Implementation of Kansei Engineering to product development-an empirical study

The effects of globalisation and the breakdown in trade barriers between nations have resulted in having an influx of products from all over the world, providing consumers with an abundance of choices for products that share similar prices and capabilities. This opportunity to have a multitude of choices has created a change of attitudes among consumers, where quality parameters are viewed as necessary prerequisites. Kansei Engineering (KE) is a product development tool that enhances the design parameters of a product by translating consumers´ product impressions and emotions into design elements. In this research, several visual aspects of laptops were considered and critical design parameters were identified in order to identify the user´s preferences. A KE methodology was developed with a total of six components: Choice of Domain, Span the Semantic Space, Span the Space of Properties, the Synthesis phase, Test of Validity and Creation of Model. These components are grouped into Qualitative and Quantitative studies. This paper covers the methodology of the survey as well as summarizing the results achieved.