potentially afford to benefit the underlying needs of the agent, and this seeking process is evolutionary fitting. Second, by adopting the framework, a pattern called “fundamental aesthetic dimensions” was developed for identifying and modeling consumer’s aesthetic response to car body shape and color. Next, this study developed an effective tool that is capable in capturing and accommodating consumer’s color preference on a given car body shape. This tool was implemented by incorporating classic color theories and advanced digital technologies; it was named “Color-Shape Synthesizer”. Finally, an experiment was conducted to verify some of the theoretical developments. This study concluded (1) the fundamental aesthetics dimensions can be used for describing aesthetics in terms of shape and color; (2) the Color-Shape Synthesizer tool can be well applied in practicing car body designs; and (3) mapping between semantic representations of aesthetic response to the fundamental aesthetics dimensions can likely be a multiple-network structure

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

Influence of multimodal integration on spatial perception

To design affective spaces that promote stabilized living experience and user well-being, it is necessary to consider and be aware of how multiple perceptual information interact and influence the way we perceive space i.e. multimodal perception. This study aims to gain an understanding of how sensory cues influence the emotional evaluation of the spatial design. We analyzed how the change in levels of spatial elements was emotionally perceived in the presence and absence of scent and color. The results from the study presented that both scent and color significantly affected the emotional response to change in levels of spatial elements in different ways. The findings suggest that (1) in the absence of both color and scent, the spatial elements interacted to affect the participants’ moods related to being confused and feeling strained and tensed, (2) in the presence of a cool color (purple) and relaxing scent (lavender), spatial elements interacted to affect the participants’ mood related to feeling strained and tensed, (3) in the presence of a warm color (orange) and stimulating scent (orange), spatial elements interacted to affect the participants’ mood related to being unhappy. The findings of the study are worthy as they provide an insight into the influence of multimodality in spatial perception. They will help establish guidelines for incorporating perceptual information in spatial designs that provide stabilized living experience and enhanced individual well-being

The role of the colors of interior accessories in forming an impression of a room

When purchasing home interior furniture and accessories, several factors determine the color of the items that are chosen. People imagine how the item will look when actually placed in the room, anticipating whether it will fit in with the room or create the image they want. In order to help people make such decisions during shopping in stores and online, we analyzed the relationship between room color and item color. We prepared a photo of a home interior, processed the color of one item in the photo, and asked subjects about their impression of it. The color of the item was chosen from the colors used in the picture so that it could work in harmony with the room. Through the experiment, we found that even the color of a small item can affect the impression of an entire room