Design evaluation by combination of repeated evaluation technique and measurement of electrodermal activity

Carbon, C.C.; Michael, L.; Leder, H.

Design evaluation by combination of repeated evaluation technique and measurement of electrodermal activity

Title

Design evaluation by combination of repeated evaluation technique and measurement of electrodermal activity

Author

Carbon, C.C.
Michael, L.
Leder, H.

Faculty

Industrial Design Engineering

Department

Product Innovation Managment

Date

2008-08-09

Abstract

Consumer product design needs design evaluation for obtaining information about consumers’ preferences and liking to optimize market success. Such evaluations are usually conducted in simple single-shot studies where consumers only once have to evaluate, for instance, the attractiveness of a design. However, innovative designs often break common visual habits by combining more or less familiar parts into a new concept (Carbon and Leder in Appl Cogn Psychol 19:587–601, 2005). Thus, when design innovation is realized in a too advanced way, such designs are expected to be rejected by perceivers at first glance due to low familiarity. However, from everyday experience, we know that consumers’ liking of products often is a dynamic process, which cannot be captured by simple single-shot studies. Carbon and Leder (Appl Cogn Psychol 19:587–601, 2005) have proposed the repeated evaluation technique (RET) for measuring such dynamic effects, which we have combined here with the measurement of electrodermal activity (EDA). The EDA data demonstrated that the RET captured dynamic effects, as the EDA showed specific sensitivity for highly innovative material only after the RET had been conducted; a cross-check with the same material analyzing item-specific boredom revealed that participants were much more bored by low innovative material over time than by highly innovative material. Thus RET seems to be a valuable tool for relevant affordances of design evaluation, particularly when innovative designs have to be evaluated.

Subject

design
styling
prediction
innovation
electrodermal activity
adaptation
attractiveness
preference
applied cognition
innovativeness
repeated evaluation technique
mere exposure