Remote UX Methods for Kansei Engineering - A Case-study in Assessing Emotional User Response to Computer Mice through Remote Interviews and Online Data Gathering

Abstract

During the pandemic, UX methods employed in hardware design were restricted or postponed. The typical controlled UX studies were out of reach, as access to users and their exposure to products was restricted. This offered an opportunity in the design of computer mice, found to be in higher demand for working from home. This work describes the development of an adapted method for gathering UX, driven by Kansei Engineering (KE), properly supported by a purposely designed online platform to guide, provide tasks and survey users, KESo. The hypothesis is that remote UX methods allow collecting user feedback with no major loss of subjective data providing similar insights as traditional methods. The emerging idea is that these methods can and will remain useful to support product design. Remote UX can also be autonomous, reducing resources required, thus promising scaling participation, and extending capabilities of gathering emotional responses by adopting new technologies.