Decoding Design: A Study of Aesthetic Preferences
When implementing a global product development approach, it becomes important to note that local aesthetic preferences and cultural semiotics can play a leading influence on brand preference and purchase behaviour. While much has been done to gain a broad
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Abstract When implementing a global product development approach, it becomes important to note that local aesthetic preferences and cultural semiotics can play a leading influence on brand preference and purchase behaviour. While much has been done to gain a broad understanding on culture and its impact on design, efforts to specifically map local certain aesthetic preferences has been limited. This paper seeks to create such a mapping for the Indian consumer. Armed with this understanding, global design efforts may gain empowerment to create appealing aesthetics that provide the right messages to Indian consumers. Thereby addressing issues related to local implementation, which is an important aspect of global product development. Moreover, this paper uses a mixed methods approach, (though rooted in strong established theory), which encourages the construction of new models to understand and map creative practice.
Keywords Semiotics Design research practice Global product development Aesthetic preferences Culture India Industrial design
1 Introduction Much work has been conducted to address semiotics and industrial design. Griffin [1] speaks of products as carriers of meaning. He proceeds to explain that the process of understanding unfamiliar products involves a knowledge-based and an emotion-based reaction. It is clear that thoughts, beliefs and values form an important part of this reaction. Therefore, it can be understood that beliefs and G. Kambli (&) Future Factory LLP, Mumbai, India e-mail: [email protected]
A. Chakrabarti and R. V. Prakash (eds.), ICoRD’13, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering, DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-1050-4_113, Ó Springer India 2013
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values form a cultural perspective, and therefore help give meaning to products by virtue of the cues that their designs emanate. The study and application of such an intersection of culture, meaning and design will be useful to study and map. As this has direct implication on product design for marketing and commercial purpose. This paper extends such an implication to map these meanings (semantics) and their relation to certain product cues (through product design). It therefore aims to use established theories to put together the two faculties of semiotic research and industrial design, with specific relevance to commercial implementation in Indian markets.
1.1 Objectives The study aims to assist global product development in its design efforts by: (a) Mapping specific aesthetic preferences; especially mapping form, shape color and finishes, to reflect preferences of the Indian consumer (b) Understanding the semantics of sub-cultures with specific reference to certain groups that may emerge (c) Arriving at a set of design principles that can assist in local customization to drive consumer preference.
1.2 Challenges The study of semiotics has largely remained a marginal and academic field with limited acceptance in commercial research work. It remains limited to the area of social studies and societal
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