A Comprehenisive Guide to Kansei Engineering
E-Book, Englisch, 220 Seiten
ISBN: 978-91-8080-707-4
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Simon Schütte is an Associate Professor at Linköping University in Sweden at the division for Product Realisation. He started research on Kansei Engineering in 2001 and has since developed a Europeanized version that can be applied in industrial affective product development processes.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
Chapter 3: Measuring the Kansei
Overview
Kansei measurement focuses on identifying and understanding users' emotional responses to products, services or situations. The use of both physiological and psychological measurements has the potential to improve the design of products or services by incorporating user emotional experiences into the design process. Figure 3.1 shows different ways to access peoples’ Kansei. Figure 3.1: Kansei Channels (Lokman, 2010). Several researchers have contributed to the development of Kansei Engineering, including Nagamachi, Lokman, Lévy, Schütte, Marco-Almagro and others. Nagamachi and Lokman have written a comprehensive guide to Kansei Engineering and its practical applications in product and service design (Nagamachi & Lokman, 2015). They discuss various techniques for measuring physiological and psychological responses Lévy's research has focused on developing a theoretical framework for understanding emotional responses to product designs based on cognitive and emotional psychology (Lévy, 2013). Physiological vs Psychological Measurement
Kansei measurement is an essential process for incorporating emotion into design. Since Kansei is a subjective, vague, and unstructured concept, it cannot accurately be identified directly. Therefore, indirect assessment methods that utilize alternative expression approaches are necessary. Kansei measurements are typically divided into two categories: physiological and psychological measures. Depending on the task at hand however, the way to measure must be appropriate. While equipment and expertise for many of the physiological measurements used to be hard to come by and expensive, in recent years prices have been dropping and resources are now more readily available for future experiments. Price and availability are however just one reason for the lesser employment of physiological measurement methods. Another reason is the fact that emotions, feelings and impressions are complex and difficult to express using those methods. Hence, they are at least accompanied by psychological measurements which tend to be more sensitive to affective impressions, yet less objective. In most studies in affective product development, psychological measurements are dominant. This book reviews both types of measurement but uses psychological measurement for the practical examples. Physiological Measurement
To accurately measure the Kansei of users, Kansei Engineering often utilizes physiological measurements that provide objective data on emotional and physical responses. One widely used method is Electroencephalography (EEG), which measures the electrical activity of the brain to provide insight into users' emotional states such as excitement, frustration, or engagement. EEG has been used in various contexts, including product design, marketing and human-computer interaction (HCI), to measure users' emotional responses (Trapsilawati, 2019; Ding et al., 2010, Mitsukura, 2020). Another physiological measurement that has proven useful for Kansei Engineering is Galvanic Skin Response (GSR). GSR measures the electrical conductivity of the skin and can be used to determine users' levels of emotional arousal and stress (Laparra-Hernández et al., 2009). Other physiological measurements that have been used in Kansei Engineering include Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which measures the variation in time intervals between successive heartbeats, Electromyography (EMG) muscle load measurements and Eye Tracking, which measures the eye movements and gaze behaviour of users (Köhler et al., 2015). The goal of these physiological measurements is to identify user behaviour, response, and body language, all of which can help designers create products that better align with users' emotional needs and preferences. By incorporating these physiological measurements into the Kansei Engineering process, designers can gain a deeper understanding of users' emotional responses and create products that better meet their needs (Nagamachi, 2011). Psychological Measurements
In contrast to physiological measurement methods, psychological measurement is related to the human mental state involving user behaviour, expressions, actions, and responses. In this case Kansei measurement employs tools for designing products based on the emotional responses and subjective feelings of users. Psychological measurement tools are crucial components of this approach, as they help designers to identify and understand the emotional responses that people have to different products or design features. This can be measured using self-reporting systems. There are several different psychological measurement techniques used in Kansei Engineering, including semantic differential (SD) scale, different emotional scale (DES), paired comparison analysis, and free labelling system. These methods are used to capture the emotional responses of users and to identify the specific design elements that influence these responses. Semantic differential scales (SD) are an important psychological measurement. The technique involves presenting participants with bipolar adjectives, such as "good" vs. "bad", "comfortable" vs. "uncomfortable" or "stylish" vs. "unstylish" and asking them to rate the concept or object on a scale between these opposing adjectives. By analysing the resulting data, researchers can gain insight into the participants' experiences and opinions towards the concept or object being studied. The SD technique has been used in various fields, including psychology, marketing and design, to understand how individuals perceive and respond to different stimuli (Snider & Osgood, 1969). Examples are given in Figure 3.2. Paired comparison analysis is another well-established technique. In this approach, participants are presented with pairs of designs or products and asked to choose which they prefer based on their emotional response. This approach is useful for identifying specific design elements that are responsible for emotional responses (Ramanathan et al., 2023). Free association is another important technique used in Kansei Engineering. This approach involves asking participants to provide spontaneous responses to a product or design. These responses can then be analysed to identify underlying emotional associations and inform the design requirements (Nagamachi, 2011). As elaborated above, some of these psychological and physiological interpretations are shown through eye, skin reactions, brain waves (EEG), electromyography (EMG), heart rate and other types of measurements. Kansei researchers need to think about which input is appropriate to reach the user’s Kansei and how to measure such interpretations. Kansei’s access channels are often not just one, but may be a combination of several. Figure 3.2: Example of a Kansei-Checklist (Lokman, 2010) . Quantitative Measurement of the Kansei
The Quantitative approach in Kansei engineering integrates various design elements and the target user into a single development strategy. It also involves identifying a specific set of Kansei Words (KW) that match the product domain, typically requiring a set of 30 to 40 adjectives or short sentences that can be used to translate emotions. To identify KWs, the following steps can be followed: first, the company's strategy is reviewed to understand their target audience and objectives for using Kansei engineering. Next, KWs related to the design domain are identified, for example, referencing vehicle magazines to select KWs that suit the purpose of the study for vehicles, or communicating with buyers or prospective buyers for clothing design. Once the Kansei Words (KW) have been identified, they can be processed to create a scale, such as a 5-point semantic differential (SD) scale, or a representation of human emotional response by using socio-physical and psychophysical equipment to measure the emotional responses. Then, the study proceeds to an experimental evaluation process, which typically includes 20 to 25 different types of products as study samples. The designs of the specimens are classified into distinct design elements and attributes, which specify details of the design elements that will be used in design specification. Design elements are classified into attributes (such as size, shape, and colour) and values (properties within those design attributes, such as blue, white or red for colour). The more attributes and values that can be classified, the more detailed the product design specifications can be, but then more sample specimens are needed. The specimens can then be evaluated by specific subjects, such as employees of the company, designers, R&D personnel, or target market groups. Typically, 20 to 30 people are used as subjects in this type of Kansei research. To avoid biased or sequential effects, specimens can be shown in a random order to each subject during the assessment session. Alternatively, KWs can be presented in a random order for the same purpose. It is also important to prevent subject fatigue during the assessment process. The time required for each evaluation session can be estimated by multiplying the number of KWs by the total number of samples, and the time taken to record one response. As a rule of thumb, a person will take 2-3 seconds to record their response. The data collected can then be analysed using multivariate techniques, which will be described in later sections. After the analysis, Kansei researchers must invite one or more domain experts or designers to interpret the data together to...
