Outerwear colors of H&M, ZARA, and UNIQLO were objectively investigated through their official online stores for a whole year, to clarify the common and particular features in colors among fast fashion brands. This study has focused on hue distribution, annual change, the basic and accent colors. Color feature of male and female outerwear in three brands are summarized respectively, and results demonstrate that colors of male and female outerwear in each brand are mainly low-chroma and achromatic colors, meanwhile colors with high-chroma are concentrated in the area between red and yellow direction; outerwear colors of fast fashion brands are affected by seasons, generally colors seem vivid and bright in spring-summer season, dull and dark in autumn-winter season; basic colors “white, black, navy blue, brown, gray” used in traditional apparel industry are utilized in fast fashion brands as well.

View full abstract

To effectively design tactile textures of product surfaces, it is essential to specify the semantically multilayered and multidimensional structure of human perceptual, emotional, and preferential expressions pertaining to touching materials. We implemented a method to identify individual differences in the structure of these expressions, based on subjective reports of the mutual impacts among 29 adjective dyads used to describe tactile experiences of material samples. Results showed that the 11 university students who responded to 46 types of flat materials were clustered into three statistically different groups. The structures were largely composed of three layers of expressions: psychophysical (bottom), emotional or material attributes (middle), and preferential (top). All groups selected the same adjective dyads encompassed in the bottom layer, relating to percepts of physical quantities, which indicates the similarity of psychophysical percepts among the participants; however, the middle and top layers significantly differed across individuals. These results indicate that under the tested conditions, there are individual differences in the semantic structures of emotional and preferential experiences; however, such differences in psychophysical expressions are relatively minor.

View full abstract

People with Meares-Irlen syndrome (MIS) perceive visual distortions and abnormal brightness in text. Translucent colored overlays may alleviate these symptoms, making reading more comfortable. We examined various colors' effect on reading comfort, and whether colored overlays affect reading in Japanese participants with and without possible MIS. Participants read Japanese syllabary (Hiragana) and English alphabets with ten colored overlays (purple, rose, peach, orange, yellow, green, light blue, blue, blue-gray, and gray), and without overlay. After reading the texts, participants ranked each overlay color's reading comfort. In both the Hiragana and English alphabet conditions, participants with possible MIS ranked the blue-gray and light blue overlays highly, and normal controls ranked blue-gray, gray, green, and light blue highly. These results suggest that bluish-colored overlays make reading more comfortable in people with and without MIS.

View full abstract