Kansei engineering over multiple product evolution cycles : an integrated approach

Abstract

When seeking new opportunities and markets, change is an inevitable reality which product development teams must embrace to maintain product relevance and competitiveness. In fact, one can observe many examples on the market of products and their constituent features evolving over time. This is done not only to meet changing requirements, but also different users’ perceptions and subsequently emotions; which may change according to their respective markets. As product lifecycles are getting shorter, it becomes imperative to consider change strategies and product evolution in order to deliver the required product capabilities to targeted markets at specific times. This research proposes a Kansei engineering and integrated approach to support product evolution over multiple cycles. This approach has been applied to the design of a camera enclosure with the results of this study presented.