Consumer-oriented product form design based on fuzzy logic: A case study of mobile phones

Abstract This paper presents a new fuzzy logic approach to determining the best combination of mobile phone form elements for matching a given product image. A consumer-oriented experimental study is conducted to examine the relationship between the key form elements and the product images of mobile phones. The most influential form elements of mobile phones are identified using the grey relational analysis. A new experimental process is conducted to objectively generate a set of fuzzy rules with the most influential form elements, based on the subjects’ assessments of the simple–complex image on 33 representative mobile phone samples. The fuzzy rules generated outperform neural network models in predicting the product images of a mobile phone with a given set of form elements. The approach provides useful insights in facilitating and simulating the form design process of mobile phones. Relevance to industry Whether the consumers choose a product depends largely on their perception of the product images. The approach presented in the paper helps the product designers focus on the product forms that contribute most to the desirable product images. Although the mobile phone form design is used as a case study, the approach is applicable to other products with various design elements. The approach provides an effective mechanism for facilitating the consumer oriented product design process.