Fabrice Mantelet

A European emotional investigation in the field of shoe design

In this paper we report the results of a Kansei Engineering System study. A methodology for the application of Kansei Engineering at the European level has been developed and validated in the field of shoe design by means of the development of experimental studies in two different phases of product design: the information phase in the earliest stages of the design process and the generation and evaluation phase corresponding to the latest stages of the process.

Avatar-mediated creativity

An important challenge today is to support creativity while enabling geographically distant people to work together. In line with the componential theory of creativity, self-perception theory and recent research on the Proteus Effect, we investigate how avatars, which are virtual representations of the self, may be a medium for stimulating creativity. For this purpose, we conducted two studies with a population of engineering students. In the first study, 114 participants responded to online surveys in order to identify what a creative avatar may look like. This enabled us to select avatars representing inventors, which were perceived as creative by engineering students, and neutral avatars. In the second study, 54 participants brainstormed in groups of 3, in 3 different conditions: in a control face-to-face situation, in a virtual environment while embodying neutral avatars and in a virtual environment with inventor avatars. The results show that inventor avatars led to higher performance in fluency and originality of ideas. Moreover, this benefit proved to endure over time since participants allocated to inventor avatars also performed better in a subsequent face-to-face brainstorming. The prospects of using avatars for enhancing creativity-relevant processes are discussed in terms of theoretical and applicative implications. Investigated the impact of virtual environment on collaborative creativity.Designed avatars corresponding to engineers representation of a creative person.Tested the influence of creative avatars on creativity processes with engineers.Creative avatars increased performance (quantity and originality of ideas).

Proposition of a PLM tool to support textile design

The key stakes in the implementation of a new PLM tool for the early stages of design in textile industry. Following a comprehensive overview of existing PLM solutions and of the suitability of their functions to the world of textile design, we mapped and quantified the collaborative exchanges involved in the design of a textile product in the Devanlay company, based on a series of semi-directed interviews.The technical data which must be managed by the future system. The emergence of PLM tools, following increasing competition between businesses requires a fine-grained analysis of user needs, in terms of collaboration and exchanges of technical data before designing and deploying the system.The field work that allowed us to specify and test some useful solutions to implement a PLM solution. This research work opens many different prospects. The current climate of economic competition forces businesses to adapt more than ever to the expectations of their customers. Faced with new challenges, practices in textile design have evolved in order to be able to manage projects in new work environments. After presenting a state of the art overview of collaborative tools used in product design and making functional comparison between PLM solutions, our paper proposes a case study for the development and testing of a collaborative platform in the textile industry, focusing on the definition of early stages of design needs. The scientific contributions presented in this paper are a state of the art of current PLM solutions and their application in the field of textile design; and a case study where we will present, define, and test the mock-up of a collaborative tool to assist the early stages, based on identified intermediary representations.

Early stages of apparel design: how to define collaborative needs for PLM and fashion?

Companies are faced with increasing challenges in their own environment. In several areas of the industry, but also among the suppliers, more and more competitors emerge. Companies react to this pressure by trying to implement new technologies for their products and offering more innovative products to successfully face direct competition. Overall, globalisation put pressure on companies in terms of innovation, costs and time to market. This climate of economic competition forces businesses to adapt to the expectations of their customers. To achieve this change, it becomes necessary amongst other things to reduce design time. Thus, practices in apparel design have evolved in order to be able to manage projects in new work environments. After presenting a literature review of collaborative functionalities used in product design, our paper presents an illustration of a case study for Product Lifecycle Management research in the apparel industry, focusing on the definition of needs in terms of collaborative functions to support the design of apparel products, in an industrial context.

Social identity cues to improve creativity and identification in face-to-face and virtual groups

This research draws on the social identity approach to investigate group performance in face-to-face and virtual brainstorming settings. In particular, we display Social Identity Cues (SIC) on participants or on avatars to foster group membership. We compare four conditions in a factorial design: Brainstorming in Face-to-face or Virtual setting, With or Without SIC. Seventy-two students belonging to a population with a strong social identity participated in the experiment, using their traditional clothing as SIC. The results show that the presence of SIC led to increased creative performance both in face-to-face and virtual settings. SIC also increased group identification, but only in the virtual environment. These results highlight the potential of avatars to support teamwork in a meaningful way. Traditional clothing of a specific student group acts as social identity cues.Face-to-face and avatar-mediated electronic brainstorming are compared.Impact of social identity cues is examined in face-to-face and virtual groups.Social identity cues improved performance both in real and virtual settings.

Encouraging innovation activity: in the specific context of small- and medium-sized retailers

This paper aims at formalizing an innovation process well suited for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) specialized in retail. The design research consisted in analyzing conceptual models of innovation process from the literature and adapting it to the specific context. Indeed, the research issue deals with encouraging innovation activity in the context of small- and medium-sized retailers that have not yet integrated an intern design department. In the actual financial context, it is essential for SMEs to innovate in order to gain competitive advantage; but how to start a sized innovation activity? The undertaken research results in a plan that sets up a sized innovation activity gradually with a methodology conducting to repeated and regular new product development. Supported with international literature research, the paper contributes to the proposal of an innovation process meeting the two following requirements: a retailer lacking knowledge in innovation activity and an SME with limited financial means.From the industrial case studies that have been undertaken, an adapted process has been developed to ensure the success of innovation activity integration in this specific context.

Anticipating user's needs with playful methods

We are interested to improve the process of innovative design with playful methods and tools used by the design teams. We tested the Persona method which is considered as fun, with a playful technological support, namely an Interactive Tabletop system, in an industrial project. Twenty-four participants (15 men and 9 women, aged 22 to 37) specialized in engineering design, formalized user requirements for an ambient device in one of the following conditions: Persona method used on Post It notes and Persona method used on Tabletop system. Our results show that the Tabletop condition is the more effective regarding quantity, originality, usefulness and technical feasibility of the ideas generated. These results suggest that the fun of this condition (Persona on Tabletop) is likely to improve the performance of the design team.

Trends integration process as input data for Kansei Engineering Systems

This paper aims at studying new ways of users integration in “emotional Design” or “Kansei engineering systems”. The main goal of this study was the integration of the trend factor in design, with an early emotional evaluation of “Trend cards” produced by the designers.

A State of Art on Kansei-Engineered Virtual Shops: A Study on the Possibilities of V-Commerce

The purpose of this paper is to study the possibility of creating a synergy between e-commerce solutions and brick-and-mortar retail shops. It was identified that e-commerce solutions are effectively optimising convenience to promote purchasing, but the web-technology constraints inhibit the re-experience of the in-store consumer experience. We investigate the possibility of using virtual reality solutions to immerse consumers within a brand identity and bridge the gap between online and retail stores. The underlying rationale is to improve the consumer’s journey and as a consequence promote purchases. We study the use of Kansei-engineering methodologies to identify design characteristics that appeal to the consumer’s emotions, then deduce the adequate product within an environment and recreate an emotional shopping experience.