Abstract
“Oshare” is a Japanese expression and it is used to evaluate a product for appealing to consumers' instincts. Although it is often associated with ambiguous words such as “stylish”, “beautiful” or “cool”, it is difficult to translate into English exactly. This research aims to elucidate the effect of the combination of different materials on the “Oshare” feeling of objects. Eight kinds of materials were used and 40 subjects were evaluated in two experiments. Experiment 1 was an impression evaluation of the “Oshare” feeling of a single material sample and revealed the impression characteristics of each material. Experiment 2 evaluated for samples combining different materials, based on whether the “Oshare” feeling was improved as compared to a single material sample or not. From our overall results, we analyzed the combined results of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 and then we identified material combinations that optimized for “Oshare”. This means clarification on the combinations of materials that have a positive correlation with the impression evaluation of single materials that improved for “Oshare”. Moreover, in order to apply our results to product development, we would also need to consider the color and the functionality of products.
