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

Immersive moodboards, a comparative study of industrial design inspiration material

A recent trend in our industrial culture has been the gradual emergence of digital tools in various fields of human activity. They aim to reduce development time, cost, or to insure a low error, high quality process. Many fields have been improved thanks to this new computerized approach. This paper is centered on how industrial design could be assisted by virtual reality tools. More specifically it presents a new vision of early design methodologies through immersive technologies. It also presents the results of an experimentation aiming to compare traditional moodboards with a newly developed immersive moodboard. When analyzing and comparing the relationship of the industrial designer to a traditional and an immersive moodboard, our result highlights the fact that immerging the industrial designer in an immersive moodboard induces a high emotional activity without radically modifying the meaning of the represented trend. The moodboard data spatialization stimulates and engages the designer into interacting with the immersive moodboard. The virtual reality system provides the illusion of a potential reality, which can be used by the designer as a reflection basis for his work. We believe that delivering this immersive experience during the early design process will help the industrial designer make style related decisions.Projet CARNO

Immersive moodboards, a comparative study of industrial design inspiration material

A recent trend in our industrial culture has been the gradual emergence of digital tools in various fields of human activity. They aim to reduce development time, cost, or to insure a low error, high quality process. Many fields have been improved thanks to this new computerized approach. This paper is centered on how industrial design could be assisted by virtual reality tools. More specifically it presents a new vision of early design methodologies through immersive technologies. It also presents the results of an experimentation aiming to compare traditional moodboards with a newly developed immersive moodboard. When analyzing and comparing the relationship of the industrial designer to a traditional and an immersive moodboard, our result highlights the fact that immerging the industrial designer in an immersive moodboard induces a high emotional activity without radically modifying the meaning of the represented trend. The moodboard data spatialization stimulates and engages the designer into interacting with the immersive moodboard. The virtual reality system provides the illusion of a potential reality, which can be used by the designer as a reflection basis for his work. We believe that delivering this immersive experience during the early design process will help the industrial designer make style related decisions.Projet CARNO

Impact de l’expérience immersive sur la prise en compte du kansei en design industriel amont

In an ever-changing context, the industrial design uses representation as a vector for inspiration and as a tool to operate stylistic choices which in turn enable the shaping of the experience induced by the designed product.This doctoral research presents the comparative study of traditional early design activity and immersive early design activity. This enables the evaluation and modeling of Virtual Kansei Design. My work essentially address the application and experimentation of fundamental theories through the design of two successive tools composing and innovative early design process.• The Immersive Moodboards are spatial immersive inspirational environments dedicated to the understanding of a stylistic trend, designed to substitute and enhance traditional moodboards.• The Immersive sketching is a generational environment enabling the design to position, erase, manipulate… a graphical mark in a three dimensional space planned for the creation of the first ideation sketches.This research aim to develop tools and a digital immersive workflow which first of all enables the design to anticipate Kansei (holistic relationship between the designer/user and the product) in order to optimize strategic style related choices and secondly enhances the fidelity between inspiration and generation while increasing the ability of the designer to produce innovating and aesthetic concepts.Dans un contexte industriel en constante évolution, le designer industriel utilise la représentation comme un vecteur lui permettant de s’inspirer et d’opérer des choix stylistiques afin d’imaginer l’expérience induite par les concepts de produits qu’il développe. Ce travail doctoral présente l'étude comparative entre l'activité de design amont traditionnelle et l'activité de design amont immersive, permettant l'évaluation et la modélisation de l'activité de Kansei Design Virtuel. Mes travaux portent essentiellement sur l'application et l'expérimentation de théories fondamentales à travers la conception de deux outils consécutifs du processus de design:• Les Univers de Tendance sont des environnements inspirationnels spatiaux immersifs dédies à la compréhension d'une tendance stylistique et conçu pour substituer et augmenter le rôle des planches de tendances traditionnelles.• Le Dessin Tridimensionnel Immersif est un environnement générationnel permettant au designer de déposer, effacer, manipuler… un tracé dans l'espace et dédié aux premiers croquis d'idéation.Ces recherches ont pour but de développer des outils et un workflow digital immersif permettant d'une part, d'anticiper le Kansei (relation holistique designer/client-produit) afin d'optimiser les choix stylistiques stratégiques et d'autre part, de maximiser la fidélité de retranscription entre espace d'inspiration et espace de génération tout en augmentant la capacité du designer à produire des concepts esthétiques et innovants

Material Visualisation for Virtual Reality: The Perceptual Investigations

Material representation plays a significant role in design visualisation and evaluation. On one hand, the simulated material properties determine the appearance of product prototypes in digitally rendered scenes. On the other hand, those properties are perceived by the viewers in order to make important design decisions. As an approach to simulate a more realistic environment, Virtual Reality (VR) provides users a vivid impression of depth and embodies them into an immersive environment. However, the scientific understanding of material perception and its applications in VR is still fairly limited. This leads to this thesis’s research question on whether the material perception in VR is different from that in traditional 2D displays, as well as the potential of using VR as a design tool to facilitate material evaluation.       This thesis is initiated from studying the perceptual difference of rendered materials between VR and traditional 2D viewing modes. Firstly, through a pilot study, it is confirmed that users have different perceptual experiences of the same material in the two viewing modes. Following that initial finding, the research investigates in more details the perceptual difference with psychophysics methods, which help in quantifying the users’ perceptual responses. Using the perceptual scale as a measuring means, the research analyses the users’ judgment and recognition of the material properties under VR and traditional 2D display environments. In addition, the research also elicits the perceptual evaluation criteria to analyse the emotional aspects of materials. The six perceptual criteria are in semantic forms, including rigidity, formality, fineness, softness, modernity, and irregularity.       The results showed that VR could support users in making a more refined judgment of material properties. That is to say, the users perceive better the minute changes of material properties under immersive viewing conditions. In terms of emotional aspects, VR is advantageous in signifying the effects induced by visual textures, while the 2D viewing mode is more effective for expressing the characteristics of plain surfaces. This thesis has contributed to the deeper understanding of users’ perception of material appearances in Virtual Reality, which is critical in achieving an effective design visualisation using such a display medium