A Novel Softer and More Creative Approach for Materials Selection while Incorporating Emotional Aspects

The concept of material selection and its importance has widely been investigated and its significance in the proper design and technology has also well proven. It is also clear that to fully understand its importance and utilising it properly within the context of Product Design Specification (PDS), one needs to have at least some rudimentary knowledge of material science and processing. However, this study is aimed at a more aesthetically and creative student or designer. How could the descriptors such as luxurious, shinny, soft, delicate, as well as warm etc be used within material selection? How can creativity influence choice? BA and BSc Design students on levels C & I were tasked with the materials selection process for two case studies. They could only use non technical jargons. Their responses were then analysed to establish a mechanism for the language of softer more creative material selection. Finally other groups were asked to use the available engineering tools, such as datasheets etc to select the suitable materials based on the criteria laid out by the first group. The findings were then consolidated. To establish reliable and reproducible results, the exercise was repeated with different groups for different case studies.