A method to evaluate consumer desire for continued product usage: Incorporation of the method in the automobile design process

Consumers expect mature products such as cars to provide value in addition to conventional features such as safety and usability. Hence, introducing methods to evaluate consumer perceptions of the worth of new features during the design process benefits manufacturers. Consequently, increasing attention has been recently focused on user experience (UX). This project examined three aspects of UX, namely, the “desire to try using” during an encounter, the “goodness of using,” and the “desire to continue to use” after the initial usage. Then, a method for introducing these aspects into the product design process was developed. Thus, the factors that influence user desire to continue the product usage were obtained. The relation between the user requirements and the design elements was examined, and a method that quantitatively evaluates user desires based on the design elements during the design process was proposed.