Construing product materials: developing senso-attitudinal maps through repertory grid technique

Download
2021-1-6
Derviş, Barış
Designing material and product experiences is a complex process that requires a comprehensive understanding over subjective dimensions such as cultural and psychological backgrounds of the individual, multisensory relations, and product contexts. It is becoming more essential for a designer to understand how materials are perceived. There is a growing need for designers to achieve information sources that represent idiosyncratic data of the user anticipations towards perceived material qualities in particular contexts. This research investigates attitudinal approaches of individuals towards perceived product material qualities. Theoretically grounded on the Personal Constructs Psychology, an explorative mixed methods research is designed for revealing how individuals construe interactions with physical materials on different product contexts as idiosyncratic statements. For this, two separate experiments with different product contexts (eight computer mouses and eight water bottles as stimuli) are carried outwith the participation of 60 Industrial Design students from ESTU Department of Industrial Design. Repertory Grid Technique is utilized to collect construed meanings as elicited bipolar personal attitudes, to evaluate the sensory relevancies of the elicited attitudes and to evaluate the product context through elicited attitudes. A total of 60 idiosyncratic repertory grids are collected. In the first step of data analysis, individual attitudes are categorized as common attitudes through content analysis. In the second step, quantitative relationships between the products and attitudes are analyzed through multivariate statistics based on participant ratings. In the third step, the sensory and attitudinal findings of the research are transferred into Senso-Attitudinal Maps (SAM). Cluster cards and product cards are developed as supplementary tools for the SAM. It is expected that the SAMcan be used as a reference in designing materials and product experiences.

Suggestions

A technopoietic investigation: techné as a discursive formation in architecture
UZ BAKİ, MELEK PINAR; Basa, İnci; Department of Architecture (2022-11-04)
The thesis defines making of actively doing, learning, and revealing in ways that simultaneously engage in the thinking activities of changing actors, practical applications, and the transformation of techniques, materials, and technologies as a central aspect of architecture, in terms of the actual processes of designing, production, generation, and accumulation of knowledge. As proposed, making is the fundamental notion in architecture that refers to how design thinking acts and how knowledge, related pat...
Construing colours using repertory grid technique: An idiographic approach in colour perception
AKBAY YENİGÜL, SAADET; Börekçi, Naz Ayşe Güzide Z. (2021-08-01)
This article offers an alternative methodological approach to the exploration of subjective experiences by studying individuals' personal views of perceived colours. The study aims to investigate the construals of individuals related to perceived colours using an idiographic approach. The subjective approach proposed is based on the theory of personal construct psychology and the methodology of the repertory grid technique. A repertory grid experiment was conducted to determine individuals' ways of construi...
3D surface texture and its effect on brand identity: A study in the military context
Çankaya, Erdem; Pedgley, Owaın Francıs; Department of Industrial Design (2022-1-19)
This thesis focuses on relations between surface texture and brand identity in the field of Industrial Design, embracing texture as both a technical/functional characteristic and a source of brand perception. The work examines these relations within the military products sector, through a case study of a product design for the Turkish product manufacturer Aselsan. An empirical approach is taken, involving the evaluation of visual and physical surface texture designs by participants. The study was carried ou...
A User-centred Materials Selection Approach for Product Designers
Van Kesteren , Ilse (Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, 2010)
In the materials selection process of user-centred design projects, the emphasis shifts from technology towards user-interaction aspects of products. Materials form the interface of the product with the user and influence the sense of quality, pleasantness of interaction, personality of the product, and the way it can be used. The human senses, as the interface of the user, play essential roles in this interaction. A new materials selection model has been created for the purpose of understanding the c...
The aspects of aesthetics of interaction: deconstructing the ‘how’ level of user-product interactions
Şen, Güzin; Şener Pedgley, Bahar (null; 2019-05-23)
The term aesthetics of interaction emerged from the need to explain the appreciation of our sensory experience of the products, which goes beyond the appreciation of the visual appearance. In other words, it is used to define/design products which are not only pleasant to look at, but also pleasant to use. The product design literature discusses the aesthetics of interaction through the sensory aspects of the products. However, with the increased embodiment of computing technologies, the interactivity of th...
Citation Formats
B. Derviş, “Construing product materials: developing senso-attitudinal maps through repertory grid technique,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2021.