AN ANALYTICAL RESEARCH ON COLOR EXPERIENCE

Colors have a direct effect on experiences. The preference for color used in a place is influenced by several factors. 

BSH aimed to understand the factors that affect people’s preferences during the decision-making process for purchasing large home appliances. 

Since perceptions, experiences, and preferences are affected by culture, our team suggested gaining an understanding of how people evaluate colors cognitively and habitually through the 15 different colors and two different textures that BSH had been working with. 

For this project, my responsibility was to lead the project. Facilitating my anthropological knowledge to better understand the meanings of colors in users’ preferences.

INDUCTIVE REASONING

To gain an understanding, and to get the most accurate frame about people’s color perceptions and preferences, it was necessary to use different research objectives.

• • MaxDiff & Survey: Used MaxDiff and surveys to discover consumers’ current situation. 

• • In-depth Interviews: Conducted in-depth interviews to uncover the cultural, social, and economic reasons behind people's color perceptions and the feelings associated with hues and spaces.

  • IRT (Implicit Response Test): Used to discover the participants' mind-map to uncover their association of color and brands.

• Discourse analysis 

  • By analyzing expressions about color in everyday language, we determined the characteristics of the relationship between colors and home appliances.

• Grounded-theory 

  • Iterative approaches helped us to identify categories, themes, and sub-themes that emerged from interviews; and to link the concepts into substantive and formal theories.

• Affinity mapping 

  • Used for working on data gathered from the card sorting study. 

• Tools: Google Sheets, Miro

• Factors that determine and reinforce the socio-cultural importance of the concept of home and its decoration.

• The relationship between colors and areas; the representation and feeling of colors and hues.

• Cultural factors play a role in determining colors and their usage areas.

• These insights directly informed the development of a new color palette for BSH's appliance line, tailored to specific cultural markets.

• The findings led to the initiation of new design sprints focused on incorporating culturally resonant aesthetics.

• Talking on an abstract subject

  • The participants, who were relatively more materialistic, had difficulty expressing their thoughts with colors since it is an abstract subject. At this point, I tried to make the abstract subject concrete by asking questions about objects around them, the colors they used in home decoration, or the decorations they saw around them.

• Participants’ unfamiliarity with tools, like Miro

  • An age group that could not use programs like Miro very effectively was also among our participant targets. Although the participants in this group were educated before the interview, they had difficulties with the flow. At this point, with the guidance of participants, I had to manually control the elements in Miro.

• Some methods can be used in a way other than their standard usage.

  • While focusing on abstract topics, to make participants speak comfortably, the research techniques used for different goals, like card sorting, can be used to solidify the topic. 

• Sometimes it is necessary to intervene.

  • As in the card sorting scenario, in studies where the aim is to understand the mind structures of the participants, if participants have difficulties (requiring technical knowledge and skills), intervening in order not to disturb the flow of the conversation and not make the participant feel guilty, can contribute positively to the research process.