Archives of Design Research

Personality can be measured by making use of the ‘Big Five Personality Test’. This test measures five broad domains (or dimensions) of personality, which is considered to be one of the most comprehensive, empirical, and data-driven research findings. The Big Five dimensions are neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, and the definitions and implications are described as follow (see also Figure 3 and 4):

Figure 3 Examples of Each Domain of The Big Five Personality Traits

Neuroticism is an enduring tendency to experience negative emotional states, such as anger and anxiety. This dimension is associated with low emotional intelligence, which involves emotional regulation, motivation, and interpersonal skills (Goleman, 1997).

• High score: individuals are more likely than the average to experience such feelings as anxiety, anger, guilt and depressed mood (Metthews & Deary, 1998). They respond more poorly to environmental stress, and are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult.
• Low score: individuals are more emotionally stable and less reactive to stress. They tend to be calm, even tempered, and less like to feel tense or rattled. Although they are low in negative emotion, they are not necessarily high on positive emotion.

Extroversion is characterized by positive emotions and the tendency to seek out stimulations and the company of others. Carl Jung (1971) and the authors of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (1980) suggest that everyone has both an extraverted side and an introverted side, with one being more dominant than the other.

• High score: extroverts enjoy being with people and are often perceived as full of energy. Extroverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and interested in seeking out excitement.
• Low score: introverts lack the social exuberance and activity levels of extroverts. They tend to be more reserved, less outgoing, and less sociable. They are not necessarily loners but they tend to have smaller circles of friends and are less likely to thrive on making new social contacts.

Openness is one of the five major domains of personality discovered by psychologists (Golberg, 1993; McCrae & John, 1992). Openness involves active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, and intellectual curiosity (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Openness to experience correlates with creativity (McCrae, 1987).

• High score: individuals are intellectually curious, appreciative of art and sensitive to beauty. In comparison with closed people, they are more creative and more aware of their feelings.
• Low score: individuals are considered to be closed to experience. They tend to be conventional and traditional in their outlook and behavior. They prefer familiar routines to new experiences, and generally have a narrower range of interests. They could be considered practical and down to earth.

Agreeableness is a tendency to be pleasant and accommodating in social situations. Agreeableness is one of the five major dimensions of personality structure, reflecting individual differences in concern for cooperation and social harmony (Graziano & Eisenberg, 1997).

• High score: individuals are empathetic, considerate, friendly, generous, and helpful. They also have an optimistic view of human nature. They tend to believe that most people are honest, docent, and trustworthy.
• Low score: individuals place self-interest above getting along with others. They are generally less concerned with others’ well-being, report less empathy, and are therefore less likely to go out of their way to help others. Individual who score very low on agreeableness have a tendency to be manipulative in their social relationships. They are more likely to compete than to cooperate.

Conscientiousness is a tendency to show self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, organization, deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting), and need for achievement (Thompson, 2008).

• High score: individuals are generally hard working and reliable. When taken to an extreme, they may also be workaholics, perfectionists, and compulsive in their behavior.
• Low score: individuals are not necessarily lazy or immoral, but they tend to be more laid back, less goal-oriented, and less driven by success.

Figure 4 Big Five Personality Traits and Their Implications

Every product is built from many variable facets that ultimately give the product its personal and individual character (Govers, 2005). By stripping the product to its very core you can identify the specific attributes that constitute to the product character and thereby generating a schematic of basic design elements. According to Edwin (2006), a product can be characterized in terms of six dimensions and they help designers map design direction for a product: Function, Aesthetics, Signification, Sexuality, Experience, and Mediation (see also Figure 5).

Function: this dimension refers to the primary purpose of a product explaining why the product is created. By fulfilling certain needs of the user, a product should satisfy physiological requirements as well as emotional needs such as pleasure and belonging (Hsiao and Chen, 1997).

Aesthetics: product aesthetics refers to the physical appearance of a product, which consists of its form, material and colour. This dimension is also related to the perception of how well a product works in a way that aesthetically pleasing things are perceived to work better (Norman, 2004).

Signification: this refers to symbolism involving stereotype associations, graphical representation, and metaphoric implication of a product delivering meaningful values to the user (Crilly et al., 2004; Charteris-Black, 2004). This attribute is expressed through metaphor or product packaging and intensifies the aesthetic quality of the product as well.

Sexuality: this dimension is defined as the way in which the product appeals, arouses or signifies certain sexual identity or activity (Press and Coppper, 2003). It is closely related to product personality, which creates a humane component of the product. Through marketing and advertisements this product attribute is intensified (Norman, 2004).

Experience: this refers to experience that a product is expected to deliver to the user. It includes the cognitive and emotional aspects of a product related to express the humanness within design (Alben, 1997). The emotional expression in design is the key motivator behind creating product experience.

Mediation: this dimension refers to how well a product as medium can enhance communication (relations) between people (Press and Copper, 2003). Product semantics also guides us how to use the function of a product. Product character plays a role in mediating between product and user and association of product is closely related to forming a product character.

Figure 5 Product Character Attributes Empirical Model (adapted from Edwin, 2006)

The study was executed in the Netherlands as an exploratory study. A sample of 20 Dutch iPhone users who were satisfied with using the product at the time of the survey was selected. The sample consisted of 10 male and 10 female and they were all students who were studying other than industrial design. Their ages range from 17 to 25 years old.

To measure big five personality traits NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) was used (see Figure 6). The NEO-FFI is a shortened version of the revised NEO personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). It was designed for exploratory research as a brief instrument that would provide reasonable estimates of the big five personality traits. However, it has shown itself to be reliable, valid, and useful in a variety of contexts and cultures (McCrae & Costa, 2004).

It is very useful especially in experiments in which user personality is used in relation to another factors and such so requiring much time to participants: it only takes 10-15 minutes with 60 questions (12 questions per personality domain) while the NEO-PI-R takes 45-60 minutes with 240 items. Relying on self-report questionnaire this test was to define the personality of the respondents on five different domains, namely neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Besides the personality trait test, another questionnaire was developed by the authors and a psychologist to measure the perception of the product characteristics described in the Product Character Attributes empirical model (see Table 1).

Figure 6 NEO Five-Factor Inventory (left) and the Questionnaire for measuring perceived product characteristics (right)

All the questions were answered on a five-point scale, from strongly disagree to strongly agree. All the questions regarding the product characteristics were asked twice in order to increase the reliability of the answers. As two answers were inconsistent, it was asked again to determine the exact answers during a retrospective interview.

The participants were invited to the observation room at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. An instruction was given about the survey before the questionnaire session. Then, they were first asked to fill in the ‘Big Five Personality Test’ and then in the questionnaire for measuring the perceived product characteristics regarding their iPhone 5. This was followed by a retrospective interview (Figure 7). All answers were input into SPSS data sheet and statistically analyzed.

Figure 7 Target Product iPhone 5 (left) and A Participant Filling in the Questionnaire (right).