Hideo Jingu

Clarification of Kansei Elements of Attractiveness Related to Usability for Long Term Mobile Phone Users

Recently, in the IT products area, it has become difficult to distinguish among products by function. Usability is one of the most important user requirements for products. And we assume that the other important factor related to distinctiveness among products is Kansei (human sensibility). One of the elements for usability from the viewpoint of Kansei is attractiveness. IT product manufacturers need to consider the user’s Kansei when developing products. By clarifying the mechanism involved in Kansei and by developing a quantitative Kansei element evaluation method, we will be able to develop attractive IT products continuously. We targeted long term users, and we ran a subjective evaluation experiment for attractiveness related to usability including a questionnaire concerning the factors that influenced the judgment of the evaluation and we clarified some of the elements of human interface that influenced Kansei elements of attractiveness related to usability. The results indicate that when people use mobile phones considering accessibility to some function, they feel “kinetic”, “dynamic”, and “refreshing” and when they use mobile phones considering errors when sending an e-mail or making a call, they feel “three dimensional”, “impressive”, “surprising”, “epoch-making”, and “natural” and want to use them. The results also indicate that when they use mobile phones considering ease of inputting text, they feel “good operability”, “hard to make an error”, “controllable as one likes”, “stress-free”, and “want to keep using”.

Kansei interaction between fragrance and behavior in music therapy

The aim of this study is to clarify the effect which aroma (fragrance and/or flavor) push to the behavior in a scene of the music therapy. The music therapy is designed to improve the functioning of mind and body at using which music has the function and role for the illness and health. And this therapy is used in broad fields such as a mental disease, a dementia, a handicap, and a terminal care, etc., however, the rehabilitation effect is not clear. So, we studied the behavioral effect to the demented elderly by using the rhythm instrument with and/or without the four types of fragrances, which are all natural oils. The frequency which the musical instruments were shaken by elderly was measured as active index, and was compared, under the condition of with and/or without fragrance. Result showed different improvement in the behavior depending on the kind of fragrance. Peppermint oil activated the behavior, and cinnamon oil inactivated the behavior. Similar effects of peppermint and cinnamon were observed in the evaluation of music therapy scene. The aroma strengths of these four fragrances were weak enough, so the elderly participants were not conscious of the aroma. If the participants were to try to find the character of these fragrances, they would need to pay attention and consciously aware of the aroma. We concluded that the fragrances have had the subliminal effect on the participant, as a result affected the behavior of the elderly. We propose the new function of the aroma and the improvement in the music therapy effect by clarifying Kansei interaction of the aroma and behavior in this research. Moreover, we think that it is important also from the viewpoint of transfer of scent information to research the human activity to a scent stimulus.

Kansei interaction between flavor and texture in eating quality

Eating quality is comprised of several different factors; chemical (taste and flavor) and physical (temperature, appearance, and sound) actualized properties of the food, as well as latent influences such as the past experience and mental and physical state of the consumer. In the field of Kansei engineering, the relationships between several evaluation factors are called Kansei interaction. The purpose of Kansei research is to produce products that effectively optimize these mutual interactions. The purpose of this study is to clarify the Kansei interaction between flavor and texture in food products. The control sample was plain sausage with no added spices. Three variable sausages were flavored with different seed spices (flavors A, B, and C).The eating quality of the sausages was rated using nine evaluation terms. After eating a sausage set, the panel assigned positive points if they rated the flavored sausage more highly in each of the eating quality categories. The two analytical methods used in this study were mean difference 95% critical interval of means and graphical modeling, a type of cause and effect analysis. There were no significant differences noted for crunchinness and deliciousness between any of the variables. Our study found that the interpretation of the texture of a food may change based on a particular flavoring, and that this ultimately determines the desirability or deliciousness of a product.

Influence of “Feel Appetite” by Food Image

In order to understand the structure of food image for “feeling appetite” when user sees the image, words related to “appetite” were extracted experimentally and clustered based on human information processing. Five scale evaluation for 33 items in four clusters, they are “feeling”, “first impression”, “estimation by vision”, “image of the meal scene”, were carried out. The result is obtained that “cool”, “fresh”, “healthy” are not influent to “appetite”.

Influence of Color Combination Pattern Considered Usability to Mental Workload

About color combination using general VDT works, to clarify that feature color combination patterns considered usability are favorable color combination for human from the view point of fatigue, physiological data change during 30 min VDT works with low cognitive load were measured and subjective evaluation was carried out. In this experiment, as feature color combination patterns located on each quadrant in color combination image scale, black, blue, green and pink are used, and as fatigable color, cyan is used. As physiological data, ECG, pupil meter and GSR is measured. From the results of experiment, feature color combination patterns considered usability got higher evaluation from the view point of physiological data and subjective evaluation than a fatigable color combination. Therefore, we concluded that feature color combination patterns considered usability are no significant difference about fatigue and human can use these colors without fatigue.

Comparisons on Kansei Factors of Attractiveness between Initial and Long Term Use of Mobile Phone

Many information devices have high performance and functionality by the progress of information and technology and have made lives of people more convenient. Although high functionality is a cause of the attractiveness, it is difficult to satisfy the user only by this. Therefore, the purpose on this research was the comparisons on Kansei factors of attractiveness between initial and long term use of mobile phone. As the results, the four factors which are operability factor, motivation factor, familiarity factor, and accuracy factor were extracted as elements of the attractiveness on initial use. Moreover, the two factors, activeness factor and affinity factor were extracted as elements of the attractiveness on long term use. Therefore, it was suggested that the criteria which evaluate the products change as follows. It evaluates to the detail on initial use, and it evaluates it through the whole on long term use.

Proposal for Indices to Assess Attractiveness on Initial Use of Mobile Phones

It is necessary to determine the attractiveness level of using mobile phone to ensure user satisfaction. This study measured physiological indices of attractiveness during participants’ initial use of a mobile phone. As physiological indices which concern autonomic nervous system activity, nasal skin temperature, pupil diameter, electroencephalography, blinking, and electrocardiography are listed. These indices were selected because preceding studies have suggested “safety and relaxing” and “feelings induced by desire and interest” as factors related to the attractiveness of mobile phones. The results obtained in these experiments that a device’s attractiveness to users can be evaluated using physiological indices. Thus, the present study showed basic perspectives related to attractiveness from the point of physiological response.

Research on Factors to Provide the Feeling of Luxury in Cosmetics

化粧品における「高級感」は,すべての価格帯にとっ てもっとも重要なキー品質である。この高級感を顧客に どのようにすれば正確に伝達することができるのか,さ らに,どのような使用感から,使用者はその高級感を感 じているのか,を知ることは,製品開発にとって有益な 情報となる。もちろん,化粧品は 1回限りの使用ではな く,連続使用が前提であり,長期連用における高級感も 考えなければならない。 化粧品には,ハイプレステージブランドから,手軽に 購入できる低価格帯ブランドまで存在する。すべてのブ ランドにおいて高級感は重要であるが,それぞれの違い も存在するであろう。そこで,本研究では,ハイプレス テージブランドと低価格帯ブランドとで,使用感と高級 感との関係にどのような違いがあるのかを比較すること で,顧客はどのような側面から高級感を感じているのか を明らかにすることが目的である。さらに,商品の連用 時における時系列上の分析を行い,商品を連用した際に 感じる使用感の変化が高級感にどのような影響を与えて いるのかを明らかにし,高級感を品質上でどのように実 現すればよいかという手立てを提案する。

A study of eating quality and purchasing evaluation of raw ham by sensory evaluation

1.緒言 食品の“安心感”,“健康感”は,偽装などの社会的 な問題によって,多くの人々から疑問視されている. 人は,食品のパッケージに掲載された成分表示を見て, その安全性を確認し購入している.成分表示に示され た内容により食品の安全性は認識できるが,食品を食 べたときの“安心感”,“健康感”は,食品のパッケー ジに掲載された成分表示からは確認しにくく,企業は, 様々な偽装問題に対する方策として,コンプライアン スを重要視している.コンプライアンスとは,法令順 守を強く意味しており,食品会社での遵守すべき法令 としては,主に食品衛生法と景品表示法がある.これ らの法令を守るために,食品会社では企業の社会的責 任(CSR:Corporate Social Responsibility)のもとで 行動基準を定めている.食品会社の行動基準には,景 品表示法を意識した定まりが基本的項目として設けら れ,誇大表示せずに中身の印象を的確に表現する必要 性が説かれている. 一般的に,“もの”の総合評価は物理的・化学的特 性に直結した個別評価によって規定されており,評価 の階層性が存在している.食品に対する“おいしさ”, “食べたさ”などの総合評価は,評価の階層性でも上 官能評価による生ハムの食感品質と購買評価に関する研究