Title: Cool semantics of mini electric vehicles considering appearance attractive factors

Authors: Le Xi; Su-nan Li; Hui Zhang; Jian-xin Cheng

Addresses: School of Art and Design, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471000, China ' School of Art and Design, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471000, China ' School of Art and Design, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471000, China ' School of Art, Design and Media, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

Abstract: Today, the word 'cool' has become a generic term to indicate approval from audiences for a new design style of freshly released concept cars. To capture this 'cool style', this study investigated the appearance characteristics of mini electric vehicles (mini-EVs) using cool semantics. The cool semantic space of mini-EVs has been constructed through the coolevaluation grid method (C-EGM), and the internal relationship between multiple cool semantics and appearance factors was identified by the quantitative analysis of quantification theory type I (QT-1). Then, the key factors extracted from QT-1 were subdivided by the fuzzy Kano model (FKM), to facilitate their adoption during the creation of designs by the designer. The results show that C-EGM and FKM can clearly deconstruct the concept and the essence of coolness products from multiple levels. Consequently, these can be utilised to promote the designers' accurate understanding of customer preferences of vehicle style and provide new ideas.

Keywords: cool semantics; attractive factor; EGM; evaluation grid method; fuzzy-Kano model; quantification theory type I; mini electric vehicle; product design; user satisfaction; vehicle design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2022.124870

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2022 Vol.88 No.1, pp.12 - 32

Accepted: 22 Jul 2021
Published online: 13 Aug 2022 *

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