Communication through design : why do we love some products more than the others

Designers cannot have direct contact with all the population for whom they design the mass-produced products. Once the product is designed, it exists independently apart from its designer’s control. In this manner, design can be considered as a process of communication, where the designer’s intentions related to product is transmitted to the consumer via product form. After that, the consumer interprets the product without direct access to the designer or his/her intentions, and therefore there cannot be any negotiation between the designer and the consumer in order to clarify the intended meaning of the product. This research study provides enhanced literature review related to the current methods and concepts that explain the communication process between the designer and the consumer in order to understand how the meaning that the designer conveys is perceived by the consumer and what factors may alter this message. The study findings demonstrate that psychological responses categorized as cognitive, affective and behavioral; play key roles within this communication process. Cognitive responses are the judgments that the consumer makes about the product based on the perceived information by the senses which are grouped in three main titles: aesthetic, semantic and semiotic responses. Aesthetic response is defined as the sensation that is an outcome of the perceived attractiveness (or unattractiveness) in products. The aesthetic value of a product belongs to the pleasure derived from appearance of the product, without any usage of it. When there are alternative products that are similar in terms of function and price; consumers prefer aesthetically most appealing one. Our aesthetic judgments are affected with some innate preferences. However, there are some general aesthetic principles that are accepted by many scholars as primary factors that increase the appealing of the product when applied correctly. Semantic response, on the other hand, is the perceived function of the product. Designed objects are functional devices that operate in some way to perform the task for which the consumers use them. Therefore, a significant part of the value assigned to the product belongs to its utility. This may also include practical qualities such as function, performance, efficiency and ergonomics. All these functional aspects can be transmitted to the consumer by the visual form of the product. In this case the evaluation of the product by the consumer in terms of utility and perceived qualities is described as semantic response. Semiotic response is defined as the perception of what the product says about its owner or user. In addition to the visual (aesthetic) and functional (semantic) qualities, almost all products hold some socially determined symbolic (semiotic) meaning. The object allows a person to communicate his identity through design. This is called ‘self-expressive symbolism. These self-expressive meanings serve to differentiate the consumer from the social environment. It also allows expressing social status and personal characteristics called categorical symbolism. The categorical meanings serve to integrate the consumer with the social environment. In addition to the three cognitive responses, emotional responses are also part of psychological response. Consumers can be stimulated with emotional responses to select a particular artifact from a row of similar products; therefore these responses have a considerable influence on their purchase decisions. Since the concept of emotions is broad and indefinite, many different kinds of emotions can be evoked by the products. Within this research study, the basic model of emotions is explained with four parameters such as appraisal, concern, product and emotion. The first three parameters, and their interactions, determine if a product reveals an emotion, and if so, which emotion is evoked. Emotions are categorized as instrumental, aesthetic, social, surprise and interest. The third psychological response is actually a result of cognitive and emotional responses, because consumer’s psychological response influences the way he/she behaves towards the product. Behavioral responses can be considered as an approach-avoidance loop. When a particular form reveals positive psychological responses, the consumer tends to be attracted with approach activities, such as viewing for a long time, listening, or touching of the product. On the contrary, when a product reveals negative response, then the consumer avoids seeing, touching or purchasing the product. After reviewing the existing literature, it has been concluded that there are not so many frameworks that provide an insight view of the interactions between all those psychological responses within a communication process. One of the most significant framework in the literature was published by the design researchers Crilly, Moultrie and Clarkson in 2004. The marketing professor Peter Bloch’s basic model of communication for product design was also available as an alternative view. They were analyzed by comparing and defining the pros-cons. Both frameworks demonstrate the importance of psychological responses and explain the interaction between cognitive (aesthetic, semantic, semiotic) responses. However the link between emotional and cognitive responses is not clearly defined. Both frameworks argue that there are some moderating factors that affect the transmission of the product meaning. These are described as innate design preferences, consumer characteristics and situational factors. Cultural influences are also considered as moderators that may alter the intended meaning of the product. However culture has more powerful influence which overwhelms inner feelings and individual preferences, for that reason a more detailed analysis is pursued to understand the design culture and its effect on product design. A product has meaning that goes beyond its practical character and commercial value. And this meaning depends on its ability to carry and communicate cultural meaning. Within the social world, cultural meaning flows continually between several locations. According to this pathway, cultural meaning is transferred from a culturally constituted world to a consumer good. In order to provide insight view about culturally constituted world, the effect of design culture along the history since 1900 is explored. Therefore the analysis demonstrated how the designers of twentieth and twenty-first centuries were affected with the world that surrounded them. The dissertation involved a case study analysis related to succeeded and failed products in order to understand what those designers and companies did or did not do correctly. Sony Walkman and Apple iPod devices were analyzed in terms of cognitive (aesthetic, semantic, semiotic) and emotional responses. General principles of psychological responses were applied to the cases of legendary Walkman and iPod in order to confirm if these principles had any influence in creating products that were loved globally by millions of people all over the world. MpMan case was also investigated as a failed product case. It was questioned what SaeHan company “the inventor of mp3 player MpMan”, did wrong to have failed against its competitor Apple which entered to the US market with iPod only three years later. As the final outcome of the research study, a new design communication framework was proposed that included both psychological and cultural aspects of the consumer response. In addition to this, the missing link between cognitive and emotional responses that was not clarified in existing frameworks was re-designed. Another missing point in the previous frameworks was the role of culture within this communication process. Based on the analysis of design culture, it was concluded that the culture not only affects people as individuals, but also it surrounds everything we sense. For that reason it was emphasized that the designers need to understand the dynamics of the design culture that affects the world as a whole and then the sub-cultures in which the designer and the consumer are involved. The main objective of this dissertation was to understand why we love some products more than others. As the final outcome of the dissertation, a design guideline was proposed to provide key factors for the designers to create products that can be accepted and loved globall