Towards An Internet Based Visual Tool for Communication with Consumers in Early Phases of the Product Development Process.

Perceptual consumer requirements are often disregarded in the product development process. The consequence of this is that products may become more attractive to the design practitioners than to the target consumers. This paper describes the development of a new internet based tool, VIPET (Visual Internet Product Emotion Tool), that can be used for global evaluation of visual product qualities by visual mapping of consumer responses. The interface of VIPET was developed to aid those interested in directing the design of products towards the perceptual and emotional requirements of consumers. VIPET contributes to an increased consideration of consumer experiences in early phases of product development. The preliminary internet based tool presented appears to be efficient and cost effective for large scale mapping of consumer visual requirements as well as easy to use, both for the experimenter and the respondents.