People’s Perceptions of the Visual Appearance of Wood Flooring: A Kansei Engineering Approach

Evaluations of products based on visual stimuli are at the same time both subjective and important. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the visual properties of wood flooring and people’s reactions to computer visualization of interior wood products. The research strategy involved showing digital pictures of the same room, but with different wood floorings. The impressions of potential consumers were measured by means of rating scales for each descriptive word. This was done using the method of Kansei engineering, in which statistical connections between properties and semantics (descriptions) were analyzed. The research presented here contributes to theory and practice in two important ways. First and most important, the study shows that the chosen method is suitable for measuring people’s preferences on visualizations of interior wood. Second, the results indicate that certain properties are important for a floor to be judged as ‘‘good-looking’’ and others for a floor to be deemed ‘‘modern’’ or ‘‘vivid.’’ Evaluations of wood flooring by individuals are highly subjective. Nevertheless, they are important. When wood is used in products having a visible wood surface, such as flooring, the highest unit prices are obtained (Wiklund 1992). As is the case with most materials, wood has features that together could be either advantageous or disadvantageous depending on how the wood is used. To meet competition from other countries and to survive, the Swedish wood industry must find ways to sell more wood or get higher value for it. To do so, it is important to reach new customers and show new possibilities for wood. Computer visualization is becoming increasingly important for communicating messages about new products (Sheppard 2000), and corporate marketing managers need better knowledge about what and how to communicate about their products. A study concerning color copy machines (Fukushima et al. 1995) even tried to implement ‘‘an intelligent interface to copy more beautifully than the original colour.’’ At the same time, strong trends such as individuality, hedonism, spirituality, and downsizing (Jordan 2001) are shifting the traditional focus on functionality to more affective issues—issues that influence emotional responses. Helander et al. (2001) identifies the most urgent research needs in this area. First, theory formation and measurement issues associated with people’s affective response to various stimuli must be addressed. Second, methods to predict user and customer wants and needs for affect in products must be developed. This is also the case when it comes to people’s reactions to wood interiors. Earlier studies on the topic by Nordvik and Broman (2005, 2009) outlined the expressions used when people experience computer visualizations of interior wood. In a comparative study of visual properties in digital wood pictures, Broman et al. (2006) studied people’s preferences for different wood floorings. Ranking results and the questionnaire data were analyzed with the aid of multivariate statistics. Different taste profiles were found and described, and the study highlighted the impact of the context of the product (showroom). Nordvik and Broman (2007) attempted to manage qualitative data in a quantitative way and provided a ranking of the important expressions. The results indicated a need for some kind of ‘‘smart adaptation’’ of the wood aspects, such as stronger colors and brighter light. The physical characteristics of The authors are, respectively, Research Scientist, Div. of Wood Sci. and Technology, Luleå Univ. of Tech ([email protected]); Assistant Professor, Dept. of Management and Engineering, Linköping Univ. ([email protected]); and Assistant Professor, Div. of Wood Sci. and Technology, Luleå Univ. of Tech (olof.broman@ltu. se). This paper was received for publication in May 2009. Article no. 10631. Forest Products Society 2009. Forest Prod. J. 59(11/12):67–74. FOREST PRODUCTS JOURNAL Vol. 59, No. 11/12 67 wood products are well known, but not the affective values of interior wood, which was the focus of these earlier studies. The science of visualization requires capturing the interplay between product properties and impressions. Kansei engineering (KE) is a method for translating feelings and impressions into product parameters. It is a crossdisciplinary product design methodology that spans the humanities and social and natural sciences. It was developed in the 1970s (Nagamachi 1997) and defined as a ‘‘technique for translating the human kansei into product design elements.’’ The term kansei is defined as ‘‘a Japanese word which implies a customer’s psychological feeling and image regarding a new product’’ (Nagamachi 1997). KE can ‘‘measure’’ feelings and shows correlation to certain product properties. As a consequence, products can be designed in a way that responds to the intended feeling. KE is, foremost, a product development methodology (Harada 1998), but Schütte et al. (2004) also shows how it is possible to use it as an improvement tool for existing products or concepts. The current study was an attempt to use KE to connect the product parameters of wood floors to the affective values. If we know what combination of wood picture properties results in a high score among the descriptive words, we should be able to reverse the process and make floors (and pictures thereof) that support the most important descriptive word.