Affective design model for high involvement, non-interactive products

• Main Authors: Lee, Timothy, Liu, Ronald, Tan, Charles Jason
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2012
• Subjects: Product design
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/9759
• Institution: De La Salle University

Product design seeks to understand the needs of users. Several methodologies, such as the quality function deployment (QFD), axiomatic design, and the theory of inventive machines (TRIZ), have been developed to capture the needs and integrate them into the design of products, however, such methodologies mainly focus on capturing the functional needs of users. Aside from functionality, users also consider their emotional needs in purchasing products. This need has been incorporated into a product design paradigm called affective design. It seeks to incorporate affect, which is a broad term for emotions, into high involvement products products which are more likely to engender emotions among users. This study takes off from a recent affective design framework called the usability perception and emotion enhancement model (UPEEM). It was found out that the UPEEM was not applicable to all kinds of high involvement products because of the measures of apparent usability that were used. The reason as to how such limitations have been made may be attributed to the inconsideration of product classifications in the model. High involvement products, regardless of their product attributes, were all considered to be applicable in the UPEEM. Thus, review of literature that talks about product classifications is suggested to be considered first before the development of such product design frameworks. In the current classification of products, it was found that current literature placed products with human-computer interfaces with those that have none in a single product cluster. Because products with human-computer interactions have varying features as those that have none (a cellphone and a chair), an improper assessment could be made when such product classifications are used as reference. Thus, this study came up with a product classification which is defined as interactive and non-interactive products. The classification is based upon the feedback that the products transmit to users interactive products provide feedbacks which are termed as interactive and informative feedback while non-interactive products only provide the informative feedback. Another limitation of the UPEEM is only images of the product were used in the case study, not actual prototypes. Because of this, the functional quality of the product was not assessed. Thus, a model was developed in this study which integrates apparent usability (AU), functional quality (FQ) and affective quality (AQ) into the design of high involvement, non-interactive products. The model was validated through a case study of a high involvement, non-interactive product, a chefs knife. The main parts of the case study consisted of four phases namely: product selection constructs identification for AU, FQ, and AQ pilot testing and the main experiment. In the first phase of the study, a chefs knife was chosen among the high involvement, non-interactive products that are available. The main reason as to why the product was chosen is because of manufacturing constraints. The product attributes of the chefs knives to be manipulated in the experiment proper were then identified in this phase. The second phase of the study consisted of three sub-phases which are the identification of the constructs AU, AQ, and FQ. First, measures of apparent usability were obtained through two surveys. The first survey asked users to choose the applicable AU measures for several non-interactive products that were presented. After obtaining the data from the survey. Pareto analysis was utilized to select the appropriate Au measures for non-interactive products. Using selected Au measures for non-interactive products, a secondary survey was then administered which sought to obtain the AU measures which are specific for chefs knives. Factor analysis was finally utilized to reduce the Au measures and has yielded easy to handle, helpful and attractive as the appropriate measures of AU for chefs knives. Specific measures of AQ for chefs knives, on the other hand, have been obtained through asking users to rate the emotions listed in Richin's consumption emotion (CES) that they felt for a chefs knife. Factor analysis was utilized to reduce the CES and has yielded love, discontent, worry, joyful and excitement as the appropriate AQ measures. Finally, measures of FQ were obtained through a focus group discussion of five users of chefs knives which are HRM students, chefs and housewives. Using the insights obtained from the FGD, the FQ measures for the chefs knives were found out to be easy to grip and the perceived durability. A pilot test was done in the third phase of the study given the design alternatives and the measures for AU, AQ, and FQ. This was done in order to identify the potential problems that might happen in the main experiment. For the main experiment, surveys were administered to chefs knives users cooks, HRM students, and housewives to evaluate the alternative designs of the chefs knives that were developed as per the AU, AQ, FQ and desirability. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilized to analyze the data gathered form the survey and was used to validate the model developed. Results revealed that AU and FQ acted as mediating variables of product attributes to AQ, which was also found out to be in the desirability. Product attributes of chefs knives such as the form, thickness, and material type have significant effects in the AU and FQ of chefs knives.