Materials’ tactile testing and characterisation for consumer products’ affective packaging design

Touch is one sense through which people judge consumer products. How materials’ properties influence these judgments is the topic of this paper. People’s sensorial or psycho-physical judgments (by touch) of the roughness, softness, slipperiness and warmth of 37 material samples are reported as well as their affective judgments, such as how pleasurable, exciting, indulgent, the samples felt. Physical measurements are also reported of the samples’ coarse and fine surface finishes, compliance, sliding friction and thermal contact properties. Relationships between the affective and sensorial judgments and the physical measurements are explored. A relational hierarchy is established from the physical measurements to the sensorial to the affective judgements. By following the dependencies in reverse, from the affective to the sensorial to the physical level, the required material surface properties to transmit intended affective messages to consumers might be determined. However, further work is needed on how to quantify some aspects of surface properties, particularly of roughness and sliding friction, in a manner useful for relating to affect. The methods described currently support communication and decision taking during the product development process.