The TQM Journal

Mitsuo Nagamachi

2008 The TQM Journal

doi: 10.1108/17542730810881285

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss Kansei engineering (KE), which uses a unique ergonomic technology to produce a new product which fits to consumers' feelings and demands. It is a consumer‐oriented product development method based on the consumer mind. It has been applied to realize several new Kansei products so far. Design/methodology/approach – KE is sometimes able to create an invention, but mostly it is powerful to create more comfortable and affective products or services to the customers. KE utilizes psychological methods to grasp the customer's feelings, and the data obtained by this method are analyzed using multivariate statistical analyses which are transferred to the design domain (design specifications). Findings – It was found that a customer has a hierarchy of values of his/her life. All people, from children to the elderly, want to enhance their quality of life. Having qualified products and services, including service men's smiles and greetings is an important factor. Originality/value – KE is spreading out in the world at present. The paper (witten by the pioneer and founder of KE) tells “a story” about the methods and procedures to create a new Kansei product and refers to the implications of Kansei /affective engineering.

Jens J. Dahlgaard; Simon Schütte; Ebru Ayas; Su Mi Dahlgaard‐Park

2008 The TQM Journal

doi: 10.1108/17542730810881294

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to present and discuss the Kansei engineering (KE) methodology, and to reflect on the future development of KE. The paper presents a model of the KE methodology and illustrates how this model was applied on a simple example which all may understand – design of a new chocolate bar. Design/methodology/approach – The research methodology is a combination of desk research (literature analysis), data collection, data analysis, reflections and model building. Findings – The paper suggests a structural model as a possible expanded framework for future Kansei /affective engineering research studies. According to the model profound affection is a result of the following six enabler factors: sensing experience; emotional experiences ( Kansei ); behavioural experiences/action; social experiences/interactions and relations; spiritual experiences/moral, ethics; intellectual experiences/cognition. Originality/value – The paper defines “Profound affection” as a very comprehensive state, which is a result of a combination of sensing, intellectual/cognitive, emotional, social, behavioural and spiritual experiences. “Profound affection” is not only a result of sensing or emotional experiences.

Shin'ya Nagasawa

2008 The TQM Journal

doi: 10.1108/17542730810881302

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the relationships and the meaning of the customer experience management approach, which involves manufacturing and fabrication influenced by human kansei with respect to the management of technology (MOT). Design/methodology/approach – Four cases of experience value creation from earlier work are presented. An interview was held with the product manager of each product or CEO of each company. According to the interview, the paper analyses experience values of four cases based on the five modules. Findings – As a result of analyzing INAX “SATIS”, NISSAN “X‐TRAIL”, Canvas Bag by “Ichizawa Hampu” and Albirex Niigata from the viewpoint of the creation of customer experiences, it was found that each of them has high standards for all values of SENSE, FEEL, THINK, ACT and RELATE, meaning that they are like an ensemble of customer experiences. They create not only functional benefit but also customer experiences by the MOT approach. Originality/value – This paper explains the relationships and the meaning of the customer experience management approach, which involves manufacturing and fabrication influenced by human kansei with respect to the Management of Technology (MOT) and will be of interest to those involved in that field.

Antonio Lanzotti; Pietro Tarantino

2008 The TQM Journal

doi: 10.1108/17542730810881311

Purpose – This paper aims at defining a structured process of continuous innovation in the product concept development phase by a statistical‐based Kansei engineering (KE) approach. It consists in the identification of quality elements satisfying both functional and emotional user needs, i.e. the total quality elements. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is developed integrating results from Kano and KE analysis. Three statistical methods considered to be suitable for KE study, are used: supersaturated design for concept configuration, ordinal logistic regression for data analysis, and EVA method for quality evaluation of the optimal concept. These methods are compared with the most used ones in KE regarding their efficacy, efficiency and easiness of use. An innovative procedure to exhibit concepts in a KE session is also presented. It uses the abstraction and association idea principles to elicit users' grade of agreement for a particular Kansei word. Findings – The proposed approach is fully exploited through a case study on train interior design, developed in a virtual reality (VR) laboratory. The evaluation of comfort improvements obtained by means of a new handle and handrail design is carried on with expert users in VR. A consistent increase of a quality index, by using the defined approach, was obtained. Originality/value – This work aims at contributing to the conception of new product solutions, which are appealing and saleable. The availability of virtual reality technologies and software capable to manage complex statistical analyses, will concretely aid designers and engineers in the ideation of high‐emotional‐quality products, which can be helpful for innovative enterprises to maintain and even increase their market position.

Keiko Ishihara; Ryo Nakagawa; Shigekazu Ishihara; Mitsuo Nagamachi

2008 The TQM Journal

doi: 10.1108/17542730810881320

Purpose – Gift flowers should be chosen to depict a message with the sender's kansei and are bound by nature of flowers and social manners, to maintain social relationship between the sender and the recipient. Few buyers, but most florists, have expert knowledge of the flowering time, scent, price, and nature of each flower, and are experts in arranging flowers that meet a given purpose. The purpose of this paper is to incorporate handling constraints into the inference process of a kansei engineering system. Design/methodology/approach – The paper collected the expert knowledge concerning nature of flowers, composing flower arrangements and social manners on gifts from specialists of flower arrangements including a florist and special books. At the same time, kansei evaluation experiments on the kinds of flowers and colors were conducted. The expertise and the results of kansei experiments were organized into a flower database and inference rules for choice of a main flower, arrangement shapes and combination flowers. The rules were implemented as server‐side programs. Users input information about the recipient, purpose of the arrangement and purchase information using a web browser. The system outputs a solution; a list of main flowers, combination flowers, greens and the shape of arrangement. Findings – Traditional kansei engineering studies revealed the relationships between design elements and kansei with developing new analyzing methods. Different constraints come into the actual product design and manufacturing should be integrated with findings obtained from the kansei evaluation to successfully utilize kansei engineering for product development. Practical implications – The inference rules will be able to tell the reasons for choosing the main‐ and combination flowers and arrangement shapes to satisfy the customers. Originality/value – The proposed system suggests the original arrangement of flowers unlike most online florists selling ready‐made arrangements. The paper shows a solution to incorporate different constraints underlying in a real production process into the inference process based on the result of kansei analysis.

Parul Nanda; Jeff Bos; Kem‐Laurin Kramer; Catharine Hay; Jennifer Ignacz

2008 The TQM Journal

doi: 10.1108/17542730810881339

Purpose – This paper discusses the impact of aesthetic design of smartphones on users' emotional reactions and preferences towards the product. To this end, the paper presents a study that explores emotional reaction of males to varying aesthetic design of the BlackBerry and empirically evaluates their preferences for the BlackBerry in different colours and overlay patterns. The paper then presents the statistical results of the study in an innovative graphical representation. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative and qualitative research design was used, including three types of data‐collection instruments (direct observations, rating scales, and interviews) to investigate if males have a stronger positive emotional reaction for visually treated BlackBerry Pearl devices over the original treatment (piano black) of the BlackBerry Pearl. A one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out with an independent within subjects variable “Pattern” with ten different levels (i.e. ten different visual treatments). Findings – The study indicates that varying the aesthetic design of the BlackBerry Pearl has an impact on emotional reaction of males. However, it was found that males in this population sample prefer the original, piano black treatment of the BlackBerry Pearl over the visually treated versions of the smartphone. Participants reported significantly higher scores for the original treatment of the smartphone, piano black (mean=5.5) than for other visual treatments such as skittles (mean=2.8). Originality/value – The paper gives an insight the mobile phone industry and the effect that phones have had on people, who see them as a fashion accessory, as well as a communicating tool.

Anders Warell

2008 The TQM Journal

doi: 10.1108/17542730810881348

Purpose – This paper presents a questionnaire study of brand‐specific perceptions of automotive design using subjective rating methods. The purpose of the paper is to explore the multiple modalities of the visual product experience of automobile design as perceived by the general public. Furthermore, the experiences were analysed using a framework for visual product experience (VPE). Design/methodology/approach – Respondents were asked to assess the design of two car models at an international car show in relation to brand perceptions and visually perceived attributes using, among other tools, visual analogue scales. Analysis was done using a qualitative technique. Findings – Results from the study indicate that there is a correlation/relation between experiential modes, in that respondents tended to rate attributes consistently high or low across modes. This implies that if the aesthetics are not perceived as favourable, neither is the expression of the car. Furthermore, respondents' assessments of aesthetic appeal and expression are on an average strikingly similar, suggesting that the level of aesthetic appeal correlates with the level of semantic understanding of the design. The general rating of emotional response follows a similar consistent pattern for the two studied cars. Originality/value – Study approach as a way to gain insights into subjective perceptions of products based on appreciation and interpretation of visual product form. VPE framework recognising, mapping and clarifying the multiple modes of the visual experience.

Cathy Barnes; Tom Childs; Brian Henson; Stephen Lillford

2008 The TQM Journal

doi: 10.1108/17542730810881357

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the Kansei engineering toolkit that has been developed to provide a set of tools and techniques to support better packaging design. Design/methodology/approach – The toolkit has its foundations in Kansei engineering but the work has extended the scope and increased reliability of results by: including structured linkages to designers; replacing “highest level Kansei ” from Kansei type 1 with brand values; introducing a more structured process for the elicitation of type 2 selection of pack physical properties; reducing the complexity of the semantic differential survey used to elicit consumer perceptions; and structuring a process for selection of the Kansei words. Findings – The work has shown that the proposed toolkit is able to support the design of packaging by illustrating the process with industrial case studies. Research limitations/implications – Kansei engineering and the techniques presented in this toolkit are inevitably simplifications of the real situation, since many more variables affect the consumers purchase decision than is tested in this process. There is still a need to test the insights gained by the toolkit into a wider investigation. Practical implications – This paper offers the packaging industry a robust and repeatable method to develop better packaging. Originality/value – The paper presents an overall description of the Kansei engineering toolkit for packaging design and is a structured process that provides quantitative results for the relationship between branding, consumer perception and design variables.

Ebru Ayas; Jörgen Eklund; Shigekazu Ishihara

2008 The TQM Journal

doi: 10.1108/17542730810881366

Purpose – This paper seeks to deal with affective design of waiting areas (servicescapes) and has twofold aims. The first, is to explore affective values for waiting areas. The second, is to identify interactions between physical design attributes and affective values. Design/methodology/approach – This study included a free association method for data collection, applying Kansei engineering methodology to extract design solutions relating to specific feelings. The study was undertaken at six primary health centres in Östergötland County, Sweden. In total, 88 participants (60 patients and 28 staff) were interviewed. Findings – The selected waiting areas show significant differences for their perceived affective qualities. The most desired feeling for creating affective values is found to be “calm”. The core design attributes contributing to this feeling are privacy, colours, child play‐areas and green plants. Good design of lighting, seating arrangements and a low sound level are also important design attributes to give a more complete design solution. Research limitations/implications – The study provides useful insights for understanding affective needs in servicescapes, and it provides design suggestions. The results have not been analysed separately for gender or different age groups. Practical implications – The paper proposes a framework model to be applied when dealing with affective values in servicescapes. Originality/value – This paper makes an original contribution to understand affective values towards the physical environment in servicescape design. It offers a methodology to study complex environments with many alternative design solutions using limited resources. Moreover, this study uses a combination of a free association method and Rough Sets theory in affective design.