A study of style recognition and the operation of products in which Ming-style chairs are used as examples

In this study Ming-style chairs are used as examples to investigate the critical factors constituting the style of products. In an experiment, subjects were asked to compare varied pairs of Ming-style chairs. These comparisons were then analyzed by using the methods of multidimensional scaling and multiple regression analysis. The results show that the perception of Ming-style chairs between designer subjects and nondesigner subjects are similar and that the three main dimensions constituting the subjects' perceptual space are 'elementary feature:'emotional image: and 'use feeling'. There exist some common critical elementary features among Ming-style chairs. The degree of style similarity (being perceived as the same style) between a pair of chairs will increase with an increase in the number of critical features shared. The influential powers to this perception of similarity are different among these features.