This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Chen, K. Articles by Chang, T.-Y. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

A Study on the Cognitive Thresholds of Formal Styles

Department of Industrial Design, College of Planning and Design, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan, 70101 Taiwan, kchen{at}mail.ncku.edu.tw

Tsung-Yu Chang

Department of Product Design, College of Design, Shu-Te University, 59 Hun Shang Rd. Hun Shang Village, Yen Chao, Kaohsiung County, 82442 Taiwan

Formal styles have been recognized as an effective marketing segmentation marker for differentiating various preferences among consumer groups. In recent years, research that focuses on mapping the relationships between consumers’ Kansei feelings and products’ formal elements has become a hot topic in design fields. However, how consumers differentiate one particular product form style from the other is still vaguely understood. The objective of this study is twofold: (1) to search for and verify the range of cognitive thresholds for formal styles and (2) to construct a formal language for better describing formal styles, through scientific processes and such techniques as semantic differential analysis and fuzzy sets theory. To achieve the objective, two experiments are conducted in this study. The first experiment gathers raw data via performing semantic differential analysis on a series of well-perceived-style products by experienced designers. The data gathered are then converted and fine-tuned using fuzzy sets theory to verify the range of cognitive thresholds of formal style. In the second experiment, three products with three different formal styles are used to further investigate the critical elements contributing to the cognitive thresholds for each style. The results suggest that: (1) the cognitive thresholds of formal style do exist; (2) the range of cognitive thresholds of a formal style depends largely on its formal consistencies; and (3) the critical elements vary with different formal styles.

Key Words: formal style • formal language • form element • cognitive thresholds • Kansei engineering

Concurrent Engineering, Vol. 14, No. 3, 207-218 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1063293X06068388


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?