Evaluating the Speedy Development of Visual Indicators for Product Design: Shapes and Characteristics
In a recent study, researchers explored how the visual design of a product can serve as a mental shortcut to judge unobservable attributes, specifically environmental friendliness. The study, which used an eye-tracking device, found that a product's body shape can be a powerful cue in communicating environmental friendliness to consumers.
The research suggests that mental associations between visual design and unobservable attributes can aid consumers in their judgments, potentially reducing their mental load. During both the association-building task and the testing task, subjects spent a greater percentage of their time looking at the cued areas (the body and the selected feature). This indicates that mental associations, or cues, help distribute mental load more efficiently.
The study found that shape cues that evoke natural, simple, or organic forms can lead consumers to perceive a product as more environmentally friendly. These associations are partly formed through learned cultural symbols (e.g., rounded or asymmetrical shapes recalling natural objects) and personal values linked to sustainability.
When consumers’ emotional states align with these values—such as feelings of admiration or gratitude related to self-transcendence—they become more confident and motivated to consider sustainable attributes in their evaluations. This aligns with Self-Congruity Theory, which posits that consumers favor products whose models or attributes align with their self-concept and values.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model explains that consumers scrutinize environmental claims via the central route when motivated and able to do so, evaluating the product shape as evidence of sustainability. Alternatively, under lower involvement, they rely on peripheral cues such as visual appeal or shape-derived heuristic inferences to form impressions of eco-friendliness. Thus, a product’s body shape can serve as an important visual heuristic cue that communicates environmental friendliness indirectly but effectively.
Interestingly, the study did not find an individual feature of the product to be successful as a cue compared to the product's body shape. Moreover, the study did not measure products' actual environmental friendliness but instead created predetermined associations between visual cues and an arbitrarily predetermined "environmental friendliness" rating.
Despite this, the study indicates that a product's body shape can be used as a cue to subliminally communicate its "environmental friendliness" to subjects. The use of a holistic visual cue (the product's body shape) was found to be more effective in communicating "environmental friendliness" than using an individual feature.
In conclusion, the visual design of a product’s body shape influences consumers’ perceptions of its environmental friendliness by activating mental associations and heuristic cues tied to sustainability. These associations are shaped by cultural learning, personal values, and emotional states, especially those tied to sustainability. Consumers process these cues through dual routes: central (deep, value-based reasoning) and peripheral (heuristic visual cues). The alignment of product design with consumers’ self-concept and values strengthens perceptions of environmental friendliness.
- The study suggests that mental associations formed between visual design and unobservable attributes, such as facial coding in health-and-wellness, could aid consumers in making judgments, potentially reducing their mental load.
- The science of media analytics might benefit from the findings of this study, as it could indicate that a product's shape can serve as a powerful cue to communicate not only environmental friendliness but also other unobservable attributes to consumers, indirectly but effectively.
- As climate change and environmental science become increasingly important, understanding how consumers perceive environmental friendliness through visual cues could play a significant role in promoting sustainable products, influencing consumer behavior, and fostering a more environmentally conscious society.
