Citarasa engineering model for affective design of vehicles

Research on affective design has expanded considerably in recent years. The focus has primarily been on consumer products, such as mobile phones. Here we discuss a model for affective design of vehicles, with special emphasis on cars. It was developed in CATER - a research program intended to support mass customization of vehicles. Cars are different from consumer products because they represent major investments, and customers will typically take about a year to decide what to buy. During this time the customer goes through several motivational stages from belief to attitude to intention and behavior, which will affect his/her priorities. The model drives development of the citarasa engineering system.