Determination of Critical Design Variables Based on the Characteristics of Product Image/Impression: Case Study of Office Chair Design

Abstract

Based on the assumption that the characteristics of product image/impression can be estimated by consumer preference rating, this study performed an image/impression evaluation of various office chair designs. The purpose of this study was to specify the design variables significantly affecting customer preference of the product. Sixty subjects evaluated fifty different office chair designs on thirteen aspects of product image/impression categories using the modified magnitude estimation method. At the same time, forty-eight design variables were selected and analyzed from the same set of office chairs. Multiple linear regression modeling technique was used to model the relationship between the image/impression scores and the design variables. The range of customer response on image/impression categories, the sensitivity of the customer response, and the degree of customer satisfaction on the products were further analyzed using a 3-dimensional portfolio plotting. The result showed that the product image/impression were closely related to the degree of customer satisfaction on the product. The result also showed that the design of office chairs can be improved by focusing on the design variables specified from the 3-D portfolio plot.