On the design product of university students determination of aesthetic approaches: A pre-test study in the case of coffee

The tools and appliances that we use daily, that make our lives easier, that touch our sense of esthetics are results of industrial design. The glass that we use to drink water, the newspaper that we read, the plate which we eat out of, all sorts of media, designs of our clothing, product logos, toys… even though we may not be fully aware, products that are ergonomically designed, and that have properties such as functionality not only make our lives easier but also contribute to our lives with their esthetics. Longing for esthetics is a part of human psychology, and as such is the reason why humans chose products that are not only functional but also esthetically pleasing. In this regard, having an aptitude to be esthetic, creates this dichotomy difference Even though there exits an awareness that design of products has an effect on product selection by customers, there is little scientific knowledge concerning how humans react to design and how their understanding of and reaction to esthetics come about. One reason for this lack know knowledge is that, generally it is assumed that consumer behavior and consumer demands fall in the realm of marketing research. Second reason for this lack of scientific knowledge is, though product esthetic is an indispensable part of product design, fields such as philosophy, art critique, art history, psychology, anthropology, and experimental esthetics have failed to produce viable theories concerning product esthetics. Another reason is concerned with the uncertainty in regards to the principals governing the relationship between design and esthetics. Primarily, subjectivity of the answers to the question, what is a 'good' design?" remains to be accepted among designers. Moreover, it is evident that the relationship between the designer, the product, and the consumer is a complex one, and is becoming more complicated as the end products themselves become more complex. This paper adopts the view that research concerning consumer experiences with product designs should be multidisciplinary and should involve disciplines that are involved in product design. However, this paper also uses information provided by marketing research. For the purposes of this paper, coffee cup has been chosen as the product and the consumers are the university students. Different cups designed according to different esthetic approaches have been used in different cafeterias, in order to figure out which esthetic properties have been decisive in students' choosing of the cups and what conditions pushed these students to make the choices that they made.