Gender-specific Kansei engineering: Using attrakDiff2

Abstract

Users of medical devices attach not only great importance to the functionality, but also to the joy of use, which is subject of the product design. Up to now, approaches in industrial design mainly take pragmatic aspects (functionality) into account and neglect hedonic aspects (attractiveness). Thus, to consider pragmatic and hedonic aspects in the process of product design, there is a need to develop approaches that combine the perspectives of users and designers. The aim of the interdisciplinary project "Gender-Specific Kansei Engineering" is to detect methods, which can support designers in identifying important information about users' gender-specific product perception. One method for product-related evaluation is the AttrakDiff2-questionnaire. In a study with three participant groups (users, medical experts, designers) it is revealed that AttrakDiff2 can be used for identifying role- and gender-related differences in product perception. It was found that especially male designers are sensitive to the product stimulation (hedonic aspects). © 2011 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.