Newer is better! The influence of a novel appearance on the perceived performance quality of products

Understanding how consumers perceive products based on their appearance is of great importance to designers. In this article, we explore the level of novelty of a product appearance as a general design guideline to evoke positive associations about the product's performance quality. Novelty imp...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of engineering design 2012-06, Vol.23 (6), p.469-484
Main Authors: Mugge, Ruth, Schoormans, Jan P.L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aesthetics
Cameras
Consumer goods
Consumers
design guidelines
Deviation
Electric appliances
Engineering design
Expectations
Guidelines
product perception
Product quality
quality issues
Reflexes
Technological change
user evaluation
Washing machines
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Understanding how consumers perceive products based on their appearance is of great importance to designers. In this article, we explore the level of novelty of a product appearance as a general design guideline to evoke positive associations about the product's performance quality. Novelty implies the deviation in a product appearance from the current design state. Based on the literature, we theorise that consumers associate products with a novel appearance with technological advancement and thus with a greater performance quality. Data from two studies in which participants were asked to evaluate washing machines and single-lens reflex cameras support our expectations that the level of novelty of a product appearance positively affects the perceived performance quality of the product.
ISSN:0954-4828
1466-1837
DOI:10.1080/09544828.2011.618802