Product characteristics versus customer perceptions on a health-related product

Abstract

Manufacturers are continuously designing health-related products with various styles and specific characteristics to challenge and outcompete each other. However, it is challenging to convince consumers that a new product’s attributes are better than similar existing products. The main challenge for manufacturers is how to create a product that improves on existing products. This research aims to analyze whether customers' purchasing decisions are aligned with the product’s applicable mechanical characteristics and to develop guidelines for supporting product design and development. The design team can use these guidelines to quickly and easily understand and support customer requirements. The study uses “famous types of heel inserts” as a case study, with quality function deployment, usefulness of product, factor analysis, ergonomics, reverse engineering, and finite element analysis as the key tools. The results can help users select the right health-related product and make small adjustments to their routines to improve their quality of life.