Design and evaluation of affective features in automobiles.

• Main Author: Peng, Hong.
• Other Authors: Martin Erik Gustav Helander
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Industrial engineering::Human factors engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/15171
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Traditional product designers assume that the most effective strategy to enhance customer satisfaction is to improve design performance. However, today functionality is more and more taken for granted recently. Customers are looking for fulfillment of various perspectives of appreciation. Products are expected to generate pleasurable experiences. This phenomenon also applies to the automotive industry. Most automobiles are produced with excellent quality and functionality. But affect and emotion play essential roles in customer evaluation. Therefore we need to investigate affective factors, which include: individual preferences, status, life styles and values. In this study, our objective is to provide a framework for affective design and evaluation, which can assist designers in utilizing affect and emotions in the automobile design process. In design planning, affective design can be decomposed into three distinct levels: visceral, behavioral and reflective. A Product Planning study was conducted to validate and evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed affective design evaluation framework. Moreover, a customer Affective Requirements Hierarchy (ARH) was proposed to study the customer evaluation process top-down, from overall evaluation associate to detailed design features. An evaluation method called: Design Equations for Citarasa Analysis method (DECA) was developed to support the design process. A series of case studies of automobile parts design were performed to investigate the applicability and effectiveness of proposed DECA method.