Affective Consumer Requirements: A Case Study of Moisturizer Packaging

Tools for eliciting and managing product requirements are now well-established in some fields of engineering. These tools primarily focus on linking objective, functional customer requirements to the product’s properties. Whilst there have been advances in identifying human factors requirements, the elicitation of the customers’ subjective requirements of a product remains a challenge. This article reports a comprehensive case study in the use of affective engineering to elicit the subjective requirements for moisturizer packaging. The methodology uses focus groups and surveys to elicit subjective requirements. The results of semantic questionnaires are reduced using principal components analysis to translate the subjective requirements into values for physical properties of the packaging. The resulting requirements for surface textures, shape, and color were validated using questionnaire responses to prototype packaging. The study highlights research issues associated with recombining stimuli that have been tested separately.

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