Which senses dominate at different stages of product experience?

In the area of product design, sensory dominance can be defined as the relative importance of different sensory modalities for product experience. Since product experience is multisensory, it is interesting to know which sensory modality plays a leading role in a particular experience, so that designers could concentrate on the creation of the most relevant product properties. It is often assumed that vision dominates other senses. In the present study, we investigated the importance of different sensory modalities during various episodes of product usage. We asked 120 respondents to describe their experiences with consumer products in the following situations: while buying a product, after the first week, the first month, and the first year of usage. The data suggest that the dominant modality depends on the period of product usage. At the moment of buying, vision is the most important modality, but at later stages other modalities become more important. The dominance of a particular modality may depend on its appropriateness for the particular task. During long-term usage, modality importance depends on product functions and the characteristics of the user-product interaction. We conclude that to create a long-lasting positive product experience, designers need to consider the user-product interaction at different stages of product usage and to determine which sensory modality dominates product experience at each stage. Keywords: Sensory Dominance; User-Product Interaction; Product Design</p

RANGE AND NUMBER-OF-LEVELS EFFECTS IN DERIVED AND STATED MEASURES OF ATTRIBUTE IMPORTANCE

We study how the range of variation and the number of attribute levels affect five measures of attribute importance: full profile conjoint estimates, ranges in attribute level attractiveness ratings, regression coefficients, graded paired comparisons, and self-reported ratings. We find that all importance measures are affected by the range manipulation. The number of attribute levels affects only two measures. The results allow us to benchmark the magnitude of the number-of-levels effect against the range effect: conjoint importance estimates were approximately equally affected by a threefold increase in the range of attribute variation and by the insertion of two intermediate attribute levels. Our findings show that the number-of-levels effect is most likely due to respondents’ tendencies to distribute their mental stimulus representations and their responses uniformly over the corresponding continua.attribute importance, context effects, conjoint analysis, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Sensory interactions in mixtures of tastants

This dissertation focuses upon the interrelationships between physical and psychological variables involved in the human perception of mixtures of dissimilar tasting substances. Mixture interactions are complex, asymmetrical, and they can have a central or peripheral origin, depending on the nature of the mixture components. Two regularities only seem to hold for all pairs of dissimilar tasting substances in taste mixture research. First, dissimilar tasting components generally suppress each other's taste intensity. Second, the total taste intensity of a binary mixture is well predicted by the sum of the two specific taste intensities within the mixture percept.In addition to mixture interactions, differences in research methodology are addressed, which appear to affect the outcomes of taste interaction research

Factors contributing to product experience: The cases of 'warmth' and 'freshness'

Designers can manipulate physical properties of a product: they can change its colour, texture and smell. But can we also predict people’s product experiences such as ‘freshness’ and ‘warmth’? We collected 10 smells and 10 colours for freshness, and 10 textures and 10 colours for warmth. Participants evaluated the freshness of 20 stimuli for a softdrink and a dishwashing liquid, and the warmth of 20 stimuli for a scarf and a tray. The results showed that sensory experiences (freshness and warmth) include affective components (pleasantness and comfort) and depend on the product. Our findings imply that ‘freshness’ and ‘warmth’ are complex product experiences that integrate sensory, affective, and semantic components. To predict users’ reactions to products we need to take into account all three components of these experiences

De consument van duurzaam geproduceerde voedingsmiddelen in het jaar 2010.

In this report the willingness of consumers to include environmental aspects in buying food is evaluated by literature study. The development of consumer behaviour is estimated for three future scenarios

Sequence effects in the categorization of tones varying in frequency

In contrast to exemplar and decision-bound categorization models, the memory and contrast models described here do not assume that long-term representations of stimulus magnitudes are available. Instead, stimuli are assumed to be categorized using only their differences from a few recent stimuli. To test this alternative, the authors examined sequential effects in a binary categorization of 10 tones varying in frequency. Stimuli up to 2 trials back in the sequence had a significant effect on the response to the current stimulus. The effects of previous stimuli interacted with one another. A memory and contrast model, according to which only ordinal information about the differences between the current stimulus and recent preceding stimuli is used, best accounted for these dat

Can Ambient Scent Enhance the Nightlife Experience?

Ever since smoking was prohibited in restaurants, bars, and clubs, undesirable smells that were previously masked by cigarette smoke became noticeable. This opens up opportunities to improve the dance club environment by introducing pleasant ambient scents that mask the unwanted odors and to allow competing clubs to differentiate themselves. A field study was conducted at three dance clubs using a 3 × 3 Latin square design with pre- and post-measurements of no-scent control conditions. The three scents tested were orange, seawater, and peppermint. These scents were shown to enhance dancing activity and to improve the evaluation of the evening, the evaluation of the music, and the mood of the visitors over no added scent. However, no significant differences were found between the three scents

Perspectives on food packaging design

This special issue seeks to provide a snapshot of current scholarship on food packaging design across a range of disciplines (history, linguistics, perception, marketing and design), engaging in a variety of methodologies. A special issue of this nature is particularly needed as packaging has been widely under-represented as a subject of serious attention, whether in national libraries, major design surveys or much academic scholarship, particularly in the humanities. Beyond introducing the collected articles of the special issue, this editorial article reviews existing studies of packaging across a range of disciplines. These studies have contributed to our understanding of food packaging design and provide a useful analytical tool box. The final section will introduce the articles that make up the special issue and discuss their contribution to the nascent scholarship of food packaging