International Journal of

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This paper is based on the research which was conducted earlier on Kansei Engineering (KE) and resulted in a new concept for scissors to redesign it with another method called “User Centered Design” (UCD). This is a shift from translation of the consumers’ psychological feeling about a product related to their perception of the design (KE) to focus on designing for and involving users in the design process (UCD). According to UCD process, after understanding and specifying the context of use, specifying the requirements and evaluation of KE concept were simultaneously (by 52 users, 30 female and 22 male), next steps were producing design solutions and evaluating those solutions about requirements (by 41 subjects, 26 female and 15 male). Specifying the requirements and evaluations were by usability test via focus groups and interviews. The final concept obtained high available satisfaction rates defined in the research project. In addition, some comfort design factors for hand tools (e.g. reducing wrist bent while working and reduction of hand pain) were measured and the new designed product achieved a highly satisfactory result. At last a comparison between UCD and KE had been done.This paper is based on the research which was conducted earlier on Kansei Engineering and resulted in a new concept for scissors to redesign it with another method called “User Centered Design” (UCD). Kansei Engineering (KE) as a kind of human ergonomic technology refers to the translation of the consumers’ psychological feeling about a product related to their perception of the design. UCD is a general term for a method which focuses on designing for and involving users in the design process. It can effectively be substituted with those methods only covering the surface requirements of users. UCD includes iterative design and evaluation through gathering the user requirements and understanding the context of use. The collected and produced data yielded some new ideas as well while being eventually evaluated by end-users. The final concept obtained high available satisfaction rates defined in the research project. In addition, some comfort design factors for hand tools (e.g. reducing wrist bent while working and reduction of hand pain) were measured and the new designed product achieved a highly satisfactory result.

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This study examines how analogy affects problem-solving in ideation phase of design among architects and engineers. For this purpose, a design problem was given to master and Ph.D. students of engineering and architecture. They were given two optional analogy sources to choose and be inspired by one. From the analysis of design sessions, using different coding groups and the application of the Protocol analysis, the following results were achieved. Choosing different analogies would cause application of different levels of abstraction by designers in design, considering their discipline. Also, choosing between two analogies would affect mainly the behaviour of engineers in the problem space. For architects choosing between different analogies do not affect their problem solving or structuring so much but it affects their problem space monitoring mainly. Finally, architects benefit from analogy mostly for problem solving.

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Background: In Kansei Engineering, measuring user emotions often relies on self-report methods, which can be biased and imprecise. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) offers a more objective way to assess emotions that are implicitly and non-consciously expressed. Aim: This study investigates whether the IAT can serve as a precise and less biased tool for measuring affective responses in Kansei Engineering. Methods: We developed a software platform to record participants’ reaction times (n=16) as they categorized product stimuli (reception chairs, n=9) with Kansei-related words. Faster responses were assumed to indicate stronger or more confident opinions, providing a potential metric for emotional intensity. Results: The data revealed a W-shaped distribution of reaction scores, with high concentrations at both extremes and in the middle. This deviates from the expected normal distribution, indicating that participants tended to hold either strong or neutral opinions, while moderate opinions were rare. This pattern emerged through an implicit cognitive measure rather than self-reporting, suggesting it reflects underlying cognitive mechanisms. Conclusion: This finding aligns with the "gap instinct," which posits that humans tend to dichotomize their experiences to reduce cognitive load. The results indicate that the IAT offers a valuable tool for enhancing the measurement of affective responses in Kansei Engineering by capturing these implicit, underlying cognitive tendencies