• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1139-1149
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• 2011

This study tested the validity of a three-factor model of the centrality of visual product aesthetics developed by Bloch, Brunel, and Arnold (2003) and explored the relationships between the centrality of visual product aesthetics and the relevant constructs. It was hypothesized that the path relationships including innovativeness and consumer independent judgment making are relevant constructs of the centrality of visual product aesthetics. Data were gathered by surveying university students in the Seoul metropolitan area (using convenience sampling) and 322 questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. Correlation analysis, factor analysis, and regression analysis were conducted to analyze the data. The findings show the validity of the three factors (value, acumen, and response intensity) of the centrality of visual product aesthetics. Tests of the hypothesized path show that innovativeness influences the centrality of visual product aesthetics both directly and indirectly through consumer independent judgment making. Innovativeness positively influenced consumer independent judgment making and the three factors of the centrality of visual product aesthetics, whereas consumer independent judgment negatively influences the response intensity factor of the centrality of visual product aesthetics. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future study are also discussed.

• Archives of design research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.179-188
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• 2004

Recently, design has emerged as a key factor of successful product development. This study reviewed the elements of form with a view point of addressing and defining the elements of aesthetics and how they influence consumer aesthetic response. Though past researches related to form aesthetics reported that form aesthetics exist as a single element with other sub-elements, this research made further investigations into form aesthetics and reported that form aesthetics in product design can be broadly divided into form aesthetics and content aesthetics. Empirical studies on each category was undertaken and from the results obtained, it was concluded that typicality is a dominant element in content aesthetics while rhythm is a dominant element in form aesthetics. Also, the study investigated the effect of conditional variables such as price and brand hierarchy on each category and it was observed that both content and form aesthetics elements are affected by conditional variables such as price and brand hierarchy, Furthermore, the study reports that both content and form aesthetics elements are mutually correlated and both categories affect user's aesthetics response. It is intended that the results obtained from this work will contribute to theoretical knowledge of aesthetic elements and can be put to use by product design and manufacturing companies.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.7-17
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• 2004

Recently, design has emerged as a key factor of successful product development. This study reviewed the elements of form with a view point of addressing and defining the elements of aesthetics and how they influence consumer aesthetic response. Though past researches related to form aesthetics reported that form aesthetics exist as a single element with other sub-elements, this research made further investigations into form aesthetics and reported that form aesthetics in product design can be broadly divided into form aesthetics and content aesthetics. Empirical studies on each category was undertaken and from the results obtained, it was concluded that typicality is a dominant element in content aesthetics while balance is a dominant element in form aesthetics. Also, the study investigated the effect of conditional variables such as price and people on each category and it was observed that both content and form aesthetics elements are affected by conditional variables such as price, people. Furthermore, the study reports that both content and form aesthetics elements are mutually correlated and both categories affect user's aesthetics response. It is intended that the results obtained from this work will contribute to theoretical knowledge of aesthetic elements and can be put to use by product design and manufacturing companies.

• Archives of design research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.47-56
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• 2001

It is doubtless that product aesthetics and design are very important keys determining the success and failure in today's market environment in spite of the lack of academic model and positive research results. However, surprisingly the research of such an aesthetic has not been active. Therefore the conceptual frame of product aesthetics should be examined centering around the research of product aesthetes in other to understand consumers'aesthetic requirement and desire in the research of aesthetics of product design and the design process by analyzing that how product aesthetics anon the consumers'response and product selection, what roles the aesthetic factor of product design play in product design and what aesthetic dimension of product design is related to design product should be established.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 2020

Recently the wearable technologies market has diversified to the point where even the leading fashion brands have adopted prototypes. For this reason, consumer- and fashion-centric perspectives on the consumption of wearable technologies are needed for a better understanding of the market. The author tests the effect of design aesthetics of a fictitious smartwatch (i.e., the wearable technology) as a key factor of non-functional hedonic consumption on consumer-perceived product value. The results of an online survey of 233 U.S. shoppers indicate a strong, positive effect of design aesthetics on both the perceived utilitarian and hedonic values of wearable technologies. Furthermore, the hypothesized moderation of gender is statistically confirmed in the mechanism of design aesthetics toward perceived utilitarian value, but gender is found to not moderate the effect of design aesthetics for the smartwatch on hedonic value. Male shoppers are found to be more positively influenced by perceived design aesthetics. Theoretical and managerial implications and study limitations are further discussed.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.392-404
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• 2015

This study investigated how the image exaggeration influence consumer attitude toward product in mobile shopping. Image exaggeration was manipulated by adding light effects on image and adjusting the width for slender mirror effect. Subjects were randomly allocated to four mock-mobile website stimuli. The overall results showed that the image exaggeration had negative effect on product attitude mediated by diagnositicity. First, the mediation effect of diagnositicity between exaggeration and product attitude was tested by bootstap method. The diagnositicity fully mediated between two variables and exaggeration had negative total effect on diagnositicity. The image exaggeration had no direct effect on product attitude. Second, to test the moderating effect of image congruence between the image exaggeration and diagnositicity, conditional indirect effect of diagnositicity was analyzed. As a result, the moderating effect of image congruence was significant. When consumers perceived high self-image congruence with picture image on mobile website, the exaggeration had no negative effect on product attitude. This indicates self-image congruence counteracts the negative effect of the exaggeration on diagositicity. And the moderating effect of image aesthetics between the image exaggeration and product attitude was examinated by the conditional direct effect model. The analysis found that image aesthetics had significant moderating effects particularly on high or low levels of aesthetics. When image aesthetics was perceived as high, image exaggeration had negative effect on product attitude, whereas image aesthetics was low, image exaggeration had positive effect on product attitude. This result indicated that the positive exaggeration effects existed when images were aesthetically appealing.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1247-1258
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• 2011

This study aimed to clarify the relationships among the characteristics of consumers and their influence on fashion leadership. Two kinds of variables were investigated in this study: centrality of visual product aesthetics and consumer innovativeness as personal characteristics, and role-relaxed consumption and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence as interpersonal characteristics. Data were gathered by surveying university students in the Seoul metropolitan area, using convenience sampling, and 322 questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. In analyzing data, correlation analysis, factor analysis, and regression analysis were conducted. Factor analysis on the centrality of visual product aesthetics revealed three sub-factors: value, acumen, and response intensity. Meanwhile, factor analysis for consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence revealed two sub-factors: informative and normative conformities. However, consumer innovativeness, role-relaxed consumption, and fashion leadership revealed only one factor. Regression analysis showed that visual product aesthetics, especially acumen and response intensity, were the most influential factors; furthermore, consumer innovativeness and normative conformity had positive influence on fashion leadership. However, role-relaxed consumption had negative influence on fashion leadership.

• Archives of design research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.129-140
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• 1999

Few would disagree with the idea that product aesthetics can be a powerful design tool, because it is important strategic variable not only for design research but also for product design. Surprisingly, however, academic literatures in design field are relatively silent of empirical research on how product aesthetics may be assessed and how its influence measured on consumer response. This study explores the role of the aesthetic elements of product design in influencing consumer response. Specifically, The study reports a psychometric scale to measure consumer perceptions of the aesthetic dimensions of a specific class of product. (the perfume bottle) Although the present effort focused on perfume products, the role of aesthetics in the design of various product and packaging extends beyond the studied product categories.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.361-370
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• 2011

We explore the priority between product attributes such as aesthetics and usability in consumer decision-making. In the recent study in Germany, consumers preferred a visually beautiful product but discounted the value of aesthetics in actual product choice (Diefenbach & Hassenzahl, 2009). In contrast to the individualistic culture which values personal needs(e.g., Germany), recognition from other members has great importance in the collectivistic culture (e.g., Korea). We propose that Korean consumers weigh greater value on the attribute easily perceived from the product appearance (i.e., aesthetics). We replicated the procedure of the study conducted in Germany. As expected, participants highly valued aesthetics rather than usability in product choice. As for aesthetics, participants were likely to choose an expensive but beautiful product; on the contrary a less expensive and less usable product were likely to be chosen as for usability (Study 1). Moreover, usability was sacrificed for aesthetics in the trade-off condition (Study 2). The participants who chose the beautiful product reported higher social recognition desire whereas no difference was shown with respect to usability.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.3 s.65
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• pp.105-116
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• 2006

In product manufacturing industries, a recent issue is the green concept. The green concept is a complicated area. If the green concept is for products, its serious issues have to be criticized. Although the importance of the green concept has overflowed, its influences have not been disputed vigorously. So this study is to critic the serious issues of the green concept in aesthetics in product design, manufacturing, and products' prices. The green environment has four representative elements: systems, policies, minds, and technologies, but they are not in the field of design. An element of the green concept, green design is also a sub concept for design, so it should be based on aesthetics. It is green aesthetics. But since green design first appeared, it has never approached by aesthetics because it has mostly had social meanings and expectations. So for green aesthetics, to think about what makes a product, and what can be aesthetic issues among them are important. Products consist of form, structure, material, and technology. Form means different shapes in a structure, but there cannot be any specific directions for a green concept. Structure has two kinds: interior and exterior structure. While interior structure has a technological character, exterior structure is deeply related with aesthetics, but it has also no chance for green concept. Material can be divided as two also: aesthetic and technological. Aesthetics materials mean the colors, opacity, and tactile sense of materials, but they are not aesthetic issues. Technological materials are recycled materials or non-recycled materials. Even if recycled materials are used today, they are close to systems or policies rather than aesthetics. With this result, green aesthetics is a very difficult concept. Second, green products are usually 30% more expensive than general products. But every consumer has his or her own economical conditions, and nobody can coerce consumers into buying expensive green products for green environments. And green products without good quality cannot satisfy consumers. This means that green concept is not accomplished by just manufacturing green products. Third, although a lot of proposals have appeared as green design in exhibitions, most of them are close to craft because they are so hard to be manufactured. Manufacturing is the first consideration for products. These three issues are enough to explain why green concept is complicated in manufacturing products. If they are not solved, the green concept is just a fiction. So if this study proposes a turning point against blind green-oriented atmosphere, it will be meaningful enough.