Design specification representation for intelligent product appearance design

Traditional intelligent product design usually focuses on functional design, aiming to generate appropriate structures that would provide required functions. Design specifications are mainly formulized into technical descriptions or values that are related to certain functional or usability requirements. In today’s global market, to in-crease user satisfaction, the appearance design of a product become vital for users to make purchasing decisions. This is particularly true of today’s consumer products such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and other electronic products. In intelligent product appearance design, design specifications are merely described as basic geometric dimensions and types of surface materials. Additionally, the aesthetic considerations and emotional needs of product appearance are seldom discussed when establishing design specifications for product appearance design. In this regard, the objective of this study is to propose a design specification representation framework for intelligent product appearance design considering both emotional and aesthetic aspects. The framework be-gins to investigate user needs by acquiring user aesthetic experience. Based on the notion of aesthetic experience, a detailed representation model of appearance design specifications is provided for satisfying user emotional and aesthetic needs. Finally, a case study of the appearance design of digital cameras is provided to demonstrate the acquisition of user needs and establishment of design specifications based on the proposed framework.