A systematic approach to integrating emotional parameters in product development with a new variant of kansei engineering to enable affective product design of foods

D. Weiss1, F. Cullen1, J. Oliveira2 and Roisin Burke1

1 TU Dublin, School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology

2 Process and Chemical Engineering, University College Cork

Consumer research, crucial to the success of new products, relies traditionally on rational judgements and opinions, which may not reflect the real reasons for consumer choice. Assumptions are made about consumer’s needs and wants, without having a true understanding of the consumer and of the mental processes by which consumers take decisions and seek their wants. The goal of this study is to use Kansei engineering, an affective product engineering method and develop it further to make it more 'user friendly' and efficient in food product development. The basic Kansei method extracts through the use of the semantic differential scale subjective data about the Kansei (emotional response) of participants triggered by the use of a product. Data analysis provides a quantitative link between the emotions and the product design factors and their options. We propose to use pictures instead of word pairs for the semantic differential scale. It is speculated that the use of words is not ideal because it stimulates verbalisation and hence may not be providing a sufficiently close response to the actual emotions. Further by applying experimental design and data analysis strategies following Taguchi’s method of robust engineering design we will provide an innovative way of defining best products with maximum consistency that accounts for the natural variability of the consumer market.