Visual product evaluation: using the semantic differential to investigate the influence of basic vase geometry on users' perception

Products evoke emotions in people. Emotions can influence purchase decisions and product evaluations. It is widely acknowledged that better product performance and higher user satisfaction can be reached through aesthetic design. However, when designing a new product, most of the attention is generally paid to enhance its functionality and usability and much less consideration is given to the emotional needs of users. This paper explores a methodology based on Emotional Design theory in order to discover implicit emotional needs of users toward product design and how they are related to very simple product features. Various forms of vases are used as a product case. Additionally, a compact list of product-specific semantic descriptors is proposed and used. Survey, interview techniques and statistical methods were performed in this paper, where significant correlations between semantic descriptors were found. A formal link between specific product features and how the products are perceived is introduced and the results were used to build prototype vases. A simple validation on aesthetic value was performed with the results confirming the general trend of the possibility to define perception from a simple set of geometric features.