Human Centred Design of engineered surfaces and coatings

This study presents the measurement and evaluation of the expressive-sensorial properties of newly manufactured surfaces and coatings that find many applications in the automotive field. The study was conducted with the purpose of understanding how material properties communicate with users through research into product-user interaction with the materials under development. Users perceive product quality through many aspects, including tactile properties, such as roughness and slipperiness. Sensory properties of interaction are expected to be a key product success factor [1]. User trials were performed in order to identify the perceptual qualities that characterise the sensorial properties of the concepts under examination (roughness, slipperiness and brilliancy) and the objective material qualities that can be physically measured (e.g. physical roughness, coefficient of fiction and gloss).