Form Attributes of Electric Kettle Influencing Product Visual Complexity and Consumer Preference

Differences in product visual complexity come from the response of consumer's visual perception, and the product presented visual features and attributes will directly influence the consumer preferences and purchase intention. Therefore, this research chose electrical kettle as an example to understand the various factors affecting product visual complexity, and to explore its relationship with consumer preferences. Through cluster analysis, four representative electrical kettles were defined and the morphological analysis was followed to describe those characteristic factors with hierarchical structure. As for samples of products' overall outline constructed using three dimensional visual simulation, those combinations were used to investigate the consumer's level of acceptance of new product form preference and visual complexity, while conjoint analysis was applied to obtain the part-worth and relative importance of each form attribute. The results showed that the relative importance of attributes in consumer's preference was form 36.70%, material 22.13%, color 29.67%, and texture 11.50%; in visual complexity, the relative importance of attributes was form 45.45%, material 21.39%, color 21.72%, and texture 11.45%.