No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The need to design products that engage several senses has being increasingly recognised by design and marketing professionals. Many works analyse the impact of sensory stimuli on the hedonic, cognitive, and emotional responses of consumers, as well as on their satisfaction and intention to purchase. However, there is much less information about the utilitarian dimension related to a sensory non-reflective analysis of the tangible elements of the experience, the sequential role played by different senses, and their relative importance. This work analyses the sensorial dimension of consumer interactions in shops. Consumers were filmed in two ceramic tile shops and their behaviour was analysed according to a previously validated checklist. Sequence of actions, their frequency of occurrence, and the duration of inspections were recorded, and consumers were classified according to their sensory exploration strategies. Results show that inspection patterns are intentional but shifting throughout the interaction. Considering the whole sequence, vision is the dominant sense followed by touch. However, sensory dominance varies throughout the sequence. The dominance differences appear between all senses and within the senses of vision, touch and audition. Cluster analysis classified consumers into two groups, those who were more interactive and those who were visual and passive evaluators. These results are very important for understanding consumer interaction patterns, which senses are involved (including their importance and hierarchy), and which sensory properties of tiles are evaluated during the shopping experience. Moreover, this information is crucial for setting design guidelines to improve sensory interactions and bridge sensory demands with product features.

This paper describes the design and implementation of a prototype to support collaborative Ieaming. It is part of a)arger effort dealing with the study of mechanisms of cooperation and collaboration between distance Ieamers while performing joint tasks involving complex interactions. The final goal of the project is to produce a conceptual model and a tailorable system for describing a variety of collaborative distance Ieaming seenarios providing active group support. A first web-based prototype integrating private and shared workspaces has been implemented, and a testbed carried out with graduate students. The Ieaming scenario and the collaborative facilities offered by the system are presented.