Development of Kansei Design Education Programs at Kyushu University

Kyushu University Faculty of Design and the User Science Institute (USI) are innovative kansei (note) design institutes. They aim to establish new research and educational systems to promote 'the fusion of kansei and technology'. The Faculty of Design, guided by the fundamental principle of the 'humanization of technology', is currently undertaking major restructuring of education in the Graduate School of Design, responding to social and industrial change by measures such as the creation of Master's and Doctoral Programs of Design Strategy. For its part, the USI, using the keyword 'kansei', aims to cut across and fuse the various academic fields of Design, Human-Environment Studies, Engineering, Medicine, Agriculture and so on. Within this context, we are developing the 'Kansei Table' and the 'Quality Chart'. The Kansei Table is a tool designed to facilitate the linking and structuring of user needs (including potential needs) to kansei knowledge. The Quality Chart is a Design Evaluation and Diagnostic System which divides users into designers, providers and end users and, through requiring each group of users to use the same set of evaluation indices, produces results that highlight the gaps between various user groups in design evaluation of products and space. The Quality Chart, in particular, is expected to be valuable as a practical educational tool for planning and development in product and spatial design in our newly reformed graduate education programs. This paper reports on the development of the Kansei Design Education and Research Program at Kyushu University and its activities.