Rating scales in Kansei Engineering-modifications for an European context

Kansei or Affective Engineering is a relatively new research field in the West. Link ping University in Sweden has been pioneering research and application within Kansei Engineering since 1999. Several companies have cooperated in different Kansei studies, for example Toyota/BT, Volvo, Saab, Scania. In some of the early studies, there were difficulties to apply the methodology. Reasons for this included shortage of competence within affective design in European organizations, but also the fact that incitements for improvement of product design seemed to be lacking. One of the problems applying the methodology was that European participants in the studies did not accept to make a vast number of ratings during long time periods. Japanese researchers used 5-point semantic differential questionnaires and up to 300 rating-scales per participant and product. In order to overcome this problem, a modification of the rating scales was developed. Hence, data reduction methods such as factor analysis, affinity diagram and Pareto charts were tested and validated in order to reduce the number of Kansei words and product samples used, without compromising the validity of the result. This approach eventually resulted in the development of a universal Kansei Engineering Software (KESo) which reduces the time needed for each Kansei Engineering study. Another objective for our research has been to develop and validate methods for incomplete data collection, i.e. a prioritization of product attributes. Another result from the cooperation with industrial companies is that the companies strongly emphasised that product development studies need to be less time and resource consuming.