Evaluating Tactual Experience with Products

This chapter focuses on design research that analyzes users’ tactual experience with product interfaces, especially, the analysis of users’ impressions of such experiences. In practice, a systematic approach is required to evaluate users’ interactions with product interfaces. Therefore, the research objective is to propose a systematic method and tools for evaluating users’ tactual interaction with products on the basis of users’ inexplicit impressions, so that the method should benefit the practice. The method was developed and applied in a case to evaluate users’ tactual interactions with product interfaces in the context of the car industry, particularly in the research and development of interfaces of vehicles. The method was applied in a trial evaluation for vehicle interfaces of navigation systems, audio systems, and air conditioning systems. The role of this design research is to propose a systematic approach to evaluate product interfaces based on users’ inexplicit impressions and deeper feelings; this approach can be applied in practice of product design. Based on the inconclusive results of this first application in practice, further developments of the method are needed.