Design Guidelines of Applying Tactile Perception of the Hand to Product Design

Abstract

With the development of a diverse product market, consumers’ perceptual demand of products is increasing; product perceptual design is correlated with users’ perceptions of sensations. The user would usually expect a product that makes his or her perception of sensations pleasant. Tactile perceptions are one type of sensation that is often neglected in product design. Thus, this thesis is to study how to apply user’s hand perception of tactile sensation to product design. In order to determine design principles that employ tactile perceptions, research is conducted to analyze the tactile perception of different material properties and geometry properties to identify and apply those principles to product design. These principles are developed into guidelines to aid designers in designing products according to the principles of the tactile perception of hand. Finally, a design example with design sketches and physical models is given to show the feasibility of the design guidelines.