Hybrid Kansei Engineering System and design support

In this paper, we propose the new framework of Kansei Engineering System (KES), called Hybrid KES, which can support both consumer and designer as the decision support system (DSS). Kansei Engineering is defined as ''translating technology of a consumer's feeling and image for a product into design elements'' (Nagamachi, 1989). It is the Kansei Engineering System which we developed to utilize on the product development process using Kansei Engineering techniques. There are two types of KES, one for the consumer decision supporting system called the Forward Kansei Engineering System, and another for the designer supporting system called the Backward Kansei Engineering System. The combined computerized system of the Forward KES and Backward KES must be powerful supporting tools for both users. This paper introduces the structure of the combined system, and proposes the Hybrid KES as the new general framework of Kansei Engineering System. Relevance to industry Hybrid KES consists of Forward KES and Backward KES. The former is the KES in which a designer obtains the demanded design through an input of the Kansei word. In the Backward KES, the designer is able to draw a rough sketch in the computer and the computer system recognizes the pattern of the design inputted by the designer. The combined computerized system of the Forward KES and Backward KES must be powerful supporting tools for both consumer and designer.