Material Considerations in Product Design: A Survey on Crucial Material Aspects Used by Product Designers

The competitive market rising from the increase in product consumption makes product designers consider more about materials than before. Materials, indeed, have been extensively studied in science and engineering for years. Existing materials selection sources can serve as useful function in giving up to date information on technical (physical,...

Surprise and humor in product design: Designing sensory metaphors in multiple modalities

When information from two or more sensory modalities conflicts, this can evoke a surprise reaction as well as feelings of amusement, interest, confusion or disappointment. In concurrence to joke theory, we argue that people appreciate and enjoy appropriate incongruities that can be related back to the product, whereas they are confused by and...

The influence of unity-in-variety on aesthetic appreciation of car interiors

Product designers can use a wide range of design principles to influence the appearance of new product designs. One of these principles, ‘unity-in-variety’, states that product designs combining a maximum of unity or order with as much variety as possible are the most aesthetically pleasing. Even though designers are thought to intuitively use...

Aesthetic appreciation of tactile unity-in-variety in product designs

The principle of unity-in-variety has recently been shown to affect visual aesthetic appreciation of product designs. We investigated whether this principle can also account for tactile aesthetic appreciation of products. Design students rated nine car keys on unity, variety and aesthetic appreciation through tactile exploration only. Results...

Influence of social connectedness and autonomy on aesthetic pleasure for product designs

to feel connected to and autonomous from their ‘type of people’ and when product designs do they are aesthetically pleasing. From an evolutionary perspective, product designs provide aesthetic pleasure because they help direct beneficial behavior. We argue that people can fulfill their evolutionary need for safety through product designs that...

Designing product metaphor to promote sustainable behaviour: A proposed method

Within the scope of Design for Sustainable Behaviour, the connection between behavioural change strategies and design idea generation has received limited attention. This paper highlights metaphorical thinking in product design to stimulate sustainable behaviour. In particular, the current study proposes a metaphor-based design method to guide...

Why we like to touch: Consumers' tactile esthetic appreciation explained by a balanced combination of unity and variety in product designs

Tactile experiences are a pivotal part of consumer behavior and choice. However, very little is known about why consumers esthetically appreciate touching products. The principle of Unity-in-Variety, stating that consumers like to perceive variety but only when this variety is presented as a coherent whole, has been shown to partly explain...