A Kansei-Oriented Approach for Product Form Design

Abstract

The growing users’ awareness in practicing individual life style have led to diverse living products in business markets. Hence, how to effectively meet the emotional or kansei needs of target users become crucial issues for product designers. This article aims to propose a revised Kansei Form Composition (KFC) to more effectively analyze and develop product styling. The updated approach not only integrates kansei thinking and Morphological Analysis but also employs factor weights and flash cards. During the analyzing stages, the new KFC applies visual images as interfaces to induce latent demands of the target interviewers. Related kansei adjectives and form elements are selected as main design factors. Furthermore, weights of the factors are identified through the interviewees’ feedbacks. Core flash cards of design factors are submitted. The revised approach suggests the core flash cards as feasible inspiration tools to the designers in the idea development stages. By using the new KFC, timer form designs for LOHOS involvers are demonstrated. The authenticity and applicability is verified that the revised KFC can catch the preference of user needs more effectively.