An investigation into the affective properties of sporting goods based on cycling experience

• Main Author: Kuo, Jo-Yu
• Other Authors: Chen Chun-Hsien
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Industrial engineering::Human factors engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87650; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46780
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Contemporary customers seek products that meet their emotional needs as well as performing an anticipated function. The existing process of evaluating customers’ emotional requirements in a Kansei engineering system (KES), however, cannot fully reflect the user experience (UX), particularly for those products that involve physical interactions. Therefore, the research aim of this thesis is to apply KES for sports equipment design using bicycles as a case study. After conducting a thorough literature review and interviewing regular road cyclists, the thesis proposes a so-called UX-based collection method (UXCM). The UXCM consists of two modules, viz., temporal and multisensory, that represent the key UX characteristics. In addition to the qualitative interviews, an adapted semantic differential scale (SDS) and eye-tracking technique were applied to collect the customer’s emotional requirements. The first case study of the visual impression of bicycle images was designed to test the hypothesis that cyclists’ demands on cognitive-focused emotions (confidence) and affective-focused emotions (beauty) will change as their levels of involvement increased over time. The second case study investigated the impact of multisensory perceptions on Kansei words (K-words) among high-involvement road cyclists (HRC) and low-involvement road cyclists (LRC) using two bicycle saddle designs. The outcomes of this research include: (i) a K-words database covering two semantic spaces, viz., K-words in sport emotion (K-SE) and K-words in product personality (K-PP) for cycling experience; (ii) a conceptual UX model of bicycle saddle experience; the empirical evidence by which (iii) a customer’s overall impression towards a bicycle did not change with one’s increased involvement while functional components appealed more to experts than to novice cyclists; (iv) a list of emotional requirements on bicycle components; (v) an understanding that the visual appearance of bicycle saddles differently affect the physical performance of HRCs and LRCs; and (vi) it finds that cyclists’ riding postures also contribute to certain product emotions depending on the nature of the saddle. Because the UXCM rectifies the process of selecting representative K-words, the results of this research can help designers collect a customer’s emotional requirements through a valid UX evaluation to support the new product development (NPD) of sporting goods. More importantly, the present findings show that comfort is only one of the subjective feelings that affect an athlete’s physical performance in terms of sports equipment design. Designing a bicycle component with more types of positive emotions (e.g., competitiveness) for different market segments would benefit the bicycle industry.