AUTHOR=Shi Aiqin , Huo Faren , Hou Guanhua 

TITLE=Effects of Design Aesthetics on the Perceived Value of a Product

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.670800

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2021.670800

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Design aesthetics serve a crucial role in product design. Stakeholders expect to develop
highly valuable premium products by improving the design aesthetics of the products. Nevertheless,
the question of how to evaluate the value of design aesthetics has not been addressed entirely. This
study aimed to investigate the effects of design aesthetics on the evaluation of a product’s value by
strictly controlled experiment and measured neural responses of participants. Forty participants
completed a design aesthetics experiment in a laboratory setting. Pictures of products were divided
as high-design aesthetics stimuli and low-design aesthetics stimuli. Both types of products were
labeled with the same price. Overall, the high-design aesthetics pictures elicited smaller N100 and
lower P200 amplitudes. This finding indicated that low-design aesthetics attracted more attention
and high-design aesthetics triggered positive emotions. Ordinary products elicited a larger N400
value. This finding revealed the inconsistency between labeled and expected prices. The present
study demonstrated that the N400 component can be used as an indicator for measuring the
perceived of value of a product in a future product design study. Our findings provide ERP indicators
for measuring the perceived value of a product’s design, which can be easily applied in the decision
making.