Trendiness and emotion, two key factors for predicting aesthetic preference on automotive interior form design among Chinese consumers

Abstract

Semantics reflects what people perceive in product appearance. Previous studies demonstrate that user’s description of product appearance can be categorized into three fundamental semantic dimensions (trendiness, complexity, and emotion). Each dimension formed a linear relationship with novelty, which has been proved to be one of the determining factors in aesthetic preference. Although automotive interior design is subordinate to product design, it’s unique since interior design is more complicated, more time costing, and growth cycle of interior designers is much longer. In this study, we collected a large number of automotive interior photos, and extracted representative ones from each car category (sedan, SUV, pick-up, and mini-car) by sorting and clustering. Then we conducted a research on Chinese consumers, to explore the relationship between three semantic dimensions and aesthetic preference on interior form design, and built a mathematical expression for them with stepwise regression analysis. The result shows that: for Chinese consumers’ aesthetic preference on automotive interior form design, both trendiness and emotion have a significant impact on aesthetic preference; while the impact of complexity is extremely small. Hence, in order to improve design efficiency, designers should take trendiness and emotion factors into account during new aesthetic generation and design revision period.