Does product design stimulate customer satisfaction? Mediating role of affect

Purpose Product design is a dynamic factor that triggers customers’ experiential value which eventually escalates their satisfaction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of product design dimensions on customer satisfaction with the mediating role of affect. Design/methodology/approach A survey on 225 smartphone users has been conducted to test the conceptualization empirically. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed using SPSS Amos-22.0 to confirm the hypotheses. Findings The results indicate that affect fully mediates the relationship between symbolic dimension and satisfaction. Whereas, partial mediation of affect is observed in the relation between functional dimension and satisfaction. Practical implications The framework of this research contributes towards the practice by facilitating managers in evaluating the impact of experiential value which product design dimensions create to influence customer satisfaction. Originality/value This study is first of its kind to analyze how design dimensions create experiential value to influence customer satisfaction. It contributes to the literature by giving empirical evidence that affective responses like pleasure and arousal play an important role in assessing product design dimensions that influence customer satisfaction.