<p>There is an increasing emphasis on developing systematical research approaches for design of products that appeal to people’s emotions and values. This thesis proposes methodological developments for investigating people’s subjective emotional needs and values towards quality and explores interactions of related physical design attributes for product design.</p><p>The overall aim of the licentiate thesis is to gain an understanding on Affective engineering of products through exploring the concept of quality feeling and to develop methodological approaches for this. Quality feeling can be described as a holistic concept considering individuals’ perceptions, expectations, experiences, physical and psychological expressions for a product or service. Affective Engineering methodology aims at translating human psychological processes, such as feelings and emotions, into appropriate product design attributes, such as size, shape, and surface characteristics.</p><p>The thesis presents three methodological approaches when evaluating products for affective engineering and one approach for an interactive product design support system development.</p><p>The first study presented deals with feelings of quality for reach truck operator’s cabin components. Components that would convey to give a higher total quality feeling were identified and improvement opportunities were prioritized. The second study presented is based on developing an interactive affective design and decision support system software for design of the steering wheel from drivers’ individual and shared preferences. In the third study affective values arising from judgments for important feelings of quality is the study basis. The author presents research on identifying interactions of design attributes for affective values in waiting areas of primary health care services.</p><p>Further, a new approach for applying Affective Engineering in design of complex contexts is proposed.The proposed approach aims to handle contexts where feelings and design attributes have complex interactions for products and services that give almost an infinite number of design alternatives that are difficult to handle in traditional Kansei Engineering studies. With this thesis also an interactive product design and decision support system software is developed for steering wheel design and proposed for educational and industrial use. The proposed system works based on linking product design attributes to human feelings by applying Genetic algorithms and provides potential basis for future product development and improvements.</p><p>This thesis has also contributed with affective design recommendations applicable for vehicle cabins and waiting areas in primary health care. Moreover, a number of existing methods in Affective Engineering have been tested and methodological experience is drawn, including advantages, disadvantages and limitations of using these methods.</p>

Product experience is a multi&amp / #8208 / dimensional user&amp / #8208 / product interaction, which includes the user&rsquo / s emotional aspects. Emotional experience is a component of product experience which comprises the emotions elicited by the brands and products of the brand. This study investigates the relationship between brand and product emotions and the qualities of products that evoke these emotions. The presented study was mainly based on literature review and empirical study. First, psychological background of emotions was reviewed to explain the process underlying these emotions. Then, emotions of users were investigated from design and marketing perspectives. The literature review was then supported by the data collected through the findings of the empirical study. The empirical study aimed at examining the relationship between emotions of users, product qualities and brand of the product. One product of five different brands were shown to the participants and each participant was asked to rate their emotions. Each participant was shown one set of products (i.e. iron), and each set was consisted of original (O), mixed (M) brand names or no brand name (N). The results of 105 participants were evaluated using statistical analyses and content analyses methods. The data analyses were undertaken separately for each of the product groups, with the findings for each group then being cross&amp / #8208 / compared using SPSS software. The aim was to elicit information on possible relations between brands that form certain impressions of, and emotions towards products bearing their brand name, plus the change in negative/positive emotions associated with each iron across the three groups. The results give valuable insights into the practical impact of branding, product identity and product emotions. The study also extends the understanding of how branding affects people&rsquo / s emotional responses to consumer products.

The main focus of the multidisciplinary nature of design is to provide users a better life in terms of enabling the products to be safe, usable and pleasurable to use. Therefore, physical pain is always avoided. However, physical pain is involved in our daily lives, not only as an avoided concept, but also as a constructive concept. It is used for functional or hedonic purposes / whether consciously or not. The focus in this research is exploring these &lsquo / used&rsquo / pains, and their relations to product design / in other words, how products are (or how they may be) used or manipulated to use pain instead of avoiding it. Eventually, the aim is to map the pain experience as a constructive element of experience and to come up with a statement for the usage of physical pain in product design as a beneficial tool, instead of just being a tool for pleasure as it has been used in product design till now. In order to explore the pain experience with products, a contexmapping study and a focus group study have been done. The phenomena of &lsquo / good, transitional and bad pain&rsquo / were introduced. Following this, pain experience with products model was proposed utilizing the results of the studies and for the exploration of the implementation of the model in practicum, a generative session study to obtain initial design ideas was done.

Contemporary quality issues in product design are moving from materialistic to emotional user fulfillment; comprehensive research is needed to examine quality product feelings. This research is directed toward a deeper understanding of user and customer quality feelings for different product types, including services. The quality feelings concept includes dimensions of product quality, especially functionality, ergonomics and aesthetics. The first objective of this thesis is to identify, prioritize and synthesize quality feelings into product attributes in product development applications. The second objective is to explore, test and propose methodological approaches for designing quality feelings into products. Several methods from psychology, ergonomics, statistics and probabilistic methods and heuristics were applied to achieve the objectives. From a methodological viewpoint, Likert scales, free elicitation technique and Just About Right scales were applied for data collection. Multiple Regression, Factor Analysis, Correspondence Analysis, Genetic algorithms, Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Rough Sets (RS) were applied for data analyses. For ergonomic product evaluations, direct observations, 3D workload simulations, time and frequency analyses were conducted. Five product applications are included in this thesis: operator driver cabin design of reach trucks, steering wheel design trigger switch design in right-angled nutrunners, bed-making systemsproducts and waiting room environments. Heuristic methods were found effective when there is a high number of product attributes that interact to provide quality feelings. RS results are consistent with PLS attribute predictions. When the number of product attributes is large in comparison to the number of observations, PLS extracts informative results for quality feelings. The RS method is effective in identifying interactions among design attributes. Quality feelings are associated with both tangible (tactile characteristics) and intangible (quick and easy to use) product characteristics. Words such as safety, functionality, ergonomics, comfort, reliability, supportiveness, usability, feedback, pleasantness, attractiveness, durability and distinctiveness describe quality feelings from tangible products and services. Based on product type, the quality dimensions represented by these words possess different interactions and dependencies. In work environments, products act as prostheses between workers for social interaction, which need to be considered as important quality feelings dimensions. / QC 20111017

Esta pesquisa aborda, pela perspectiva do design e emoção, a relação afetiva que mulheres estabelecem com os calçados femininos. Tem como objetivo geral descrever as relações afetivas que mulheres que declaram amar ou gostar muito de calçados estabelecem com esse tipo de produto. A história do calçado feminino permite compreender a evolução de suas funções, especialmente a partir do momento em que a moda passou a influenciar sua configuração. Tendo em vista isso, a fundamentação desta pesquisa contemplou a influência da moda, o fetiche e os simbolismos atribuídos aos calçados, e a percepção de conforto e de risco acerca do uso dos calçados femininos. Para melhor compreensão quanto a preferências e desejos das pessoas na configuração de produtos, foram também consideradas as funções dos produtos, o papel das emoções relacionadas aos objetos e a semântica de produtos. A partir da revisão de literatura, foram selecionadas vinte e oito categorias relacionadas às emoções com produtos, com o intuito de auxiliar na descrição das relações afetivas entre as mulheres e seus calçados. Essas relações foram exploradas por meio da análise do discurso de mulheres que declaram gostar muito de calçados. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com um grupo de onze mulheres entre 19 e 44 anos, residentes da região metropolitana de Porto Alegre. As entrevistas seguiram um protocolo que abordou motivação de compra, motivação de uso, preferência, cuidados e sentimentos relacionados com o calçado. A análise das entrevistas foi feita com o auxílio das vinte e oito categorias abordadas na literatura sobre design e emoção, e se deu em dois eixos. O primeiro considerando as respostas de todas as mulheres para cada tópico e questão do protocolo e o segundo analisando as respostas de cada entrevistada individualmente. Os resultados desta pesquisa indicam que as motivações de afeto por calçados são baseadas no conforto, na versatilidade, na aprovação das outras pessoas (elogios) e na estética. / This research addresses from the perspective of design and emotion, the emotional relationship that women have with their shoes. It aims to describe the general emotional relationships that women who claim to love or like a lot shoes establish with this type of product. The history of female footwear allows us to understand the evolution of their functions, especially from the moment when fashion began to influence its configuration. In view of this, the reasoning of this research includes the influence of fashion, fetish and symbolism assigned to shoes, perception of comfort and risk and about the use of women's footwear. To better understand how people’s preferences and desires in the context of product configuration, were also considered the product’s functions, the role of emotions related to objects and product semantics. From the literature review, we selected twenty-eight categories related to emotions with products in order to assist in the description of affective relationships between women and their shoes. These relationships were explored by analyzing the speech of women which declare to really like shoes. Thus, we conducted in-depth interviews with a group of eleven women between 19 and 44 years, residents of the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre. The interviews followed a protocol that addressed the buying motivation, usage motivation, preference, care and feelings related to the footwear. The data analysis was done with the aid of the twenty-eight categories addressed in the literature on design and emotion, and was divided in two axes. The first considers the responses of all women for every topic and protocol issue and the second examines the responses of each respondent individually. The results of this research indicate that the motives of affection for shoes are based on comfort, versatility, the approval of others (praise) and aesthetics.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze and obtain a deeper understanding regarding the role of prior and present product experience and its impact on the buying process of an automobile within the premium segment in Sweden.   Problem: A research gap has been identified regarding the connection between a product experience and its actual role in the buying process of a premium automobile. It is argued that great measures of a consumer’s perceptions of a product are formed by gathered product experience whilst no previous research conclude to what extent it actually makes an impact. Additionally, no previous research has identified if negative product experiences of automobiles deem a brand to be undesired to an individual in comparison to brand where no product experience is to be found.   Design/Method: This paper has utilized a qualitative research approach that includes the conduction of semi-structured interviews, which worked towards investigating the perceptions of interviewees with regards to the subject of product experience and to what extent it impacts individuals. Moreover, an abductive research approach is utilized within this paper as the approach combines all forms of known information in order to form a conclusion based upon discovered observations whilst also collecting data that enables a more thorough insight.   Findings: This research proves that product experience plays a vital role in subsequent buying decision processes. Previously attached meanings and values, elicited emotions and perceptions towards a specific brand are through our findings confirmed to have a direct impact on purchases of automobiles as well as feelings associated with an automotive premium brand. The conducted research also found that bad product experiences, although damaging brand perceptions, most commonly surpasses no experience at all.

Esta pesquisa aborda, pela perspectiva do design e emoção, a relação afetiva que mulheres estabelecem com os calçados femininos. Tem como objetivo geral descrever as relações afetivas que mulheres que declaram amar ou gostar muito de calçados estabelecem com esse tipo de produto. A história do calçado feminino permite compreender a evolução de suas funções, especialmente a partir do momento em que a moda passou a influenciar sua configuração. Tendo em vista isso, a fundamentação desta pesquisa contemplou a influência da moda, o fetiche e os simbolismos atribuídos aos calçados, e a percepção de conforto e de risco acerca do uso dos calçados femininos. Para melhor compreensão quanto a preferências e desejos das pessoas na configuração de produtos, foram também consideradas as funções dos produtos, o papel das emoções relacionadas aos objetos e a semântica de produtos. A partir da revisão de literatura, foram selecionadas vinte e oito categorias relacionadas às emoções com produtos, com o intuito de auxiliar na descrição das relações afetivas entre as mulheres e seus calçados. Essas relações foram exploradas por meio da análise do discurso de mulheres que declaram gostar muito de calçados. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com um grupo de onze mulheres entre 19 e 44 anos, residentes da região metropolitana de Porto Alegre. As entrevistas seguiram um protocolo que abordou motivação de compra, motivação de uso, preferência, cuidados e sentimentos relacionados com o calçado. A análise das entrevistas foi feita com o auxílio das vinte e oito categorias abordadas na literatura sobre design e emoção, e se deu em dois eixos. O primeiro considerando as respostas de todas as mulheres para cada tópico e questão do protocolo e o segundo analisando as respostas de cada entrevistada individualmente. Os resultados desta pesquisa indicam que as motivações de afeto por calçados são baseadas no conforto, na versatilidade, na aprovação das outras pessoas (elogios) e na estética. / This research addresses from the perspective of design and emotion, the emotional relationship that women have with their shoes. It aims to describe the general emotional relationships that women who claim to love or like a lot shoes establish with this type of product. The history of female footwear allows us to understand the evolution of their functions, especially from the moment when fashion began to influence its configuration. In view of this, the reasoning of this research includes the influence of fashion, fetish and symbolism assigned to shoes, perception of comfort and risk and about the use of women's footwear. To better understand how people’s preferences and desires in the context of product configuration, were also considered the product’s functions, the role of emotions related to objects and product semantics. From the literature review, we selected twenty-eight categories related to emotions with products in order to assist in the description of affective relationships between women and their shoes. These relationships were explored by analyzing the speech of women which declare to really like shoes. Thus, we conducted in-depth interviews with a group of eleven women between 19 and 44 years, residents of the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre. The interviews followed a protocol that addressed the buying motivation, usage motivation, preference, care and feelings related to the footwear. The data analysis was done with the aid of the twenty-eight categories addressed in the literature on design and emotion, and was divided in two axes. The first considers the responses of all women for every topic and protocol issue and the second examines the responses of each respondent individually. The results of this research indicate that the motives of affection for shoes are based on comfort, versatility, the approval of others (praise) and aesthetics.

Esta pesquisa aborda, pela perspectiva do design e emoção, a relação afetiva que mulheres estabelecem com os calçados femininos. Tem como objetivo geral descrever as relações afetivas que mulheres que declaram amar ou gostar muito de calçados estabelecem com esse tipo de produto. A história do calçado feminino permite compreender a evolução de suas funções, especialmente a partir do momento em que a moda passou a influenciar sua configuração. Tendo em vista isso, a fundamentação desta pesquisa contemplou a influência da moda, o fetiche e os simbolismos atribuídos aos calçados, e a percepção de conforto e de risco acerca do uso dos calçados femininos. Para melhor compreensão quanto a preferências e desejos das pessoas na configuração de produtos, foram também consideradas as funções dos produtos, o papel das emoções relacionadas aos objetos e a semântica de produtos. A partir da revisão de literatura, foram selecionadas vinte e oito categorias relacionadas às emoções com produtos, com o intuito de auxiliar na descrição das relações afetivas entre as mulheres e seus calçados. Essas relações foram exploradas por meio da análise do discurso de mulheres que declaram gostar muito de calçados. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com um grupo de onze mulheres entre 19 e 44 anos, residentes da região metropolitana de Porto Alegre. As entrevistas seguiram um protocolo que abordou motivação de compra, motivação de uso, preferência, cuidados e sentimentos relacionados com o calçado. A análise das entrevistas foi feita com o auxílio das vinte e oito categorias abordadas na literatura sobre design e emoção, e se deu em dois eixos. O primeiro considerando as respostas de todas as mulheres para cada tópico e questão do protocolo e o segundo analisando as respostas de cada entrevistada individualmente. Os resultados desta pesquisa indicam que as motivações de afeto por calçados são baseadas no conforto, na versatilidade, na aprovação das outras pessoas (elogios) e na estética. / This research addresses from the perspective of design and emotion, the emotional relationship that women have with their shoes. It aims to describe the general emotional relationships that women who claim to love or like a lot shoes establish with this type of product. The history of female footwear allows us to understand the evolution of their functions, especially from the moment when fashion began to influence its configuration. In view of this, the reasoning of this research includes the influence of fashion, fetish and symbolism assigned to shoes, perception of comfort and risk and about the use of women's footwear. To better understand how people’s preferences and desires in the context of product configuration, were also considered the product’s functions, the role of emotions related to objects and product semantics. From the literature review, we selected twenty-eight categories related to emotions with products in order to assist in the description of affective relationships between women and their shoes. These relationships were explored by analyzing the speech of women which declare to really like shoes. Thus, we conducted in-depth interviews with a group of eleven women between 19 and 44 years, residents of the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre. The interviews followed a protocol that addressed the buying motivation, usage motivation, preference, care and feelings related to the footwear. The data analysis was done with the aid of the twenty-eight categories addressed in the literature on design and emotion, and was divided in two axes. The first considers the responses of all women for every topic and protocol issue and the second examines the responses of each respondent individually. The results of this research indicate that the motives of affection for shoes are based on comfort, versatility, the approval of others (praise) and aesthetics.

There is an increasing emphasis on developing systematical research approaches for design of products that appeal to people’s emotions and values. This thesis proposes methodological developments for investigating people’s subjective emotional needs and values towards quality and explores interactions of related physical design attributes for product design. The overall aim of the licentiate thesis is to gain an understanding on Affective engineering of products through exploring the concept of quality feeling and to develop methodological approaches for this. Quality feeling can be described as a holistic concept considering individuals’ perceptions, expectations, experiences, physical and psychological expressions for a product or service. Affective Engineering methodology aims at translating human psychological processes, such as feelings and emotions, into appropriate product design attributes, such as size, shape, and surface characteristics. The thesis presents three methodological approaches when evaluating products for affective engineering and one approach for an interactive product design support system development. The first study presented deals with feelings of quality for reach truck operator’s cabin components. Components that would convey to give a higher total quality feeling were identified and improvement opportunities were prioritized. The second study presented is based on developing an interactive affective design and decision support system software for design of the steering wheel from drivers’ individual and shared preferences. In the third study affective values arising from judgments for important feelings of quality is the study basis. The author presents research on identifying interactions of design attributes for affective values in waiting areas of primary health care services. Further, a new approach for applying Affective Engineering in design of complex contexts is proposed.The proposed approach aims to handle contexts where feelings and design attributes have complex interactions for products and services that give almost an infinite number of design alternatives that are difficult to handle in traditional Kansei Engineering studies. With this thesis also an interactive product design and decision support system software is developed for steering wheel design and proposed for educational and industrial use. The proposed system works based on linking product design attributes to human feelings by applying Genetic algorithms and provides potential basis for future product development and improvements. This thesis has also contributed with affective design recommendations applicable for vehicle cabins and waiting areas in primary health care. Moreover, a number of existing methods in Affective Engineering have been tested and methodological experience is drawn, including advantages, disadvantages and limitations of using these methods.

Yes / This study investigates the impact of three-dimensional (3D) product presentation quality (3D-Q) on attitude toward presented product and attitude toward website, which in turn affect users’ satisfaction. Therefore, this research developed a hypothetical online retailer website, which presents a variety of 3D laptops that allows users to control the content and form of the 3D flashes. We measured 3D-quality based on a multi-dimensional construct. In other words, we define and operationalize 3D-quality based on information quality, system quality, authenticity, and enjoyment (second-order). We employed a non-student sample (n=410) to collect the data. We find that 3D-quality determines perceptions of attitude toward presented product and attitude toward website, which in turn influence users’ satisfaction. Furthermore, we find that virtual product experience moderates the relationships between attitude toward presented product, attitude toward website and users’ satisfaction. Our study provides important implications for e-tailers.