Stevan David Jones

Modeling Design Strategies for Package Graphics: A Study of Hair Care Products Among Young Indian Users

A study of hair care package graphics was conducted among young Indian users to examine the effect of design elements on successful user acceptance. The study revealed that typography of the brand name should be given the highest weightage among all texts, and information of higher importance should be placed towards top one third of the graphics to capture user’s primary attention. The study was performed using package graphics of eight hair care products including domestic and global brands, selected using a purposive sampling technique. A descriptive qualitative content analysis using a code sheet incorporating designer’s perspective was performed to identify the ranking of importance of design elements in package graphics. Further, a small scale quantitative and qualitative user study was conducted to assess if the qualitative content analysis based assessment is matching user preferences. Validation of the findings was done using an Eye Movement Recorder based study.

Domestic and Global Designs in Hair Care: A Study of Aesthetic Preferences of Indian Users

A study of domestic and global hair care package graphics was conducted for understanding aesthetic preferences of Indian users. Package graphics of products from domestic and global markets were selected using purposive sampling. The study employed a quantitative Image test, which revealed that the users preferred graphic designs of global brands over domestic brands. User evaluations using Eye Movement Recorder and qualitative interviews were conducted to understand specific elements of the aesthetic preferences, which indicated that presence of logo or ingredient visual with high clarity, and highlighting cap with gold bands or with colours of logo/ingredients have high influence on aesthetic appeal. An improved version of the least accepted design was developed by incorporating the findings and relative user acceptance was assessed. The study revealed that over 80% of users among a base size of 49 preferred the improved design over the original design for ‘beautiful’ and ‘premium’ attributes.