Four models of contemporary living rooms that are not sold 

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... of factors such as usability, maintenance, efficiency, safety and resistance. In the design process, needs and aspirations of current and potential users are identified to provide a product that satisfies not only in the physical contact interaction, but even from the perceptual and mental actions, where the first trials on aspects of functionality, comfort and satisfaction are generated. These subjective aspects are directly affecting the possible subsequent actions to the product [8] and even the desire and positive buying decision. The designer can control and experiment with the formal, constructive, utility, semantic and ergonomic aspects of the furniture, in order to positively impact the user emotional responses; and generating commercial success of its products. The objective of the study is to identify the emotional value factors from the users during the election of a contemporary living room and its relationship to design elements, to generate an acceptance and a positive purchase decision. The experiment consists of controlling nine design elements in virtual living room models and to determine which of them positively influence the user emotions, and furthermore to identify which of them can be translated into a positive decision of purchase. The Guadalajara Metropolitan Area is a leader in the furniture industry in Mexico and leads the gross domestic product (GDP) contribution in the sector. It consists of 2,344 companies with more than 16,403 jobs, according to government reports. The exports to the United States concentrate the 91.7%, outstanding among all, products like bedrooms (32.5%), dining rooms (9.2%) and living rooms (5%); which represented earnings of 123.4 million dollars from January to May of 2012. These quantities are opposed to the losses suffered by manufacturers in the making of prototypes that are never purchased by users. It is estimated that in a period of three years, the money invested in unsold prototypes is 36'000,000 Mexican pesos (2.5 million USD), between the 100 registered members in the furniture chamber of Jalisco. Currently, the furniture with a contemporary style is dominating the sales; the main purchasers are women between 25-45 years of age, who normally buy at department stores, and to those Bucker attributes the greater influence by aesthetic values. In this study, it was decided to experiment with living rooms because they contain a great complexity of manipulable design elements. The usability of products is composed of the elements of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction, even though, they are evaluated after the user had a physical interaction with the product. However, physical interaction with products implies a previous perceptual and mental activity, in which users generate the first evaluations concerning the product. Even the satisfaction dimension from the point of view of usability may be understood in relation to previous expectations held by the individuals. Even if different furniture items are in the same range of quality, price, materials and comfort, not all of them are accepted by users; in these cases, the user perception has a greater importance as a trigger for an action, such as the real use or purpose of purchase. Only with the action of looking at the products, people attempt to predict their satisfaction and the factors which determine the purchase decision emerge [2] The real desire of purchase occurs when the product gather the requirements of functionality, usability and aesthetics [1]; this last requirement is related with sensations and pleasant emotions. However, subjective factors of satisfaction on usability have been included; such was the case of the studies conducted by Nielsen [6], Jordan [5] and Han, Yun, Kim and Kwahk [3]. The study of subjective evaluations from the aesthetic values seeks to respond why we like certain things, as in the case of Pinker [7] who tried to decipher and propose a logic for the aesthetic pleasure; according to Hekkert [4], the attributes that influence the aesthetics of the product are the shape (geometry), composition (arrangement and proportion) and physical elements (color, texture, lighting and material). The sample was performed by convenience. The inclusion criteria were to be a woman of age between 25 to 45, who reside in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara (Mexico) and that had bought a living room in the last five years. We counted with a sample of 45 people in the first phase, the second phase had 50 participants; for phase three the turnout was 67 women; and finally, in the last phase he had a sample of 131 people. Phase 1 A questionnaire for the semantic search was developed; on which the participants selected the terms that could express the emotional value towards the products. Phases 2 and 3 Seven virtual models of living rooms were made in white and with a contemporary style. Four of these models represented the living rooms that are not sold; for example, see Fig 1, and three represented that ones that are normally sold; for example, see Fig. 2. An online questionnaire was conducted; it contained 9 questions, with a value scale of 1 to 5, where participants were asked to assign a value for each one of the emotional factors. For example, see Fig. 3. Phase 4 Nine virtual models of living rooms were proposed, in each one of them the nine design elements were independently modified. For example, see Fig. 4. In this phase, the questionnaire from the phase 2 and 3 was applied to the nine living room models. Phase 1 The participants answered a series of questions that aimed to express verbally keywords used by people to define furniture at the moment of purchase decision. The exploratory questionnaire contained open-ended questions where semantic concepts of value were identified. These concepts were used to validate the selected instrument for the next phases. Phase 2 Each of the four virtual models of living rooms that are not sold were randomly showed to the participants. After each one, they had to answer the questionnaire. There was no time restriction, but they could not return to change the answers. Phase 3 Each of the three virtual models of living rooms that are not sold were randomly showed to the participants. After each one, they answered the questionnaire. There was no time restriction, but they could not return to change the answers. Phase 4 Based on the results of phase two and three, the model of the living room that scored the lowest points on the perceived value for the users was selected. Taking this model as a reference, nine different virtual versions were designed, each with a modification on a specific design element factor. Modified factors are shown in Table 1. Each of the nine virtual models was randomly shown to the participants; later, they answered the questionnaire of perceived value. In semantic search, the factors perceived as positive and negative aspects of the furniture were obtained. These factors were translated into variables that directly impact the design. The first results are shown in Table 2. In the second phase, it was confirmed that those living rooms which furniture makers say that they are not sold are negatively perceived by users. The best and worst scores are shown in Table 3. The living room that fewer participants would buy was the model one, with a 74.36% of rejection, compared to 64.10% for model two, 62.16% for model three 61.11% for model four. The room model with the worst overall average score was the model three with 3.12, compared to 3.14 for model one, 3.21 for model four and 3.28 for model two. During this phase, the perceived factors by users in living rooms that are sold regularly were evaluated. The best and worst scores are shown in Table 4. The living room with the best overall average score was the model one with 3.49, compared to 3.44 of models two and three, respectively. During phase four the modifications made to the unsold model three were evaluated, this evaluation gathered scores for each of the perceived factors by users. Table 5 shows the scores for each of the nine versions of the living room which represents one specific design factor. Subsequently the nonparametric Friedman test for paired samples was performed to analyze samples from the different experiments, which are shown in Table 6. The results indicate that the modifications implemented in the model improved the perception of the subjects regarding the analyzed characteristics. The difference in the values was statistically significant in all cases. The color and shape factors indicate a minor change in perception (p <.05). These results indicate a significant difference between the results of the unsold living room and the modifications. The study allowed to determine which design factors had a greater impact on the perception and acceptance of users. In step two, we could discover that among the unsold living rooms, the aspect that seem to have a greater negative impact on users is the material, since it had the worst scores in three models of living rooms. This suggests that although the furniture seems to cover other important aspects and satisfy users, the perception of the quality of the material can negatively impact the purchase intention. This phase also allows us to identify aspects that have a positive impact in users, even in living rooms that are unsold. Unquestionably the product usability is the most important factor for users, followed by security and efficiency, all of them are ergonomics-related factors; this suggests that in everyday furniture, such as living rooms, the purchase decision must cover usability, safety and efficiency aspects; which are complemented by aesthetic design elements such as color, shape and proportion. The phase three reinforces this approach since the best scores were assigned to usability and security, while the lowest scores of living rooms sold were empathy, color and shape. ...