Cathy Barnes

Decision support for the design of affective products

Affective design quantifies user reactions and defines their relationship to physical parameters of designs. This knowledge can inform the generation of better interfaces between product and user and can increase the product appeal in both mature and new markets. This study presents a decision support framework that assists the development of emotionally appealing products by eliciting user needs early in the development process. It has been developed and validated through industrial case studies. Some aspects of the approach have evolved from Kansei engineering but the fields of linguistics, engineering and psychology have contributed further functionality and user support. The framework can be adopted at any stage early in the product development process to provide guidelines for optimising the emotional product communication. The framework embodies methods for adjective selection, concept definition, user experiments and quantitative user evaluations. Using these, the practitioner can select the range of user-focused evaluations central to the product concepts. The measurement of the consumer perceptions uses a controlled semantic differential survey. The results are analysed using a range of statistical techniques including principal component analysis.

A multiple stakeholders' approach to strategic selection decisions

This paper presents a decision support methodology for strategic selection decisions, in which a single choice has to be made between a number of alternatives in the presence of multiple stakeholders. The methodology uses a combination of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Zero-One Goal Programming (ZOGP) to address not only the selection problem from the point of view of an individual stakeholder but also from that of multiple stakeholders, by aggregating different outcomes obtained by the stakeholders. The methodology then can simultaneously account for: minimisation of undesirable intangible and tangible criteria; resource limitations and goal constraints; the view of more than one stakeholder; and it can suggest a single, aggregated, go or no-go decision.

Affective Consumer Requirements: A Case Study of Moisturizer Packaging:

Tools for eliciting and managing product requirements are now well-established in some fields of engineering. These tools primarily focus on linking objective, functional customer requirements to the product’s properties. Whilst there have been advances in identifying human factors requirements, the elicitation of the customers’ subjective requirements of a product remains a challenge. This article reports a comprehensive case study in the use of affective engineering to elicit the subjective requirements for moisturizer packaging. The methodology uses focus groups and surveys to elicit subjective requirements. The results of semantic questionnaires are reduced using principal components analysis to translate the subjective requirements into values for physical properties of the packaging. The resulting requirements for surface textures, shape, and color were validated using questionnaire responses to prototype packaging. The study highlights research issues associated with recombining stimuli that have been tested separately.

A Web-based tool and a heuristic method for cooperation of manufacturing supply chain decisions

Supply chain issues have been given much attention. Various technologies and concepts have been applied to improving and optimizing supply chain performance. However, few methods to explore supply chain inter-relationships, detect process key problems and co-ordinate planning processes in different supply chain partners are available. A Web-based co-ordinated planning process supported by quality function deployment (QFD) approach is proposed in this research. The planning method is focused on integrating planning processes in supply chains by optimizing each planning process and interactively adjusting key parameters in different business processes. The QFD approach is employed to inter-relate different business processes and detect key problems through Internet technique application, so that the global solution can be heuristically improved. The planning method imitates the real-world supply chain planning environment and provides a mechanism for decision-makers to communicate with quantitative information in planning processes through the Web system. An illustrative case study in packaging industry is conducted to describe the planning procedure. The result of the example shows prospect of the method in improving supply chain cooperation. The approach is expected to facilitate supply chain planning and support managers to solve targeted problems more efficiently.

A novel tactile sensation measurement system for qualifying touch perception.

Abstract The feel of films, wrapping paper, cardboards, and other packaging materials are important to the commercial success of foods. It is known from peoples self-report studies that different surfaces provoke different subjective responses. There are several mechanical parameters, including friction, roughness, compliance, and thermal properties, which are important to the sensory feel. This paper describes the design, construction, and use of a multi-sensory measurement system for tactile sensation that can be used to evaluate the feel of different packaging materials. The experiments were conducted by sliding or pressing an artificial fingertip with embedded sensors against the surfaces of different samples which were fixed on a force table. The roughness, friction coefficients, compliance, and rate of change in the temperature were obtained. Forty volunteers were asked to touch and rate the samples by filling in questionnaires about how they felt. Strong correlations were found between peoples feelings and the physical measurements.

Kansei Engineering Toolkit for the Packaging Industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the Kansei engineering toolkit that has been developed to provide a set of tools and techniques to support better packaging design.Design/methodology/approach – The toolkit has its foundations in Kansei engineering but the work has extended the scope and increased reliability of results by: including structured linkages to designers; replacing “highest level Kansei” from Kansei type 1 with brand values; introducing a more structured process for the elicitation of type 2 selection of pack physical properties; reducing the complexity of the semantic differential survey used to elicit consumer perceptions; and structuring a process for selection of the Kansei words.Findings – The work has shown that the proposed toolkit is able to support the design of packaging by illustrating the process with industrial case studies.Research limitations/implications – Kansei engineering and the techniques presented in this toolkit are inevitably simplifications of the real...

The impact of affective design of product packaging upon consumer purchase decisions

Affective design aims to create a product that has expected levels of functionality and usability but, additionally offers the user a positive emotional experience. Some success has been achieved by using the Kansei engineering approach but this has not been explicitly applied to packaging design.This paper reports on the first stages of an Affective Packaging Design research programme and presents the result of experiments that explore the relationships between consumer selection and packaging shape using a combination of questionnaires, focus groups and the semantic differential technique. The stimuli for the experiment were examples of confectionery packaging.Results will be presented which indicate relationships between confectionery packaging shape and recipient demographic profile. It is concluded that to inform the design process the study it is important to consider the whole purchase experience, for example, product purchaser, product user and purchase reasons.

Intelligent decision support tool for supply chain planning

A decision support system using extended quality function deployment model (EQFDM) and internet application for manufacturing supply chain (SC) planning has been developed in this research. In this paper, a customer-focused quality evaluation approach, the EQFDM with internet application is employed to develop a coordinated planning system in SCs and assist mapping decisions of strategic planning into each partners internal planning processes. To facilitate cooperation of SC partners in strategic planning, the hybrid planning process has been programmed into a web tool. The local planning has been supported by fuzzy logic approach so that approximate optimal solutions can be obtained avoiding difficulties of acquiring quantitative data. Through this intelligent Web based architecture, individual planning processes can be efficiently co-ordinated by means of efficient communication and visualizing consequences of a decision to be made on SC performance. Case study in a manufacturing (packaging) SC has been conducted to implement a scenario planning process for strategies on re-engineering the manufacturing SC. The research result shows that the intelligent system could be a promising tool for assisting strategic planning in a SC cooperation context.