Design For Emotion:emotional And Behavioral Consequences Of Product Form

For many years, the research of new product development has focused on the issues of functionality, performance and usability. However, in recent years, product can not be differed by these elements because of technology improvement and market competition. Customer needs for product is changing from rationality to emotionality. In this context, design for emotion has become a hot topic in the field of design. This methodology has been increasingly applied in product development.This research focus on product emotion, which means customer emotional reaction triggered by product, especially product form. The purpose of this research is to explore the product emotion concept, antecedents and consequences. Further, it exams how product form affect the customer cognitive appraisal, emotional and behavioral reaction.Based on the relevant literature, the model of product emotion is presented. A set of theory hypothesis is developed. Based on the qualitative research,the quantitative research is carried out to empirical analysis the product emotion model. The empirical research aims at fashion design. Research data were taken from a survey carried out on female students in Tianjin. At first, multivariate statistical analysis is used to test the specific hypothesis facing total sample. The model of product emotion is presented. Next, the different product emotion model is compared among different educational background groups: Science-Technology, Humanity-Literature, Economic-Management and Art-Design. Even to the same design, the cognitive appraisal, emotional and behavioral reaction is varied from group to group, which is also significantly proved.The results are followed. Firstly, product form can evoke customer's emotional response in different level. Secondly, customer emotional response is elicited by the cognitive appraisal of design, rather than the product characteristics. Thirdly, the emotion evoked by product form can trigger the relevant behavioral response. Forthly, the cognitive appraisal can influence the relevant behavioral response, but is mediated by emotion response. Fifthly, the individual characteristics of customer, especially the educational background, can significantly influence the cognitive appraisal, emotional and behavioral response.In the approach of multiple disciplines, this research explores the role of emotion in product research. The proposed product emotion model is valid. The findings of research are contributed to not only academic research of design, but also practice of product design and development.