The present study examined the aesthetic appeal of the obese female body, considering neck shapes and body flame. In a first preliminary experiment, these two factors did not significantly influence the apparent slimming effect, but the V-neckline was regularly evaluated as "beautiful." In a second preliminary experiment, the shape of the shoulders (sloping and square) and the degree of the V-neckline on nice looking-ness were examined. The female participants preferred the sloping shoulders with a medium V-neckline, while the male participants’ results were mixed. The main experiment involved only female participants and confirmed that there was an inverted U shape relation between the degree of the V-neckline and the good looking-ness of sloping shoulders. This relation suggested that the cut of clothes contacting to the body or the way to expose body was crucial for the aesthetic appeal of the female body.

This study verified the effects of the transparency of overview maps and gender differences on wayfinding performance and subjective evaluations in a Virtual Environment (VE). The research variables were the transparency of overview maps (0%, 50%, and 100% transparency) and gender (males and females). Sixty young adults participated in this study. The results are as follows: (1) The wayfinding performance of the 50% and 100% transparency overview maps were significantly better than the 0% transparency overview map in the task of judging perceptual information. (2) Males showed significantly better wayfinding performance than females in the more difficult task. (3) The 50% transparency overview map was of significantly higher subjective rationality than the 100% transparency overview map. (4) Females gave the 50% transparency overview map significantly higher SUS scores than the 0% transparency overview map. (5) Females with the 50% transparency overview map showed significantly stronger subjective preference and higher SUS scores than males.

This study takes advantage of the augmented reality (AR) technology to reduce the confusion while assembling the cube puzzle in previous work, by comparing it with design and non-design ideas. They have similar shape, space, and volume in each part that makes the tester confused when assembling them. In this experiment, both ideas can be assembled without confusion and the duration of assembling is almost similar to that of the previous work. In particular, the non-design groups' assembling duration was more than the design groups' assembling duration but the measurement of time showed that some in nondesign group spent less time than the design group because they could not use their imagination when they assembled. They focused on the graphic image of the 3D cube puzzle by looking at the shape and profile more than space and volume, and compared it with the actual cube puzzle. In addition, this is an initial study of the AR application to help assemble DIY furniture or Flat-Pack Design in the next session.

This study aims to understand the characteristics of research in industrial design and engineering design by analyzing the papers published in Design Studies and Journal of Engineering Design between 2006 and 2015. We characterized the articles collected from each design journal by employing a faceted classification approach to investigate the central research themes. As an analysis framework, this research adopted Multispace design model; a design theory which enables to comprehensively grasp the characteristics of design domains from the perspective of the design object, design thinking, design knowledge, and design process. The studies in Design Studies involve the investigation on how the creativity of a designer affects the quality of the generated ideas and his/her design process, or how the usage of design knowledge (e.g., theories and methods) influences the process of creative design. On the other hand, it was confirmed that the studies in Journal of Engineering Design put its focus on creating new design methods for evaluating and analyzing the design elements related to technical and physical features of a design object.

Design artifacts have become massive and more complex. With that, the elements required for designing them are increasing steadily. To cope with this situation, both "rational thinking" and "unrestricted thinking" are necessary. The M method-a generic name for design methods using the Multispace design model-enables the two types of thinking. This study aims to evaluate the usefulness of the M-BAR, a type of the M method, and propose ways to improve it. We do this by first establishing requirements for idea generation methods, then conducting a design workshop to design products under two conditions: using the M-BAR and not using the M-BAR. Participants are subsequently asked to evaluate the process using the requirements. The results reveal that five out of seven teams extracted more design elements when using the M method. Based on the findings, we suggest approaches for improving the M-BAR.

Traditionally, bamboo plants are used as primary materials for various needs and for making products. These materials can be combined with synthetic materials such as acrylic rods. The results of the combinations of these materials can produce a visual appearance namely the moiré effect that can present certain visual impressions on the surface of the materials. The purpose of the study is to make clear the visual impressions of woven bamboo by combining it with acrylic rods materials. The process for combining these materials, called cross-weave, is taken from the Numazu fence style pattern. The Correspondence Analysis method was used to evaluate the visual impressions of combining materials and then the cluster analysis method was utilised to classify the samples of materials based on the visual impressions they generated. The visual impression results obtained are Active, Passive, Traditional, Futuristic, Organic, Non-organic; and the samples of materials are divided into five groups based on the types of visual appearance they produce. The results of this study can be used to improve the use of bamboo materials for various purposes.

The purposes of this study were to investigate the kinds of information and which channel was most suitable for each kind of information and to propose a guideline for the future design at airports. The participants were Thai passengers who had experienced traveling abroad and used airports in Thailand. They were asked to complete the online questionnaire regarding the information system and its suitability for each media channel at airports in Thailand. The results showed that mobile application and digital board were the most suitable channels for receiving information at airports since the passengers could access realtime information and manage themselves more effectively. E-mail, SMS/Notification, and asking were not considered suitable channels for receiving information at airports due to the inefficiency in response.

This paper is a study of the expansion of design fields. In this paper, we outline the ways in which design has expanded based on the trends in design award application categories. The results show trends over 13 periods in Japan's Good Design Award, which boasts 63 years of history. Furthermore, we were able to define 26 application categories that span these periods. The application categories were sorted into three broad groups based on an analysis using trend data for each period. Elsewhere, the results of an analysis of category trends in China's Red Star Design Award revealed category classification methods similar to those in Japan after 2008. Moreover, based on the periodic shifts in the design award category classification concepts of these two countries, we arrived at the conclusion that future design categories may consistently involve a tradeoff between categories of soft service design and public hardware systems.