International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920

Applying aesthetics measurement to product design

Shih-Wen Hsiao

, Fu-Yuan Chiu, Chong Shian Chen

Department of Industrial Design, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan, ROC
Received 14 August 2006; received in revised form 23 December 2007; accepted 2 February 2008
Available online 9 April 2008
Abstract
In the highly competitive market, varying product color to change its image is one of the best solutions to improve the product
competitiveness. In this paper, the relationships among the product image, color area, and aesthetic measurement of the product are studied.
The pixels of an area of color are used to obtain the proportionate relationship between different colored areas in a given solid visual angle.
Based on the relationship among the Hue, Value, Chroma and colored area proposed by Munsell, the other factors are integrated to set up
one formula for evaluating the aesthetic degree of color matching. The aesthetics measurement is considered to be inuenced by the color
environments, color areas, component colors and display angles of the product. The color planning for developing a cell phone was
performed based on this model. The experimental results veried this model can be used for color planning in product design.
r 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Color harmony; Color combination; Aesthetic measurement; Color area; Color image
1. Introduction
Customers usually obtain their rst impression of a
product from visual stimuli, including the form (Hsiao,
1994a, 1997), color (Hsiao, 1994b, c), and material (Hao
et al., 2001). If these three stimuli are well coordinated, the
product is more greatly appreciated (Erik and Kwaku, 2000).
In the recent decades, several basic color harmonization
evaluated methods were proposed such as the aesthetic
measure (Birkhoff, 1933; Moon and Spencer, 1944),
monochromatic harmonization (Shen et al., 2000), as well
as color combination with color area ratio (Ou et al., 2004).
Most studies use image processing methods (Lee et al.,
2005; Han and Ma, 2002), or a color quantication process
to transform the traditional color system into a digital
color space (Sirisathitkul et al., 2004; Mattikalli, 1997), for
analyzing on computers with the applications of Fuzzy theory
(Zhang et al., 1998; Kim et al., 2004), Kansei engineering
(Temponi et al., 1999) and Neural Generic Algorithm, etc.
The color planning for a product was usually performed
based on color psychology. Thus, the merits of color
combinations for a product were subjectively evaluated
with designers experiences (Nagamachi, 1995; Feraund
et al., 2001), rather than applying the objective quantica-
tion approach of aesthetics measure.
In addition, most products were all sampled with one
front view or an oblique image of the product (Chuang and
Ou, 2001; Hsieh and Fan, 2000). Using a single view on
the product in sampling may cause problems. Thus, the
theory of image segmentation (Tanaka et al., 2004) is
used to determine the color areas matched on the pro-
duct from different angles, and further, to acquire the
aesthetic measure of the product such that this system, the
product color can be matched with a complete and
objective way.
With the assistance of this method, a good color
planning for the designed product can be done to satisfy
the customer demands.
2. Outline of the design model
The procedure for performing this design model includes
the following steps.
(1) Decide the objective product to be designed.
(2) Collect the existing products in the market.
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doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2008.02.009

Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 6 2757575x54330;

fax: +886 6 2746088.
E-mail addresses: swhsiao@mail.ncku.edu.tw,
swhsiao2002@yahoo.com.tw (S.-W. Hsiao).
(3) Select the adequate image words using questionnaires,
and identify the images that consumers project onto the
product by means of the semantic differential method.
(4) Divide the product into several elements (parts) based
on their function and construct the basic form
categories for each element using a morphological chart.
(5) Construct the basic Solid Model for parts by using a
parameter design software.
(6) Search out function carriers for parts by inputting
image word(s) to present the optimum suggestion of
color Harmony.
3. Implementation methods and procedures
Based on the above outline, the implementation proce-
dures are described in detail in the following sections, in
which the color planning for cell-phone design is taken as
an example to describe the implementation procedures.
The purpose of this study is to establish a model of
aesthetics measurement for product color matching. To
reach the goal, the relations among the aesthetics
measurement, color area matched and consumer percep-
tion images for a product should be constructed rst.
3.1. The selection of imagery vocabulary
The study imposes a two-phase image-semantic survey
on the colors of cell phones. One hundred words that can
be used to describe the color images of cell phones were
collected rst. After eliminating some synonyms, 32 pairs
of opposite image words were selected (see Table 1).
A questionnaire was designed based on the 32 pairs of
image words. Thirty design-major students aged between
18 and 28 years who had normal sense of distinguishing
colors (i.e. who were not color-blind), were selected as the
subjects. The male/female ratio was 50:50. The subjects
were asked to pick out the top 10 image word pairs for
describing the image of a cell phone. After the survey, the
top three image word pairs discovered were:
A1 (FemaleMale)
D1 (FuturisticClassical)
A8 (FancyPlain)
The subjects were asked to give four symbolic colors to
the above six image words with the 129 color charts of
PCCS (Practical Color Co-ordinate System) issued by
Japan Color Research Institute. The selected samples and
their HVC values are shown in Table 2. Here, HVC is the
abbreviation of the three attributes of a color used in
Munsell color system, which represent Hue, Value, and
Chroma, respectively. Hue is the basic quality of the color
and there are 10 huesred (R), yellow red (YR), yellow
(Y), green yellow (GY), green (G), blue green (BG), blue
(B), purple blue (PB), purple (P), and red purple (RP) in the
Munsell hue circle. Value is a measure of the color
lightness, and Chroma is a measure of the color saturation.
3.2. Construction of the aesthetics measurement formula
To evaluate the aesthetics measurement of a colored
product, the calculation formula should be constructed
rst. In this study, we try to construct the aesthetics
measurement formula based on the colors matched on
product with Munsell color system.
The procedures for constructing the formula are
described in detail in the following subsections.
3.2.1. The image values of hues
As we know that the image of a product is always
affected by the hue of a color used on a product. Here, we
take the top one image (Female) in Table 2 as an example
to describe how to evaluate the image values of Hues onto
the product. First, the hues on the Munsells hue circle
are divided into 100 equal segments (Moon and Spencer,
1944). From Table 2, we see that Hue 10R ts the image
word Female best, so the image value of Hue 10R is
taken as 1 (U
h
1) for the image wordFemale. On the
other hand, Hue 5B ts the image Male best, so the
image value of Hue 5B on the image of Female is taken
as 0 (U
h
0). Thus, the image values for Hues 10R and
5B on the image Female are given as 1 and 0,
respectively, as shown in Fig. 1. The image values for other
colors on the image Female can be obtained as follows: the
image values for the colors between Hue 10R and Hue
5B are divided into two sections. One is in the range
starting from Hue 10R to Hue 5B, clockwise. The
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Table 1
The 32 pairs of opposite image words
A B C D
1 MaleFemale FashionableUnfashionable BoringInteresting FuturisticClassical
2 StraightCurviform ElegantVulgar StrongFragile ProspectiveRetrospective
3 BeautifulUgly LocalInternational OldYoung MonotonousVarious
4 CoarseSmooth ModernConservative PeacefulLively ImpracticalPractical
5 RegulationDeant OriginallyPiratic CrazyElegant RudeDetailed
6 DarkBright SimpleComplicated SteadyFrivolous ExcitedQuiet
7 FirmSoft ModestArrogant CongruousIncongruous PoorImpressive
8 FancyPlain SweetCool FormalLeisurable PopularPersonality
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 911
other is in the range starting from Hue 10R to Hue 5B
counterclockwise. The image values for the colors in range
I are given from 1 to 0 clockwise by dividing into 55 equal
segments, while those for colors in range II are given from
1 to 0 counterclockwise by diving into 45 equal segments.
For example, the given image value for the color
HV/C 4YR 7/12 on the image of Female is taken as
U
h
51/55 0.93, while that for the color HV/C 6PB
2/5 is taken as U
h
11/45 0.24.
3.2.2. The image values of Values
The image value of a Value onto to the product is
dened with the same approach used for a Hue. In Table 2,
the Value of the top one color for the image Female is
8.5, so the image value is given as 1 (U
v
1) when Value is
8.5 (see Fig. 2). On the contrary, for the color with Value
3.5 is considered as the image corresponding to Male and
the image value of this Value for the image Female is
taken as 0 (U
v
0) shown in Fig. 2. To evaluate the image
values for colors with different Values, the Values shown in
Fig. 2 are divided into two parts. The part I is from Value
3.5 (U
v
0) to Value 8.5 (U
v
1), the part II includes two
portions, one is from Value 8.5 (U
v
1) to Value 10.0, and
the other is from Value 0.0 to Value 3.5 (U
v
0). In part I,
the Values are divided into 10 equal segments from Value
3.5 (U
v
0) to Value 8.5 (U
v
1). So for a color with the
Value located in this range, the image value for this color
can be calculated proportionally based on the scale. For
example, the image value for the color HV/C 2RP 6/9 on
the image of Female is taken as U
v
5/10 0.5. While
for a color with the Value located in part II, the image
values are divided into 10 segments from value 8.5 (U
v
1)
to Value 10.0 and from Value 0.0 to Value 3.5 (U
v
0).
And the image value can be calculated proportionally
based on scale 10. For example, the image value for the
color HV/C 2Y 9/5 on the image of Female is taken as
U
v
9/10 0.9.
3.3. The relation among Value, Chroma, and color area
Moon and Spencer (1944) pointed out that colors with a
higher Value and Chroma must take up a smaller area than
those colors with a lower Value and Chroma in order to
obtain a better aesthetics measurement in color harmoni-
zation. The relation among Value, Chroma and color area
is shown in Eq. (1). From the equation, we can see that the
color area is reciprocal to the product of Value and
Chroma:
V
A
C
A
V
B
C
B

A
B
A
A
, (1)
where V
A
is the Value of color A; V
B
is the Value of color
B; C
A
is the Chroma of color A; C
B
is the Chroma of color
B; A
A
is the area of color A; and A
B
is the area of color B.
Based on this equation, it is concluded that when the
Values and Chromas of colors used in color planning for a
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 2
The top four colors tting the given three pairs image words
1 2 3 4
a (Female) 10R 8.5/5 4R 7/8 6RP 6.5/7.5 4R 7/12
b (Male) 5B 3.5/8 3PB 2/5 5BG 3/4.5 9PB 2/5
c (Futuristic) 3G 6.5/9 5BG 7/6 5B 5.5/8.5 3G 7.5/6
d (Classical) 7P 2.5/9.5 6RP 2.5/5.5 4R 3.5/11.5 9PB 2.5/9.5
e (Valuable) 3PB 2.5/9.5 5Y4.5/2.5 9PB 5/10 5B 3/8
f (Plain) 3GY 7.5/2 3G 7/2 5Y 7.5/2 3GY 8.5/3
Fig. 1. The distribution for hues on the Munsells Hue circle.
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 912
product are different, the color areas should be regulated to
get the same aesthetics measurement for the designed
product.
3.4. The acquisition of product color areas
The color area will inuence the aesthetics measurement
of a product as mentioned previously, and a feasible
method for calculating the color area has been proposed
(Tanaka et al., 2004; Lee and Han, 2005). In this study, we
take the ratio of pixels in each color area as the ratio of
areas. An image processing software was used to calculate
the pixels and the average values of RGB for the color on
each area. The pixel value of the product, A
t
, is taken as the
number of pixels really occupied by the product image in
the picture. With this approach, the pixel value of each
component can be calculated, and the relation of compo-
nent areas is shown in Eqs. (2) and (3):
A
t
A
1
A
2
A
3
A
n
, (2)
A
r

A
i
A
j
, (3)
where A
t
is the total area of entire product, A
n
is the area of
component n; A
r
is the area ratio of component i with
respect to component j, A
i
is the area of component i, and
A
j
is the area of component j.
3.5. Derivation of the equation of aesthetics measurement in
color matching for a product
The aesthetics measurement of a product varies with the
colors used for different components of the product. To
understand the inuence of Hue and Value of a color on
the aesthetics measurement of a product matched with
colors, the study employs U
h
and U
v
introduced in the
previous section to dene the image perception of a
consumer reects on the productU
i
, as shown in Eq. (4).
U
i

U
h
i
for a chromatic color;
U
v
i
for an chromatic color;
(
(4)
where U
i
is the contribution of the color on component i to
the image perception of the product, U
h
i
is the contribution
of the Hue on component i to the image perception of the
product, and U
v
i
is the contribution of the value on
component i to the image perception of the product,
1pipn, and n is the number of colors used for the product.
The aesthetics measurement of a product is not only
inuenced by U
h
and U
v
but also by the Value and Chroma
of the used colors. According to Eq. (1), color area is
reciprocal to the multiplication of Value and Chroma.
However, the color area has a direct inuence on the
aesthetics measurements for a product matched with
colors, which means that the multiplication of Value and
Chroma of a color is reciprocal to the aesthetics measure-
ment of the product. Based on this relation, the factor
of the Value and Chroma of a color contributed to
the aesthetics measurement of a product, Q
i
, is dened in
Eq. (5).
Q
i

1=V
i
C
i

P
n
i1
1=V
i
C
i

for a chromatic color;

1=V
i

P
n
i1
1=V
i

for an chromatic color;

8
>
<
>
:
(5)
where Q
i
is the contribution of the Value and Chroma of
the color on component i to the perception of the product,
1pipn; V
i
is the Value of the color on component i, C
i
is
the Chroma of the color on component i, and n is the
number of colors used for the product.
To calculate the inuence of color area on the aesthetics
measurement of a product, the ratio relation among
component color areas (acquired from Eq. (3)) is used to
determine P
i
, the ratio between each area and the largest
area, as shown in Eq. (6).
P
i

A
i
max A

, (6)
where P
i
is the ratio between the largest area and the area
of the color on component i, 1pipn; A
i
is the area ratio of
the color on component i, and n is the number of colors
used for the product.
After U
i
, Q
i
, and P
i
are acquired, the aesthetics
measurement of a product, M
p
, can be found as shown
in Eq. (7).
M
p

P
n
i1
U
i
Q
i
P
n
, (7)
where M
p
is the aesthetics measurement of a product, and n
is the number of colors used for the product.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 2. The scale of Female image for Munsell Values.
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 913
3.6. The calculation program of aesthetics measurement for
product color matching
The study develops a calculation program based on
Visual Basic.net with the formulas derived in the previous
section. The operation interface is shown in Fig. 3. The
program can process the calculation of the aesthetics
measurement of a product (M
p
) with ve colors at most. As
for products without colors, they can be processed by
inputting their Value and pixel values.
4. Experimental verication
The aesthetics measurements for product color matching
obtained in the last section were used for color planning in
the development of products. A case study is taken to
explain both the application methods and procedures as
follows.
4.1. The selection of target products
The development of a cell phone is taken as an example to
describe the methodology. With the aid of Pro/Engineer
Wildre 2.0, a three-dimensional model, and a front view
image is used as an origin of the observation, which then turns
301 with respect to the X-axis and 151 to the Y-axis (Fig. 4).
4.2. The analysis of cell-phone components
According to function, position and production process,
the components of the product are divided into different
color parts (see Table 3). In color planning, different colors
are lled in according to the parts shown in Fig. 5, and the
average value of RGB are then taken from the 3D model of
each component in the scene for calculating the aesthetics
measurement of the product. The average RGB values are
usually varied with the variation in light, shade, and
primary colors.
4.3. Restrictions of the study
The color planning of the cell phone is performed based
on the aesthetics measurement of the color matching given
in Eq. (7). To make the color planning ts the cell phones
available in the current market, the study has the following
restrictions:
1. Colors for the components CFT, CBT, and S of the cell
phone are xed, and which are not taken into
consideration in calculating the aesthetics measurement
of color matching;
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 3. The interface for calculating M
p
value for color matching.
Table 3
The code of each component
No. Part of the product Code No. Part of the product Code
1 Case-Front-Top CFT 5 Case-Front-Down CFD
2 Case-Back-Top CBT 6 Case-Back-Down CBD
3 Case-Side CS 7 Screen S
4 Function Key FK 8 Numeral Key NK
Fig. 4. The coordinate system set on the 3D model of a cell phone.
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 914
2. Only the colors of cell-phone components CFD, CBD,
CS, and NK are changed;
3. The number of product colors is restricted to 3 at most;
4. The Munsells Value 7.5 is taken to represent the silver
color used in the product component (color g1).
4.4. The color aesthetics computation system of components
development
A color aesthetics computation system was developed
using Visual Basic.net. The operation system is shown in
Fig. 6. With this system, the parameters of the observation
angle, and color charts of image words, HVC values and
pixels values of component areas can be given. The operation
core comes from the aesthetics measurement evaluating
formula derived previously. After giving the required
parameters, different Pro/Engineer les will be output
according to the viewing angle and matched colors of
components to help the designer to revise the design (Fig. 7).
The ow chart for the operation system is shown in Fig. 8.
4.5. The relation between color charts having different
images and the aesthetics measurement of products
In this case, the image wordFemale is taken as the
target image of a cell phone for color planning. Therefore,
if a product gets a higher aesthetic measurement, it is
considered to be a product more suitable or preferred for
a female customer. To examine the accuracy of the
calculated result, we put the top two symbolic color charts
among the six image words obtained in Section 2 into
product components with a two- or three-color pattern.
The calculated aesthetics measurements for the product
color matching are shown in Table 4.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 5. The location of each component.
Fig. 6. The interface for the aesthetics computation system.
Fig. 7. An output 3D model based on the given parameters.
Fig. 8. Flow chart for the operation system.
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 915
Table 5 is an induction of the data acquired from
Table 4. It is indicated that the image wordFemale has
the highest aesthetics measurement of product color
matching in two- and three-color patterns. Contrarily,
the opposite image wordMale has the lowest aesthetics
measurement of the product color matching. These results
show that the aesthetics measurement obtained with the
system, conforms to the image wordFemale.
4.6. Front panel design based on the image wordFemale
According to Eq. (7), the size of the area occupied by a
component is the key factor affecting the aesthetics
measurement of product color matching. In the study,
the front panel (component CFD) is the component that
takes up the largest proportion of the picture. We then put
four colors that t the image wordFemale, colors a1, a2,
a3 and a4 as shown in Table 2, onto product components
according to a two-color/three-color pattern (Tables 6
and 7). The results obtained by matching with two colors
are shown in Table 6, while those matched with three
colors are shown in Table 7.
Table 8 is an induction of Tables 6 and 7, and it shows
that when using a two-color pattern, the front panel has
the highest aesthetics measurement when colors a1 and a3
are used. In the three-color pattern, the front panel has the
highest aesthetics measurement when color a1 is used. In
general, colors a1 and a3 are recommended colors for front
panels in the system.
4.7. Using the image wordFemale on keypad design
Eq. (7) indicates that the color area of each component is
the most important factor of inuencing on the aesthetics
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 4
The M
p
values for three pairs of image words
Rendering No. Code Color
chart
Pixels M
p
n2-a1g1 CFD g1 53498 0.60
CBD g1 15949
(Female) CS a1 30031
FK&NK a1 23240
n2-b1g1 CFD g1 53498 0.45
CBD g1 15949
(Male) CS b1 30031
FK&NK b1 23240
n2-c1g1 CFD g1 53498 0.49
CBD g1 15949
(Futuristic) CS c1 30031
FK&NK c1 23240
n2-d1g1 CFD g1 53498 0.49
CBD g1 15949
(Classical) CS d1 30031
FK&NK d1 23240
n2-e1g1 CFD g1 53498 0.46
CBD g1 15949
(Fancy) CS e1 30031
FK&NK e1 23240
n2-f1g1 CFD g1 53498 0.51
CBD g1 15949
(Cheap) CS f1 30031
FK&NK f1 23240
n3-a1a2g1 CFD g1 53498 0.59
CBD g1 15949
(Female) CS a2 30031
FK&NK a1 23240
n3-b1b2g1 CFD g1 53498 0.46
CBD g1 15949
(Male) CS b2 30031
FK&NK b1 23240
n3-c1c2g1 CFD g1 53498 0.47
CBD g1 15949
(Futuristic) CS c2 30031
FK&NK c1 23240
n3-d1d2g1 CFD g1 53498 0.54
CBD g1 15949
(Classical) CS d2 30031
FK&NK d1 23240
Table 4 (continued )
Rendering No. Code Color
chart
Pixels M
p
n3-e1e2g1 CFD g1 53498 0.48
CBD g1 15949
(Fancy) CS e2 30031
FK&NK e1 23240
n3-f1f2g1 CFD g1 53498 0.50
CBD g1 15949
(Cheap) CS f2 30031
FK&NK f1 23240
Table 5
The rank of M
p
values for the three pairs of image words
Image n 2 n 3 Total Rank
Female 0.60 0.59 0.60 1
Male 0.45 0.46 0.46 6
Futuristic 0.49 0.47 0.48 4
Classical 0.49 0.54 0.52 2
Fancy 0.46 0.48 0.47 5
Plain 0.51 0.50 0.51 3
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 916
measurement in product color matching. The keypad
(components FK and NK) is the component that takes
up the second largest proportion of the picture, so the same
approach used in the previous section is employed to the
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 6
The M
p
values of the image matched with two colors
Rendering Code Code Color
chart
Pixels M
p
n2-a1-01 CFD a1 53498 0.61
CBD a1 15949
CS a1 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n2-a1-02 CFD a1 53498 0.51
CBD a1 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n2-a2-01 CFD a2 53498 0.56
CBD a2 15949
CS a2 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n2-a2-02 CFD a2 53498 0.52
CBD a2 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n2-a3-01 CFD a3 53498 0.58
CBD a3 15949
CS a3 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n2-a3-02 CFD a3 53498 0.53
CBD a3 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n2-a4-01 CFD a4 53498 0.49
CBD a4 15949
CS a4 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n2-a4-02 CFD a4 53498 0.41
CBD a4 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
Table 7
The M
p
values of the image matched with three colors
Rendering Code Code Color
chart
Pixels M
p
n3-a1-01 CFD a1 53498 0.49
CBD a1 15949
CS a2 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a1-02 CFD a1 53498 0.51
CBD a1 15949
CS a3 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
Table 7 (continued )
Rendering Code Code Color
chart
Pixels M
p
n3-a1-03 CFD a1 53498 0.49
CBD a1 15949
CS a4 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a2-01 CFD a2 53498 0.49
CBD a2 15949
CS a1 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a2-02 CFD a2 53498 0.47
CBD a2 15949
CS a3 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a2-03 CFD a2 53498 0.45
CBD a2 15949
CS a4 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a3-01 CFD a3 53498 0.52
CBD a3 15949
CS a1 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a3-02 CFD a3 53498 0.48
CBD a3 15949
CS a2 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a3-03 CFD a3 53498 0.48
CBD a3 15949
CS a4 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a4-01 CFD a4 53498 0.51
CBD a4 15949
CS a1 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a4-02 CFD a4 53498 0.47
CBD a4 15949
CS a2 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
n3-a4-03 CFD a4 53498 0.49
CBD a4 15949
CS a3 28918
FK&NK g1 24495
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 917
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 8
The rank of M
p
values for CFD components
n CFD Mean Maximum Minimum Rank
2 a1 0.56 0.61 0.51 1
a2 0.54 0.56 0.52 2
a3 0.56 0.58 0.53 1
a4 0.45 0.49 0.41 3
3 a1 0.50 0.51 0.49 1
a2 0.47 0.49 0.45 3
a3 0.49 0.52 0.48 2
a4 0.49 0.51 0.47 2
Total a1 0.52 0.61 0.49 1
a2 0.50 0.56 0.45 2
a3 0.52 0.58 0.48 1
a4 0.47 0.51 0.41 3
Table 9
The M
p
values with achromatic CFD and CBD components
Rendering Code Code Color
chart
Pixels M
p
n2-k-a1-01 CFD g1 53498 0.58
CBD g1 15949
CS 4.11R 28918
FK&NK 8.26R 24495
n2-k-a1-02 CFD g1 53498 0.59
CBD g1 15949
CS 8.61RP 28918
FK&NK 8.26R 24495
n2-k-a1-03 CFD g1 53498 0.56
CBD g1 15949
CS 5.53R 28918
FK&NK 8.26R 24495
n2-k-a2-01 CFD g1 53498 0.59
CBD g1 15949
CS 3.46R 28918
FK&NK 2.51R 24495
n2-k-a2-02 CFD g1 53498 0.58
CBD g1 15949
CS 8.61RP 28918
FK&NK 2.51R 24495
n2-k-a2-03 CFD g1 53498 0.55
CBD g1 15949
CS 5.53R 28918
FK&NK 2.51R 24495
n2-k-a3-01 CFD g1 53498 0.59
CBD g1 15949
CS 3.46R 28918
FK&NK 7.61RP 24495
n2-k-a3-02 CFD g1 53498 0.58
CBD g1 15949
CS 4.11R 28918
FK&NK 7.61RP 24495
Table 9 (continued )
Rendering Code Code Color
chart
Pixels M
p
n2-k-a3-03 CFD g1 53498 0.56
CBD g1 15949
CS 5.53R 28918
FK&NK 7.61RP 24495
n2-k-a4-01 CFD g1 53498 0.51
CBD g1 15949
CS 3.46R 28918
FK&NK 4.10R 24495
n2-k-a4-02 CFD g1 53498 0.56
CBD g1 15949
CS 4.11R 28918
FK&NK 4.10R 24495
n2-k-a4-03 CFD g1 53498 0.57
CBD g1 15949
CS 8.61RP 28918
FK&NK 4.10R 24495
Table 10
The M
p
values with chromatic CFD and CBD components
Rendering Code Code Color
chart
Pixels M
p
n3-k-a1-01 CFD a2 53498 0.58
CBD a2 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a1 24495
n3-k-a1-02 CFD a3 53498 0.61
CBD a3 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a1 24495
n3-k-a1-03 CFD a4 53498 0.50
CBD a4 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a1 24495
n3-k-a2-01 CFD a1 53498 0.67
CBD a1 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a2 24495
n3-k-a2-02 CFD a3 53498 0.64
CBD a3 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a2 24495
n3-k-a2-03 CFD a4 53498 0.56
CBD a4 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a2 24495
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 918
keypad design. Taking the four colors (a1, a2, a3 and a4)
that t the image wordFemale onto product components
according to two-color and three-color patterns. The
results are shown in Tables 9 and 10. The results for that
component CFD is colored with the achromatic color g1
are shown in Table 9, while those for component CFD
colored with the other three colors tting the image word
Female are shown in Table 10.
Table 11 is an induction of Table 9 and 10; the results
show that if the component CFD is achromatic, the keypad
has the highest aesthetics measurement when colors a1 and
a3 are used. If the component CFD is chromatic, the
keypad has the highest aesthetics measurement when colors
a2 and a3 are used. Generally, the four color charts tting
the image wordFemale have a higher aesthetics measure-
ment when the component CFD is chromatic, and the
product has the lowest average aesthetics measurement
when the component CFD is achromatic and the keypad
(components FK and NK) is colored with a4. On the
contrary, the product has the largest average aesthetics
measurements when the component CFD is chromatic and
the keypad is colored with a4. The result proves the color
harmonizing law that the higher the Value and Chroma,
the smaller the area required.
4.8. Pearson analysis for the experimental results
Comparing the aesthetics measurements (MP) shown in
Tables 9 and 10, it shows that the MP values obtained with
three-color matching (Table 10) are higher than those obtained
with two-color matching (Table 9). So the samples with three-
color matching (Table 10) are used for questionnaire
investigation. Thirty women aged between 20 and 30 years
were invited to ll out questionnaires by giving their personal
preferences ranked from 1 to 5. The study transforms the score
of every sample into a percentage by using Analysis of Pearson
correlation (see Eq. (8)). The analyzed coefcient is shown in
Table 12 and a scatter plot is made in Fig. 9. The results show
that the Pearson correlation R is 0.775 with the contribution
rate R
2
0.600, which shows the two are highly related and it
demonstrates that the aesthetics measurement formula pro-
posed in this study satises the expectation of target users:
R
P
X

XY

Y

P
X

X
2
P
Y

Y
2
q . (8)
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 10 (continued )
Rendering Code Code Color
chart
Pixels M
p
n3-k-a3-01 CFD a1 53498 0.67
CBD a1 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a3 24495
n3-k-a3-02 CFD a2 53498 0.60
CBD a2 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a3 24495
n3-k-a3-03 CFD a4 53498 0.56
CBD a4 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a3 24495
n3-k-a4-01 CFD a1 53498 0.66
CBD a1 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a4 24495
n3-k-a4-02 CFD a2 53498 0.58
CBD a2 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a4 24495
n3-k-a4-03 CFD a3 53498 0.63
CBD a3 15949
CS g1 28918
FK&NK a4 24495
Table 11
The rank of M
p
values for varied CFD components
CFD FK&NK Mean Maximum Minimum Rank
Achromatic color a1 0.58 0.59 0.56 1
a2 0.57 0.59 0.55 2
a3 0.58 0.59 0.56 1
a4 0.55 0.57 0.51 3
Total 0.57 0.59 0.51
Chromatic color a1 0.56 0.61 0.5 3
a2 0.62 0.67 0.56 1
a3 0.61 0.67 0.56 2
a4 0.62 0.66 0.58 1
Total 0.61 0.67 0.5
Table 12
The Pearson analysis for theoretical and experimental
MP System People
n3-k-a1-01 0.58 0.834
n3-k-a1-02 0.61 0.866
n3-k-a1-03 0.5 0.754
n3-k-a2-01 0.67 0.88
n3-k-a2-02 0.64 0.806
n3-k-a2-03 0.56 0.786
n3-k-a3-01 0.67 0.92
n3-k-a3-02 0.6 0.814
n3-k-a3-03 0.56 0.786
n3-k-a4-01 0.66 0.846
n3-k-a4-02 0.58 0.74
n3-k-a4-03 0.63 0.814
Pearson correlation 1 0.775
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 919
5. Conclusion
In new product development, varying product images by
changing their colors or forms is the strategy having low
cost and high performance. In this study, an aesthetics
measurement evaluation method conducted with the area
ratios and the color used for the product components is
proposed.
In this model, the color area ratios in different
components of a product in different angles are acquired
by measuring the pixels on the 3D product model.
The aesthetics measurement is considered to be inuenced
by the color environments, color areas, component
colors and display angles of the product. An aesthetics
measurement formula is proposed based on the above-
mentioned parameters. The color planning for developing a
cell phone was performed based on this model. The
feasibility of applying the model to select a good color
planning for product design was also proved experimen-
tally. Though the development of a cell phone is taken as
an example, this method can also be used to develop other
products.
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to the National Science Council
of the Republic of China for supporting this research under
grant NSC94-2213-E006-057.
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ARTICLE IN PRESS
1.00
1.00
0.80
y = 0.7774x + 0.3501
R
2
= 0.6
0.80
0.60
0.60
0.40
0.40
Average score by people
Pearson correlation = 0.775
M
P

v
a
l
u
e

b
y

s
y
s
t
e
m
0.20
0.20
0.00
0.00
Fig. 9. The scatter plot of theoretical and experimental results.
S.-W. Hsiao et al. / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 38 (2008) 910920 920