Representing product personality in relation to materials in a product design problem

Abstract

The materials a product is made of play a major role in the user’s product experiences. In design research nowadays more attention is given to these qualities of materials, besides the ongoing research on technical aspects of materials. How product designers take decisions about materials is one of the topics of research in this field. Decisions on materials play a role in different design methodologies. In some methodologies these decisions are related to experience aspects such as product personality. In others, decisions on materials are related to elements such as shape, manufacturing, function and use. However, there is no model that integrates all these elements of design. In this article we reviewed design methodology to make an integrated model on how design considerations interact and on how the elements of design causally relate. These models show the complexity of designing when including users’ experiences, but help to understand the relations between decisions in designing such as materials and product personality decisions.