When Solving More Complex Problems

Once in a while consumers face more complex and difficult problems they need to solve in order to achieve some end goals. These problems are likely to be compounded by multiple decisions, and furthermore, some of the decisions could be inter-related or interdependent. In the process of problem solving, consumers may be required to perform… Read More

Shopping in Social Media Platforms

Next to socialising activities in online social media networks for leisure or work, in business or politics, users also engage in shopping activities on these platforms. In particular, consumers search and check information there on their prospective purchases. Moreover, consumers tend to spend more time in social media websites, especially the younger ones (i.e., Generations… Read More

Working Towards Display of Less Merchandise in Stores

As consumers purchase online more frequently, and in larger volumes, the experience of shopping in brick-and-mortar stores is changing. Consumers these days could be looking for something different than before when shopping in stores; and so, the roles of physical stores also have to be modified with the changes in consumers’ tastes and shopping behaviour.… Read More

Facilitating Shopping With Visual Search

Consumers frequently tackle a difficulty when trying to trace a product similar to one they have seen somewhere and they wish to purchase. It could be a product already in their possession at home and they want to replace or complement it with a new one that looks alike, or it may be a product… Read More

A Combined Impact of Sight and Touch on Product Choice

There is ample research and articles on the roles and effects of each of the five human senses (vision, auditory-hearing, olfactory-smell, taste and touch) on perception and higher-level cognition, emotions, decision making etc. But the senses very often do not operate in isolation from each other — two or more senses can be activated together… Read More

An Illusion of Living in the 1970s: The Design and Experience

The cinema film ‘La Belle Époque‘ (France 2019, Director & Writer Nicholas Bedos) is intriguing, amusing, and in some moments fascinating. The story and scenery are quite unusual, having many aspects, and holding some surprises. Beyond the story of this romantic comedy, viewers are introduced to a special experiential production of past periods that customers… Read More

Laundry Detergent Pods Are Not Like Candies

Rounded shapes and playful colours, design features that are pleasant to the eye, can increase the appeal of a product to consumers. Visual design can thus be recruited to the benefit of product marketing. But what if the appearance of the product is misleading and might convey the wrong invitation to some consumers? For instance,… Read More

Mapping Semantic and Visual Brand Associates

Brand associates are often conceived in verbal terms, as concrete descriptions and more abstract concepts; they may be captured by single words or longer phrases that express thoughts and emotions. But brands may be linked with visual images (pictures, drawings, photos) that capture the same brand ideas, sometimes even more efficiently than verbal expressions. The… Read More

An Applied Adaptation of Visual Metaphor Elicitation

There are themes, experiences and concepts that words cannot capture and express as instinctively and vividly as visual images. Verbal probing, alternately, may not be enough to invoke respectively what goes in the minds of consumers (e.g., thoughts and feelings, beliefs and associations). However, the combination of visual images, especially photographs, with the words of… Read More