Relative Importance of Visual Design Dimensions on Product Choice
(A2019-9764)

AUTHORS

Thomas Schreiner, University of Hamburg; Alexander Selker, University of Hamburg

KEYWORDS

product design; visual design dimensions; discrete choice experiment

ABSTRACT

Product design is an aspiring research stream in marketing literature. To the best of our knowledge, no study estimates relative importances of product design attributes responsible for consumers’ decisions on product choice. Building on the product design scale of Homburg, Schwemmle, and Kuehnl (2015), this research identifies the effects of three visual design dimensions, i.e., aesthetics, functionality, and symbolism, on product choice incorporating the characteristics of the product category respectively of consumers. To estimate the effects of aesthetics, functionality, and symbolism on product choice, we conduct discrete choice experiments for selected product categories (i.e., refrigerators, coffee capsule machines, and smartwatches). This research contributes to the existing marketing literature on product design in terms of disentangling the effect of visual product design on consumer choice into its distinct elements. It thus provides guidelines on what visual design dimensions to focus in NPD process dependent on both product category and consumer characteristics.