Express your material self

Ondertitel:experiential material characterization in product design

How do consumers experience the materials in products around them? And how can we capture these experiential qualities of materials into information for designers? These questions initiated this thesis. Over the past four years, we have explored how we can study materials experiences of different types of consumers, to support designers in their materials selection process by understanding the targeted users’ material desires for the designed product. We currently live in a world with an abundance of products and varieties on the market, which complicates the purchase decision for consumers. To satisfy demanding consumers, products must meet both functional requirements and hedonic user needs. A product should work well, safely and simply, plus it must also enhance the user’s life, provide satisfaction and pleasure. Without materials, no products can exist. Thus, materials form the visual and tactile interface with the world around us, and fulfil a part of the functional and hedonic needs. We interact with products through materials , and it is through our senses that we experience materials. In order to foster the user-centeredness of the product development discipline, materials should not be studied in isolation, but incorporate people and their relationship with materials. Central to this research was the exploration of experiential characterization of materials, integrating both the physical representation of materials and the segmentation of different types of consumers. The thesis consists of four major parts: (i) experiential characterization in product design, (ii) material demonstrator form, (iii) consumer segmentation, and (iv) guidelines for experiential material characterization, and theoretical and designerly conclusions. The first part offers insight in the world of experiential characterization studies in the materials and design domain, and the methodological challenges involved in studying materials experience. It reveals learnings on six needs for future research. The second part addresses one of these needs, and explores the appropriate physical representation of materials for experiential characterization studies. The third part focusses on the need of including extensive user aspects, and examines how consumers can be clustered in meaningful segments that prefer different material qualities. The fourth and final part includes guidelines on how to set-up experiential material characterization experiments based on the previous findings, as well as the theoretical and designerly conclusions of this thesis. It closes with future research perspectives and a future vision for design.

ISBN:978-90-5728-735-0

Jaar van publicatie:2022

Trefwoorden:Doctoral thesis

Toegankelijkheid:Open