Consumer-Driven Design Approach Based on Multiple Psychological Responses to Product Form

Abstract

The success of a consumer product depends not only on its functionality and usability, but also on the psychological response elicited by its appearance. Accordingly, taking the case of an electric shaver product for illustration purposes, the present study proposes a systematic approach for product form design based on the correlation between the product form features and the associated consumers’ psychological responses (CPRs) in multiple dimensions. Briefly, four CPR domains (concise, individual, masculine and vivacious) are derived to describe the potential consumer response. A questionnaire-based investigation is then performed to evaluate 28 electric shaver form samples in each CPR domain. The questionnaire results are used to construct four conjoint analysis models to predict the evaluation score in the corresponding CPR domains for any specified shaver form. Finally, TOPSIS algorithm is used to determine the shaver form which achieves a specified set of CPR values in all four domains simultaneously. The results confirm the feasibility of the proposed design approach as a means of realizing product form designs which achieve the required CPRs in multiple domains and are thus more likely to achieve commercial success when brought to the market.