Kansei Engineering Applied to Design

kansei-heart-mind

The ‘Kansei Value Creation Initiative,’ led by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), was pushed by the Japanese business and design communities. It aimed to foster a broader knowledge of the emotional aspects that draw people to things rather than depending on the more traditional factors of reliability, performance, usefulness, and pricing, emphasising emotional fulfilment over monetary fulfilment.

Consumers’ personal hidden requirements and aspirations were integral to the design process in this quasi-psychological link between maker and end-user. Kansei had a distinctively Japanese perspective on product development and was associated with the concept of monozukuri, which is difficult to define in English but can be defined as “artisanship” or “creating with skill and artistry.”

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, a similar emphasis on the relationship between created items and emotion was also investigated in other parts of East Asia and Europe and the United States. The Kansei-Japan Design Exhibition in Paris (2008), produced by METI and the Japan Export Trade Foundation in collaboration with the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, further promoted Japanese Kansei thought. The following year, at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF, the world’s largest furniture fair of its kind) in New York, a similar initiative was launched, with Kansei values featured as a critical theme of an exhibition titled ‘Japan by Design,’ which was complemented by the Japan Pavilion. Two more shows, dubbed the ‘Kansei Design Experience,’ were held in Kanazawa and Hong Kong in 2010.

“The impression that somebody gets from a certain artefact, environment or situation using all her senses of sight, hearing, feeling, smell and taste [and sense of balance]”

Kansei and the five senses

“Kansei” has to do with the five basic senses – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste and the way in which they interact with personal values, ethics and emotions.  It is a word encompasses the meanings of such words as sensitivity, sense, sensibility, feeling, aesthetics, emotion and affection. It aims to seek the structure of emotions which exist beneath human behaviours.  This structure is referred to as a person’s Kansei.

Figure-3-The-etymology-of-Kansei-and-Chisei-Lee-2002
The etymology of Kansei (Lee 2001)

Alternative terms might be total sensitivity or receptiveness, although in its full Japenese meaning goes much further.  It is what is felt when all the senses are in harmony.  “Thoughtful awareness” and “heightened sensitivity” are the expressions that come closest to defining Kansei.  Perhaps the realisation that the appropriateness of each element on the page underlies the goodness of the whole, that the synergy between the user and the site can be felt by anyone who uses the site.

Developed by Mitsuo Nagamachi

Kansei Engineering was developed mainly through the work of Mitsuo Nagamachi at the University of Hiroshima.  Nagamachi said that it helped the investigator to understand the relationship between the formal properties and experiential properties of a product.

You may also be interested in

  • Dada Art Movement – Making Mischief

    Dada Art Movement – Making Mischief

    As a designer, I am passionate about the history of art and their influence on ‘visual design.’  In art history, Dada is the artistic movement that preceded Surrealism, it began in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916 by a group of mostly painters and painters.  Dada artworks challenged the preconceived notions of what art meant.  Many Dadaists felt…

  • Dovetail – design term

    Dovetail – design term

    Dovetail is the name for a shape that looks like a dove’s tail and is used in woodworking. Joints are made up of tabs in the shape of a dovetail that fit into holes in the other part. Dovetails are often used to join the corners of cabinet drawers and box shapes.Read More →

  • Cassone – the marriage chest

    Cassone – the marriage chest

    A cassone is a big decorated chest that was made in Italy between the 14th and 16th centuries. In 1472, a Florentine merchant married a young noblewoman named Vaggia Nerli. Cassoni were put on display in the most important and well-furnished room in the palace.Read More →

  • Capitalisation rules – the basics

    Capitalisation rules – the basics

    If you have ever read an old newspaper (early nineteenth century) and you look carefully at the old broadsheets.  You will notice that words are capitalised here and there and that the rules of capitalisation, some of which you will learn shortly, seem nonexistent.Read More →

  • Dutch Design – what is it?

    Dutch Design – what is it?

    The phrase “Dutch Design” refers to an informal artistic school of design in the Netherlands, particularly in product design. More specifically, the word refers to the design aesthetic used by Dutch designers. Read More →

  • Ottoman simplicity of sitting

    Ottoman simplicity of sitting

    A low seat with a cushion that became popular in the late 1700s. They simplified sitting. READ MORERead More →

  • Agitprop – Design and Art Term

    Agitprop – Design and Art Term

    Agitprop art (or the art of agitation) was used to manipulate ideological beliefs, specifically to spread the ideals of Communism in Russia in the period immediately following the 1917 revolution. The term ‘agitprop’ (an abbreviation for agitation propaganda: ‘agitational propaganda’) was first used shortly after the Revolution, and the Communist Party established the Department of…

  • Maiolica tin-glazed earthenware, a product of the Renaissance

    Maiolica tin-glazed earthenware, a product of the Renaissance

    Maiolica is a tin-glazed earthenware that was produced during the Renaissance in Italy. The name comes from Majorca, the island from which, in the 15th century, a lot of Hispano-Moresque tin-glazed pottery was brought into Italy. The technique of covering with a tin glaze earthenware was similar to that used elsewhere in Europe for delftware…

  • Basse-taille – Design Term

    Basse-taille – Design Term

    Basse-taille is a method for enamelling the graves or low-reliefs on a metal surface, typicallyRead More →

  • Mission Furniture – Design Dictionary Term

    Mission Furniture – Design Dictionary Term

    The term mission furniture was first popularized by Joseph P. McHugh of New York, a furniture manufacturer and retailer. The word mission references the Spanish missions throughout colonial California. The style became increasingly popular following the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.Read More →

  • Murrine ancient glass technique – design dictionary

    When a glass cane is cut into thin cross-sections, coloured patterns or images created in the cane are revealed as murrine. One well-known design is the flower or star shape, which is known as millefiori when used in large quantities.Read More →

  • Moquette – fabric for public transport

    Moquette – fabric for public transport

    Moquette is a tough woollen fabric used for upholstery on public transportation all over the world. The fabric is typically composed of 85% wool and 15% nylon and is created using the weaving method known as jacquard. It has excellent thermal characteristics, keeping you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.Read More →

  • Typography Glossary – Design Terms

    Typography Glossary – Design Terms

    It helps to have an appropriate language to talk about typography.  The following is a glossary of some of the words and their definitions that are used to described typography.Read More →

  • Shagreen – Design Term

    Shagreen – Design Term

    Shagreen is fish skin used as a veneer to cover furniture and accessories. Also knownRead More →

  • What is Wrought Iron?

    What is Wrought Iron?

    The term “wrought iron” refers to the material rather than the products made of iron. Modern mild steel has supplanted wrought iron, a forgeable ferrous material used up until about the middle of the twentieth century. Because of the extensive forming required during its production—under power hammers and through rollers—it was originally referred to as…

  • Guilloche two banded decorative motif

    Guilloche two banded decorative motif

    The guilloche is a decorative element that encircles a line of bosses with two bands or ribbons intertwined. In the British Regency style, it was particularly well-liked and adopted by furniture designers from Renaissance to the Twenties and Fifties.Read More →

  • Brandewijnskom – brandy bowls for birth ceremonies

    Brandewijnskom – brandy bowls for birth ceremonies

    Brandewijnskom. Brandy bowls were made in Holland and Friesland in the 17th and 18th centuries.Read More →

  • Affichiste French for Poster Designer

    Affichiste French for Poster Designer

    Affichiste. Name (literally ‘poster designer’) taken by the French artists and photographers Raymond Hains (1926-) and Jacques de la Villeglé (1926-), who met in 1949 and created a technique to create collages from pieces of torn-down posters during the early 1950s. These works, which they displayed for the first time in 1957, were called affiches…

  • Minimalism – Less is More

    Minimalism – Less is More

    Minimalism is an art historical and critical term. The purest forms of minimalism include cubes and spheres, plain, unadorned surfaces, and solid colours. Adolf Loos’ famous quote, “Ornament is a Crime,” has become catchphrases for the minimalist design movement.Read More →

  • ‘Moderne’ Style of Art Deco Popular in the 20s & 30s

    ‘Moderne’ Style of Art Deco Popular in the 20s & 30s

    Moderne was a decorative style that was mostly about how things looked on the outside. Moderne architecture was most noticeable in public buildings like skyscrapers and movie theatres. Postmodernism later brought back a lot of the styles that were part of the moderne movement.Read More →

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.