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Based on the assumption that the characteristics of product image/impression can be estimated by consumer preference rating, this study performed an image/impression evaluation of various office chair designs. The purpose of this study was to specify the design variables significantly affecting customer preference of the product. Sixty subjects evaluated fifty different office chair designs on thirteen aspects of product image/impression categories using the modified magnitude estimation method. At the same time, forty-eight design variables were selected and analyzed from the same set of office chairs. Multiple linear regression modeling technique was used to model the relationship between the image/impression scores and the design variables. The range of customer response on image/impression categories, the sensitivity of the customer response, and the degree of customer satisfaction on the products were further analyzed using a 3-dimensional portfolio plotting. The result showed that the product image/impression were closely related to the degree of customer satisfaction on the product. The result also showed that the design of office chairs can be improved by focusing on the design variables specified from the 3-D portfolio plot.

Is performance in smartphone text entry better when using the preferred hand rather than the non-preferred hand? Among right-handed people, is the performance of users who prefer using their left hand in smartphone text entry worse than that of users who prefer using their right hand? The present study addresses these questions. Thirty young male undergraduate students were instructed to type a text message template using a thumb-based QWERTY smartphone with both hands, with only their right hand, and with only their left hand. The completion time and occurrence of errors were measured. All participants were right handed. However, when only one hand is available half of them preferred to use their right hand if they had to enter a text on the smartphone, whereas the other half preferred to use their left hand. In entering a text with only one hand, about 90% of the 15 righthand-preferred participants, and about 70% of the 15 lefthand-preferred participants performed better using their preferred hand than using their nonpreferred hand. However, the performance of the participants who performed better using their left hand was not worse than those who performed better using their right hand in smartphone text entry.