The Influence of Prototype Fidelity and Language Abstraction on consumers Evaluation of Radical New Products. When evaluating a three-dimensional prototype

Abstract

This research focuses on consumer product evaluations of radical new products with low fidelity and a high fidelity three-dimensional prototypes. Two objectives are explored. First, it explores how consumers respond to differences in the physical properties, the fidelity, of a prototype. Secondly this research investigates how consumers evaluations of radical new products respond to differences in language abstraction in explanatory texts. Three studies were conducted. The first study employed a 2 x 2 (prototype fidelity; high/low) x (language abstraction; concrete/abstract) between subjects design and measured attitude, advantages, purchase intention, usability, product comprehension, appearance and argument strength. The second study measured vividness of both texts. The third study employed a 1 x 2 (combined abstract-concrete text) x (prototype fidelity; high/low) between subjects design and measured product comprehension, product attitude advantages, performance and purchase intention. Results show that a low-fidelity three-dimensional prototype together with an explanatory text elicit the same product evaluations as a high fidelity prototype. Strategic product designers do not need to spend hours or days of their time and their budgets creating beautifully finished prototypes to present their new product idea to key stakeholders and potential investors: a fast 3D printed prototype with explanatory text is sufficient to get these people involved in the project. From the results it can be presumed that it is not only the vividness of a text that influences product evaluations; abstractness of the used language is also of influence. In conclusion, this study provides a good starting point for further research on the effect of language usage in product evaluations.