Si-Jing Chen

Cultural ergonomics in interactional and experiential design: Conceptual framework and case study of the Taiwanese twin cup

Cultural ergonomics is an approach that considers interaction- and experience-based variations among cultures. Designers need to develop a better understanding of cultural ergonomics not just to participate in cultural contexts but also to develop interactive experiences for users. Cultural ergonomics extends our understanding of cultural meaning and our ability to utilize such understanding for design and evaluate everyday products. This study aims to combine cultural ergonomics and interactive design to explore human-culture interaction in user experiences. The linnak is a typical Taiwanese aboriginal cultural object. This study examined the cultural meaning and operational interface of the linnak, as well as the scenarios in which it is used in interaction and user experiences. The results produced a cultural ergonomics interface for examining the manner in which designers communicate across cultures as well as the interweaving of design and culture in the design process.

The Cognition of Turning Poetry Into Painting

This study used the fuzzy approach to investigate the cognition of emotional responses and visual scenes when turning poetry into painting. In Experiment I, subjects were asked to match a painting with a poetic title based on their emotional responses. Experiment II used a fuzzy rating by which subjects were asked to subjectively evaluate the degree of overall fitness, as well as the degree of fitness between each poem and the emotional responses to and scenes of the paintings. The results show that the fuzzy approach can be applied for the effective evaluation of paintings and can provide artists with an idea of how to concentrate their efforts at the creation stage and improve communication with viewers.

The Impact of an Actual Visit and Photograph Watching of an Exhibition on Visitor Viewing Experience

This research regarded the exhibition “Unfold a New Vision: To experience the surprises and awe in indigenous living aesthetics” as the subject to examine the impact of the format of the exhibition on the visitors’ satisfaction. The independent variable included the manner of visiting (visiting the exhibition or watching photographs in the exhibition hall) and theme display zone (the entrance, living room, dining room, bedroom, children’s room, and the creel (Sanku) lamp). This research asked three major questions regarding each display zone (the feeling and process of visiting, evaluation of the displayed items, and the overall feeling of the display zones). 156 questionnaires were collected for analysis. The result indicated that the scores of four questions regarding the visiting of the display were higher than that of watching the photographs. The questions of “works and fashion” and “intentions of decorating the living place with the displayed items” scored significantly higher in the group of photograph watching. Regarding the feeling of the display zone’s theme, there was only one question – “feel like sleeping” showed to have significant difference. In the section of the evaluation of the displayed items, there were five questions; overall feeling of the exhibition zones, three questions. Among them, the question concerning the interaction of the manner of visiting and the theme zone’s theme showed to have significant impact on the question of “exciting”. Finally, this research suggests that it is better to include the close-up photographs in the pamphlet of the displayed items in an exhibition. Concerning the materials and styles of the displayed items in the display zones should be consistent to offer visitors marvelous and consistent experiences. In addition, when providing the photographs to people that are unable to visit the exhibition in person, it is better to accompany those photos with music or samples of the displayed items to give them audio and tactile experiences to promote their satisfaction.

Influence of Media Forms on Painting Appreciation Experiences

This study mainly investigates the influence of different media presentation forms on viewers’ perception, preference, and viewing time. This study enrolled 15 male and 15 female subjects to participate in the experiment. The independent variables included gender (male and female) and media forms of paintings. The media forms included four factors: original paintings, planar presentation of paintings, screen presentation of paintings, and picture book of paintings. The experimental results showed that, the gender factor did not have significant influence on all the measurement variables. Media forms had significant influence on 4 indices; “viewing paintings arbitrarily,” “paintings reflected a sense of value,” “preference for paintings,” and “viewing time” (p < 0.05). According to the research results of this study, the sense of value reflected by original paintings was the highest, and they were most preferred by viewers. It is advised to provide proper painting titles and good viewing environment during exhibition of paintings to help viewers develop pleasant emotions and further increase their preference for paintings.

The Influence of the Nature of Need for Touch, Handcraft Material and Material Color on the Motivation for Touch

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of user characteristic – the need for touch (NFT), handcraft materials and material colors on motivation of touch and preference. A total of 70 subjects were recruited in the study. In addition to the NFT level (high score group and low score group) was evaluated, handcraft materials (wood, glass, pottery, plastic and metal) and material colors (red and yellow) were studied in the experiment. The dependent variables including the willingness of touch, preference and 16 pairs of opposite adjectives for sense of sight were measured by questionnaire interview. The study results showed that the effect of NFT affect significantly willingness of touch (p<0.001), preference (p<0.01) and the sense of warm-cold (p<0.05). All measures were affected significantly by handcraft material effect (p<0.05). On the other hand, 11 pairs of opposite adjectives are affected significantly by material color factor. The results of regression equations showed that the willingness of touch was mainly affected by subjective preference. Moreover, the subjective preference was mainly affected by the rating of beauty for product. Therefore, the subjective preference increased for a product was followed the rating of beauty and then the willing of touch was increased. The findings of this study can give an insight into the motivation of touch, and further provide some guidelines and recommendations about the product design and selling method to increase the competitive advantage of product.

Designing "Hometown Feeling" Into Products

Hometown is always full of childhood memories and energy for life. Hometown, as a subject for cultural and creative products can help novice designers express their feelings. Designers are bound to create unique and attractive cultural and creative products with such outpouring of sentiment of hometown. There are three major categories of design elements that can be developed from hometown as a topic: natural environment, festival and folk arts, and artificial constructions. The study chooses the program which was conducted in the Product Development Course as a case study. This course was scheduled for junior students under the Department of Industrial Design, National United University. This study attempts to discover how the feelings of hometown will impact designers, and how those feelings are embodied in their cultural and creative products. The goal of this study is to provide consumers a type of commodity that combines emotional connections and usefulness in order to present valued cultural and creative products that demonstrate local color and at the same time meet the needs of modern life by way of transforming the meaning and style of cultural elements.