About the nature of Kansei information

Kansei studies refer to the more and more holistic consideration of the cognitive and affective processes which occur during user experience. In addition, few studies deal with the experience of the designers during the design process, and its influence on the final design outputs. Historically kansei engineering has been firstly focused on the semantic differential approach. Afterwards emotions were integrated into kansei approaches. The semantic differential approach enabled to evaluate products and then to generate automatically design solutions with semantic input data. Thereafter, evaluations have been completed by physiological measurements in order to reduce the subjectivity involved in those evaluations and also to capture some unconscious reactions. This implementation is still in process. Today kansei studies have been much enriched from the three disciplines of design science, psychology and artificial intelligence. The cross influence between these disciplines brought new dimensions into kansei approaches (multisensory design information, personality, values, and culture, new formalisms and algorithms) which lead progressively towards the consideration of a whole enriched kansei experience. We propose in this paper a description of the nature of kansei information. Then we present some major orientations for kansei evaluation. Finally we propose an overall table gathering information about kansei dimensions and formats.AN

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

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

Cultural differences in applying Kansei Engineering to services

It is imperative for companies to provide competitive products and services at a competitive price. Products and services need to offer features and properties which can makethem distinguishable and attractive to customers. Emotions and feelings are prominent during product interaction and service encounter. Kansei Engineering (KE) enables interpretation and translation of customer emotions into design parameters. The application of KE covers both products and services design. Besides dealing with attractive exterior appearances, KE has an ability to optimize properties that are not directly detectable or visible, such as the comfort of hospital and concert hall. There are few empirical studies. Kansei management should recognize cultural differences in Kansei. However, for analysis of cultural values we need to understand the different needs of different customers. A study of luxury hotel services for Indonesian, Japanese and Singaporean tourists, was conducted using interviews and a tri-lingual face-to-face questionnaire. 425 responses were collected. Japanese tourists were found to be the most Kansei-oriented. They tended to value luxury hotels as “clean” and “quiet” places to stay. Indonesian and Singaporean tourists shared a common response to the Kansei word “elegant” which correlates with their common cultural dimension of “power distance”. Incorporation of cultural issues into Kansei studies can provide marketing strategies for customers of different cultural backgrounds

The Role of Kansei Engineering in Influencing Overall Satisfaction and Behavioral Intention in Service Encounters

Customers today concern themselves more on fulfilling their emotional needs rather than rationales and functionalities. In dealing with customer emotions in products/services, Kansei Engineering (KE) is applied. A comprehensive case study in luxury hotels was conducted. Eighty one Indonesian, 75 Singaporean, and 74 Japanese tourists participated in this survey. It aims to investigate the relationships among constructs during service encounter process. The finding shows that emotions (affective process) play a significant role as a complement to cognitive process in influencing customer satisfaction. Among 3 populations, Japanese was found to be more Kansei-oriented customer. Keywords: Kansei Engineering, emotional needs, customer satisfactio

INTEGRATING KANSEI ENGINEERING AND CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE SERVICE QUALITY: A CASE STUDY AT SHOPPING MALL IN SURABAYA

With respect to customer dynamics in experiencing products and services, nowadays, customers tend to highly demand hedonism, pleasure and individuality rather than functionality and usability. In other words, they look for a service that offers more values (both physically and emotionally) from its function. Apart from that, it is a must for a company to strive for achieving customer loyalty. Thus, this study proposes an integrative framework of Kansei Engineering (KE) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in services. It aims to explore the customer emotional needs (Kansei in Japanese) experienced and encountered in services. As emphasized in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) concept, understanding the customer emotional needs is one of successful keys for CRM implementation. In order to analyze the applicability of the proposed framework, a case study taken at a brand new elegant shopping mall in Surabaya that involved 100 customers was conducted. Some significant Kansei words as the representatives of customer emotional needs were obtained, such as elegant, believe, cool, wide and curious. These Kansei words have significant correlation with several service attributes, such as: “service given without social status”, “service accuracy”, “responsive employees”, “convenient parking lots”, “attractive events”, and “neat and attractive employees”. Some improvement innitiatives were proposed, including to accelerate the parking lots construction, and to provide a clear directions to the mall access. Theoretically, this study contributes to academic literatures on the relationship between CRM and KE providing in a unified integrated framework. Practically, this research provides a guidance to service managers in collecting and capturing the emotional needs of customers, and investigating what service attributes that are significantly sensitive to the customer emotions. It is, then, to be used as a prioritization tool for continuous improvement or maintenance on service attributes

Towards a kansei-based user modeling methodology for eco-design

We propose here to highlight the benefits of building a framework linking Kansei Design (KD), User Centered Design (UCD) and Eco-design, as the correlation between these fields is barely explored in research at the current time. Therefore, we believe Kansei Design could serve the goal of achieving more sustainable products by setting up an accurate understanding of the user in terms of ecological awareness, and consequently enhancing performance in the Eco-design process. In the same way, we will consider the means-end chain approach inspired from marketing research, as it is useful for identifying ecological values, mapping associated functions and defining suitable design solutions. Information gathered will serve as entry data for conducting scenario-based design, and supporting the development of an Eco-friendly User Centered Design methodology (EcoUCD).ANR-ECOUS

Integrating Kansei Engineering into Kano and SERVQUAL Model to Determine the Priorities of Service Improvement (Case Study: Café Agape at Ruteng, East Nusa Tenggara – Indonesia)

In order to improve service quality, a research framework of integrating Kansei Engineering into Kano and SERV-QUAL was deployed in Café Agape. SERVQUAL model is used to identify whether the provided service has been fulfill customer needs; whether customers were satisfied and what service attributes that have negative customer satisfaction indexes. Kano model can classify the service attributes into groups, i.e., attractive, one dimensional, must be or even indifferent; the classification can be used to determine the priorities. Kansei Engineering takes the customer emotion into account and tries to identify customer needs (feelings) more specific. The integration is aimed to determine the improvement priorities. A survey of 100 customers using 21 service attributes and 10 Kansei words resulted on 15 attributes that have negative customer satisfaction score. However, only 9 attributes will be prioritized for improvement because they are Attractive (A) and One dimensional (O) attributes due to the result of Kano classification. The analysis of Kansei Engineering showed that “convenience” was the customers’ most important emotion when they receive services at Café Agape. Meanwhile, there are 6 of 10 Kansei word (customer emotional needs) significantly different between two groups of Café Agape’s customers; foreign/overseas customers felt happier, more relieved, friendly, welcome and attractive but less sedate/quiet than local/domestic ones when they consume services at Café Agape

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

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