Impact of Visual Topological Features on Priority Attention for Product Shapes

Nagai, Yukari; Fei, Fei

This study hypothesized that humans give priority perception to product shapes that possess topological structures. Three experiments confirmed the proposition accordingly. The first experiment selected existing products that grab people’s attention within the prescribed time, with the experimental objects selected according to degree of topological properties and structure complexity. The results showed that visual topological properties in the products had strong visual appeal. The second experiment determined the visual prominence of freely designed and redesigned chairs according to the rating of non-expert users. The results demonstrated that products whose shape adopted topological structures were given priority attention. The third experiment intended to prove the practical value of visual topological features from a direction opposite to that of the second experiment; that is, from topological structures to deconstruction of topological structures. All three experiments showed as well that there are many cognitive limitations in the recognition of topological structures in product shapes. These unexpected problems, such as the contradiction between topological structure and habitual cognition, are discussed. The results of the study and the effects of topological properties on development are also discussed.

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