A Survey of the Visual and Emotional Preferences of Buyers for Designing Gemstone Costumers Using Kansei Engineering

Iranian gemstone art has considerable potential for development in Iran and globally due to its diversity, originality, high quality, and reasonable prices. One of the requirements is designing products based on the preferences, tastes, and needs of consumers. The present study is of a descriptive-correlational type in terms of its applied purpose. It combines two qualitative and quantitative methods, which seek to identify the preferences of Iranian buyers of gemstone products using the Kansei engineering method. To determine the desired features of customers, through a library study and interviews with experts, Kansei vocabulary in the field of gemstones was analyzed, extracted, and refined, which included 28 words related to the feelings of customers and products, which were presented to buyers in the form of a Kansei questionnaire with a semantic differentiation scale. Four hundred forty buyers who had participated in several gemstone exhibitions in Tehran during the winter of 1402 responded to the questionnaire. The data were analyzed with SPSS26 software. The results showed that buyers were mostly looking for the beauty and uniqueness of products such as rings and women's pendant sets. From the words of the Kansei, authenticity, transparency, and place authenticity, as well as the natural design and healing properties of the gemstone, are of greater importance. Also, the younger generation was more likely to seek out uncut gemstones such as diamonds, emeralds, and amethysts.

Developing the gemstone product market requires understanding the preferences of customer and designing products based on their tastes. This research aims to understand the preferences of gemstone customers through semi-structured interviews with experts, as well as through questionnaires and field distribution, and attempts to answer the relationship between demographic variables and selected gemstone products, preferences, feelings of buyers, and characteristics related to gemstones. This research is an applied research type that is exploratory in nature and, based on the first-type Kansei engineering method, first classifies the categories and related Kansei words. Data analysis was performed using statistical software and the Spearman correlation test to obtain relationships between gemstone variables and characteristics, as well as regarding product design. Most customers choose gemstone products for personal use and as gifts for friends. Therefore, designers should consider age and education variables, visual factors, and emotional factors when designing products. It seems that customers in the gemstone products sector, despite being able to purchase precious metals such as gold and silver as an investment source, tend to choose these products instead of precious metals, given the uniqueness of gemstone products and the unrepeatability of some of them among all products in this sector. Beauty is the most important purchasing priority for gemstone customers, so designers are advised to consider the principles of aesthetics (formal transparency and simplicity) and the personality of buyers in gemstone products. Considering that this research has not been conducted in Iran, this research provides new insights to activists and people working in this industry to design and produce gemstone products in this sector according to the wishes, needs, and preferences of customers