Research on Kansei Engineering and its Application in Massage Chair Design

Abstract

Kansei Engineering is a technical methodology to translate consumer’s Kansei into product design elements. The target of this technology is to provide designers and manufacturers with a technique to master the emotional and spiritual needs of consumers and then manifest them in product design to enhance competitive edge. In light of this situation and on the basis of finishing a lot of English literature reading about this technology, the author conducted systematical study about Kansei Engineering in this thesis with the aim to enhance understanding of it for domestic designers and accelerate spread of it. Basing on the study about the situations of China’s domestic design industry, the author analyzed several points that China’s design industry should learn from Japan and Kansei Engineering technology, and proposed a simplified Kansei Engineering Model which is easier to execute and suitable for domestic design industry. In conclusion, this paper gives an introduction to the theory of Kansei Engineering system, and explores the relationship between consumer's desire and massage chair design factor with the SD (Semantic Differential) method, providing effective reference for the massage chair design.