User satisfaction information provides a supporting base for the industrial design processes. Satisfaction is measured via several methods in the industrial design practice. These measurements are not only helpful to direct the design, i.e. formative purposes, but they are also very beneficial to validate the final output of the design process, i.e. summative purposes. Due to its prominent role for shaping and validating the design, it is essential to define and measure satisfaction with household consumer products properly. However, the literature lacks a clear definition of the concept in the context of household consumer products. This remains to be the main obstacle on the way to propose sensitive measurement techniques.
This study mainly aims to clarify user satisfaction with consumer products by identifying its product-related dimensions. Firstly, the psychological background of satisfaction and the models of consumer satisfaction are reviewed to explain the processes underlying satisfaction response. Afterwards, the focus is shifted to the product design and ergonomics domains to come up with the aspects of products that influence user satisfaction. The literature survey provided product-related dimensions such as functionality, usability, product aesthetics, and emotional aspects of the interaction.
The main hypothesis of the study is that the importance of these dimensions for the overall satisfaction response varies in different product groups. In the field study that is conducted in order to question the validity of this hypothesis, the importance of different product related dimensions for user satisfaction in ten different product groups is investigated via semi-structured interviews. The study revealed different prevailing dimensions for different product groups.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12606099/index.pdf |
Date | 01 April 2005 |
Creators | Demir, Erdem |
Contributors | Erbug, Cigdem |
Publisher | METU |
Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | M.S. Thesis |
Format | text/pdf |
Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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