Citation

Hsiao SW, Ko YC. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 2013; 43(4): 264-273.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ergon.2013.04.003

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The appearance of a component usually affects on the overall image of a product and consequently affects on buyers' preference and purchase intention for the product. An evaluation model is proposed in this study by adopting Morphological Analysis to extract the characteristics of products' appearance, and employing Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) based on a prior analysis established by Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) to obtain consumers' emphasis on each evaluation item. The resulting weights indicating the emphasis by consumers are then analyzed to determine a more objective view of the overall preference for the product appearance. The bicycle design is taken as an example to verify the feasibility of the proposed evaluation model. This evaluation model is applicable to products whose appearance is composed of various components, and subsequent researchers or designers may apply this method to a variety of design cases. Relevance to industry: The assessment model proposed by this article could correct average designers' problem of judging whether the consumers like or not by the product as a whole, while neglecting the influence of degree of preference for the styling features or parts. With this assessment model, order-placing companies could find out and know the preference trend of consumers and avoid procuring too many goods which may result in hoarding. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en