Product Design Innovation and Consumer Psychology

Dear Colleagues,

The interrelationship of product design and consumer psychology is complex. Product design innovation involves the development of emerging, new or redesigned products whereas consumer psychology involves how we as people think, how we understand, create ideas and how we feel or behave. Thus, to a certain extent, consumer psychology determines the fundamental direction of product design, likewise, the innovative design of products also influences the psychology and behavior of consumers. However, not all consumers want to follow the crowd by adopting the latest technological or product innovation, quite often the majority of consumers are reluctant to change and adapt. Therefore, with this reluctance of consumers to adopt emerging innovations or the idea of it, several questions regarding consumer psychology around product design innovation can be raised. With the force of consumer psychology and market push and pull, as well as the acceptable tolerance of new market entrants, it is a challenging and expensive practice for companies to question the uncertainty around a product. On this basis, researchers and practitioners must understand how product interactions and experiences influence consumer behavior in the future forecasting of emerging trends in product design.

Accordingly, this Special Issue focuses on discussing how innovative design (e.g., product aesthetics, function, brand strength, emerging technologies, etc.) could be utilised to influence the consumer psychology in product design. We hope to further strengthen and expand the growing body of literature that benefits and surrounds product design innovation and consumer psychology, to facilitate the exploration of creative and innovative design strategy and considerations. Therefore, in this context, we invite papers on innovative case studies, surveys, literature reviews, analytical as well as assessment, papers from diverse disciplines, which are relevant to all the different aspects related to product design innovation and consumer psychology. Indicatively, the following topics (but not limited) are welcomed in the contributions to the present Special Issue:

• Designing through consumer behavior;
• Innovation and consumer values;
• Application of creative product design;
• Human-centered products and experiences;
• Speculative design.

Prof. Dr. Cees de Bont
Dr. Shichao Zhao
Guest Editors

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• creative product design
• human-centred products and experiences
• speculative design
• designing through consumer behavior