Distinguishing and quantifying the visual aesthetics of a product: An integrated approach of eye-tracking and EEG

Abstract Although some methods of measuring visual aesthetics have been established, such as subjective reporting, feature calculating, and physiological assessing, designers still lack an integrated and quantified method in measuring the visual aesthetics of their products. This study aims to integrate eye-tracking metrics and EEG measurements to distinguish and quantify the visual aesthetics of a product. Thirty-two 3D prototypes of LED desk lamp with multiple views were designed to simulate an aesthetic appreciation flow. Eye-tracking and EEG signals were simultaneously recorded when participants were freely browsing each lamp. The evaluation of subjective visual aesthetics was conducted after each browsing. The results demonstrated that fixation time ratio and dwell time ratio significantly differed among the three clusters of visual aesthetic lamps. Meanwhile, average fixation duration only significantly differed between low and high aesthetic lamps and pupil size had no significant variation. Moreover, low aesthetic lamps evoked significantly weakened relative alpha power and enhanced relative gamma power. Thus, the eye-tracking metrics and the EEG measurements can distinguish the visual aesthetics of lamps. Regarding the results of quantification, the integrated multimodal physiological signals achieved an improved and reasonable accuracy. It seems beneficial to integrate multimodal physiological signals involved in different flows of visual aesthetic appreciation in quantifying the visual aesthetics of a product. Relevance to industry As a premise of attracting consumers’ attention, visual aesthetics has been identified as a crucial role in product design and marketing. Thus, thorough research on the variations of multimodal physiological signals involved in information retrieval and processing in appreciation flow can provide a distinction between product visual aesthetics. The quantification method can be utilized by designers in measuring the visual aesthetics of their products.