1. User Information for Designers:
A Visual Research Package
Anu Antikainen Mirja Kälviäinen Hugh Miller
The Kuopio Academy of Design The Kuopio Academy of Design The Nottingham Trent University
PL 98, 70101 PL 98, 70101 Burton Street
Kuopio, Finland Kuopio, Finland Nottingham NG3 5DY, UK
+358 (0)17 308135 +358 (0)17 308201 +44 (0)115 848 5550
anu.antikainen@designkuopio.fi mirja.kalviainen@designkuopio.fi hugh.miller@ntu.ac.uk
developed by Pieter Jan Stappers at TUDelft, has been to use
ABSTRACT
multidimensional scaling to present complex characteristics of
In this paper, we describe the development of a flexible, visually-
products to consumers, and to allow them to manipulate the
based on-line package, based on free sorting and multi-
displays to emphasise those dimensions that interested them most
dimensional scaling to help designers research users’ emotional
[8]. The approach of presenting complex information in visual,
and social responses to designed objects.
preferably user-manipulable ways has been promoted by
researchers like Ben Shneiderman [7], and consultancies like
Categories and Subject Descriptors Doblin, with ‘innovation landscapes’ [2].
H.1.2 [Information Systems]: User-Machine Systems – human
The multidimensional scaling approach used in the chair research
factors.
was evaluated by small design companies in Finland, who were
General Terms: Human Factors asked if they could see ways of using this technique in their
design process [5]. We found that designers felt comfortable with
Keywords: Design and emotion, visual research, the kind of pictures the research produced. An analysis which
gave them groups of pictures with different explanations of how
multidimensional scaling, on-line methods
the users saw them was useful from their point of view, and they
could also see how such a presentation might be valuable in
1. INTRODUCTION discussing designs with management and with outside suppliers.
Designed objects have a social and emotional impact on
The present paper describes how the grouping method has been
consumer’s lives, and researchers have tried to find ways of
developed further and combined with other supporting methods to
researching and describing these impacts. Approaches range from
form a consistent software package that can serve researchers
considering ways of characterising the personalities of objects [4],
working with companies and in educational use. We set out to
through using morphological analysis to find those ‘form
present information in a visual, easily manipulated, exploratory
elements’ that are associated with certain aspects of the object [1,
way: a way which corresponds with the way that designers like to
3], to calculating numerical indices that indicate how the elements
work. There are limitations in using purely pictorial
of an object convey certain qualities [9]. Understanding how
representations of physical objects, but it makes for a quick and
objects are perceived by users should be helpful in the design
easy presentation method, and designers we spoke to, who often
process for producing enjoyable objects, but such research is often
work with visual sketches in the early stages of developing a
conducted after the design process is finished, and may produce
project, found it an acceptable approach. The results can be used
rather abstract results, often verbally- or numerically-based, rather
either as a practical support for designers and marketing personnel
than visual.
in a company or to increase general understanding of users. This
A visual research package for design development and marketing
paper describes our intentions in developing this package. Once it
research is being built by The Kuopio Academy of Design, based
is complete, in fall 2003, we hope to go on to evaluate its
on a method developed for evaluating chair designs by Hugh
usefulness to small design companies.
Miller and Mirja Kälviäinen [6]. The method of grouping items,
based on free-sorting and multi-dimensional scaling, was intended 2. THE VISUAL RESEARCH PACKAGE
to produce holistic, user-centred accounts of both social and
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
design aspects of the objects. A complementary approach,
2.1 Aims
The aim is to develop a tool which can obtain useful information
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for
to support the design process as well as other functions in a
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are
company. The advantages are flexibility in designing research and
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that
copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy speed in collecting and analysing data from a large number of
otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, respondents globally. Consequently time and financial resources
requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. are saved compared to the manual process used in the original
DPPI’03, June 23-26, 2003, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Copyright 2003 ACM 1-58113-652-8/03/0006…$5.00.
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2. with the combining version of grouping (i.e. finding out the order
research. However, the software is not replacing personal user
of preference in the ‘I would buy – would not buy’ example).
research, but aims at giving supplementary information to
designers and marketers that can be both qualitative and The semantic differential method in the traditional form can also
quantitative. be used visually. The respondent is asked to set one to three
pictures of, for example, products on a scale between a pair of
Starting in fall 2001, The Kuopio Academy of Design started a
words. This method is particularly useful when more accurate
design-based EU-funded project titled Muotoiluparkki. One of the
information from selected items is wanted after the grouping
project aims was to develop the new software, with the active
method.
cooperation of the Lahti Design Research Institute, which
operates as a research consultant in design and user research. It is Multiple choice can be used with words or with pictures. Verbal
intended that the project will be finished by the end of 2003. questions can be used, for example, in collecting background
information. Free text is used mainly as a supportive method, and
2.2 Components Of The Software Package could be used in other forms such as in a story-telling method,
Although the software package under development is based on the
which might be seen as a useful additional research method in
grouping method, other approaches like semantic differential,
some cases.
multiple choice and free text have been added to make a more
To briefly illustrate the application of the methods, short
flexible research tool. Combining a variety of techniques gives the
descriptions of practical company cases that we used in
advantage of gaining results from various different perspectives.
developing the package are presented. These are being used
However, the grouping method is the primary research method
throughout the development process to improve the package.
and is thus generally used first.
This method has been modified into several different versions to 2.3 The Furniture Company Case
match different research settings (figure 1). The free sorting A Finnish furniture company has a large variety of products. One
method using to a supplied theme or question is best applied to of their important product lines is sofas. To gain further
gain information of product categorisations or to position a information of their market position and different consumer
chosen product among other products in the market. In all forms groups’ taste they wanted to do research on their and competitors
of grouping respondents are usually asked to describe their products by grouping. In addition, new product prototypes under
choices after grouping items, which can be pictures or words. development are being included in the study (figure 2).
A second version of grouping is called combining, in which there
is one or several predetermined groups where the given items are
placed. The respondent has freedom to place items into the
groups, or to leave some items aside. A practical application could
be to study which products are appealing (i.e. a box titled ‘I
would buy’) and undesirable (i.e. ‘I would not buy). Alternatively
a selection of descriptive words can be offered as items to be
combined with two to four product (or other visual) pictures,
which can be either prototypes or finalised products. Finally
grouping can be arranged in a scale form, which resembles the
semantic differential method.
Organise the given pictures Move products you would buy and
according to their potential users would not buy into the boxes
below
Figure 2: Free sorting
Organise the given products on the
pleasing – unpleasing scale
2.4 The Wooden Cutlery Case
A Finnish wood processing company had invented a unique
automated cutting mechanism, which enables all kinds of forms to
be shaped from wood. As a challenging test product the company
Pleasing Unpleasing
decided to try producing a set of wooden cutlery. The visual
research package was used to study what are the general attitudes
Figure 1: Three versions of grouping; grouping freely,
towards wood as a material for cutlery and how wood associates
combining, and scale form
with cooking and eating. Research questions include, for example,
how wooden cutlery relates to steel, silver and plastic, and what
are the ideal user environments (figures 3 and 4).
Two opposing verbal definitions are set on two ends of the screen
and the respondent arranges pictures on a scale or space between
them. This way the information gained is more precise compared
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3. Figure 5: The visual research on emotions linked to the
bathroom. After grouping the respondents are asked to
describe the emotions that are linked to the pictures
Figure 3: Grouping by combining is used to find out the most
pleasing and displeasing fork forms
3. PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
The results that are produced are presented in a form that is visual
and easy to approach and work with. Each picture can be enlarged
on the result screens. A package that is visual, flexible and
provides a multiple way of presenting results should be easy for
designers to approach and use in their visual work as opposed to
the traditional, verbal or numerical research results. Interviews
with designers have confirmed a need for these features [5].
The first screen of results from the grouping task is presented as a
confusion matrix (figure 6). It simply shows how often each
example has been grouped with each other example. The
confusion matrix is an easy way to gain an overall picture of the
results. However, other ways of presenting results are necessary to
gain a more accurate view of general meanings behind groupings
and meanings connected to individual groups.
After viewing the confusion matrix the researcher has a choice of
proceeding to either a two-dimensional plot formed when the
confusion matrix is subjected to a multidimensional scaling
analysis, or a network view that presents interlinkages between
Figure 4: Grouping by combining is used to study a suitable different items. In the two-dimensional plot the dimensions are
environment for wooden cutlery. given meanings by using the descriptions that arise from the
grouping results as Miller and Kälviäinen [6] did in their study of
chairs (Figure 7). The constrained sort can be analysed in the
2.5 Study of Emotions Linked to the same way. The visual scale shows small thumbnail pictures of the
items studied. Explaining words or codes can be added to the
Bathroom thumbnails. The results are read from the distances to other items
Ido Bathrooms produces bathroom furnishing. The company was
and the dimensions.
interested in finding out about real and dreamt emotions people
The results can also be presented as a network display (figure 8).
link to their bathrooms. This information is intended to assist the
Any item from the confusion matrix or the two-dimensional plot
designer in his design process: the results will be part of his
can be selected as the centre of the display. Items which were
design brief. The study took two approaches: one which
frequently grouped with that one will appear clustered round it,
approaches emotions with a set of pictures such as buildings and
with less-frequently chosen items a little further away. Selecting
texture that are meant to match with emotions linked to the
any item will move it to the middle of the screen, with an
bathroom (figure 5), and another which aims at arising emotions
appropriate rearrangement of the others. The same presentation
through pictures presenting situations and actions.
can be used for the words used to describe the groupings.
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4. Figure 6: The confusion matrix. The information is presented in numbers and different colours and shades.
The stronger the shade, the more often the two examples were grouped together.
Figure 7: Example of a two dimensional plot
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5. Results from the traditional form of semantic differential can be developing the package is that whenever users’ visual
viewed on a screen similar to the one used for gathering the impressions are sought and two dimensional visual material is
data. Additionally two scales can be combined to form a two sufficient, the visual research package could be applied.
dimensional graphic, where the items are presented as
5. REFERENCES
thumbnails.
[1] Chuang, M-C. and Ma, Y-C., 2001, Expressing the
Generally the results can be read in a flexible way. Clicking any
expected product images in product design of micro-
of the items in the result screens can fetch access to individual
electronic products. International Journal of Industrial
explanations. Also access to individual questionnaires or other
Ergonomics, 27, pp. 233-245
results concerning each item can be opened directly from the
[2] Doblin, 2003 Innovation Landscapes: Visualizing
different screens. Everyone using the results of a certain research
Innovation Available at
can gather and save an individual collection of results in a
http://www.doblin.com/landscapes/index.html
personal file.
[3] Hsiao, S-W. and Chen, C-H., 1997, A semantic and shape
The visual research package aims to be a conceptual and
grammar based approach for product design. Design
exploratory tool that supports the work of designers and
Studies, 18, pp. 275-296
marketing people in a company. In addition the results can aid
discussion between designers, managers, and clients during the [4] Janlert, L-E. and Stolterman, E, 1997, The Character of
product development process. Things. Design Studies, 18, pp. 297-314.
[5] Kälviäinen, M. and Miller, H., in press, Researching Users’
Understanding of Products: An On-line Tool. In
McDonagh, D., Hekkert, P., Gyi, D. and van Erp, J. (2003)
Design and Emotion, Episode III: The Design of Everyday
Things London: Taylor and Francis
[6] Miller, H. and Kälviäinen, M., 2001, Objects for an
Enjoyable Life: Social and Design Aspects. In Proceedings
of the International Conference on Affective Human
Factors Design (Singapore), edited by Helander, M.,
Khalid, H. M. and Ming Po, T. (London: Asean Academic
Press), pp. 487-494.
[7] Shneiderman, B., 1999 Dynamic queries, starfield displays,
and the path to Spotfire Available at
Figure 8: Example of a network display
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/spotfire/
[8] Stappers,P.J, Pasman,G. and Groenen, P.J.F., 2000,
4. CONCLUSIONS Exploring databases for taste or inspiration with interactive
multi-dimensional scaling Proceedings of IEA 2000/HFES
The practical examples discussed above show how the visual
2000 Ergonomics for the new Millenium San Diego July-
research package can be used in various applications. The
August 2000, pp 3.575-3.578. Available at
development process of the visual research package is still under
http://studiolab.io.tudelft.nl/gems/mdsi/MDSIPaeprIEA.pdf
way, so the content presented here may change during the
There is more information at
process. Commercial and cooperative company cases are being
http://studiolab.io.tudelft.nl/mdsi/
used throughout the project. Some interesting cases are product
development for a multinational corporation, the development [9] Veryzer, R. W., 1997, Measuring Consumer perceptions in
project for a new travelling vehicle, and an image study of the the Product Development Process. Design Management
Kuopio soccer team corporate identity. The guiding idea in Journal, 8, pp. 66-71.
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