Conference article

The main purpose of this research consists in developing a pragmatic method; allowing the evaluation and selection of tactile macrotextures associated to subjective user interactions. So; this paper introduces an approach to formalize the relation between emotional values and textures; it is applied in the context of kitchen utensils. At this point we emphasize the importance of the identification and application of the subjective values during the product development by designers; guided by Kansei Engineering process [1]. Indeed; with the evolution of the global industrial sector; many alternatives of materials have been developed throughout decades. It is estimated that there are at least 160.000 different materials available in the world [2]. The development of such a variety has been led for the most diverse products; following the evolution of emerging consumer needs. At the strategic level of the production system; the research and industrial development stand out mainly in a functional context to add technical value to the efficacy of innovative products [3] [4]. However; there are still specific gaps in the usual methodological bases for the conception of new ’affective products’; endowed with emotional value (as fits the consumer demand). We identified in the literature that there are difficulties in weighting subjective attributes [5] [6]; such as sensory; semantic and emotional aspects; in association with the identification and selection of materials for the design of industrial products. In the process; these aspects are not handled with a scientific method; but mainly empirically. However; these aspects are crucial to fully meet consumer demands. This limitation led our research to an initial experiment aiming at identifying relationships between 15 different tactile macrotextures present in 4 classes of materials and a selection of 212 descriptors [7] [8] [9]; classified in sensory; semantic and emotional dimensions. A protocol was conceived and implemented between two culturally distinct nations; France and Brazil; defining a total population of 60 participants including Designers and Engineers. A descriptive statistical method was adopted to assist in handling the quantitative and qualitative variables at this stage. The preliminary findings enable us to characterize key parameters for the validation of the LdSM; Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul; Porto Alegre; Brazil descriptors associated with the tactile macro textures. Thus; we considered the relevance of multiple factors; such as sub classifications of the adopted descriptors; the presented materials and textures and sampling profile of the participating groups. The synthesis of these results will be used in the next experiments to analyse the tactile perception.

textures selection; emotion; affective products