Experimental Study on the Preference Characteristics of children with ASD for Product Design Materials

Abstract

In recent years, individuals with ASD have attracted increasingly great attention from all circles of the society, but the studies concentrating on the life product design for these special users are rare. This study adopted the paired comparison method and involved three groups of Chinese children aged 3-6 years (children with ASD, children with mental retardation and normal children), with seven of the most common materials in life products as the evaluation objects, to investigate the preference characteristics of children with ASD for product design materials. The results indicated that the preference order and preference degree of children with ASD were both highly different from those normal children at the same age. The preference order of children with ASD was similar to the children with mental retardation, while the preference degree was different. This study provides designers and researchers with a more comprehensive understanding of the psychological features of children with ASD, and it can be the theoretical basis for designers to develop further guidelines encouraging upgraded humanized product design for this special population.