Application of product semantics to footwear design.: Part I -: Identification of footwear semantic space applying diferential semantics

Consumers' preferences and perception of products strongly influence product's acceptance. Both are expressed by words that may be studied using product semantics. This paper presents the application of differential semantics to structure the semantic space of casual shoes. Sixty-seven volunteers evaluated 36 shoes on 74 adjectives that formed the reduced semantic universe. Factorial analysis of principal components was used to identify the semantic axes. A statistical index was introduced to measure subject's consensus and then used to analyse the influence of the number of volunteers in the semantic evaluation results. The semantic space of casual footwear was described by 20 independent axes. The measure of user's consensus using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC, 2.1) highly improved reliability of product semantics introducing the consensuated semantic space as a new concept. The results showed that comfort and quality were independently perceived by consumers, but whereas comfort was clearly identified by users, quality was not. The number of subjects significantly influenced the results and in general, a minimum of 40 people would be suggested to obtain reliable results in footwear perception studies. Relevance to Industr'v.- The semantic space is the basis for assessing user's perception of shoes by differential semantics. This is the first step for introducing emotional performance in products design and communication, which would increase the success probability of products. The statistical measure of consensus helps decision making about design and communication. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.