Winners in Korea for presentation on design research!

Student Abril Sánchez and Professor Jorge Sanabria from Tec de Monterrey’s Guadalajara campus received the Best Oral Presentation Award at the 2021 International Conference on Emotions and Sensitivity (ICES) held in South Korea.

The 2021 ICES award was the result of their research presentation “Kansei and Design: A Systematic Mapping Review.”

Their presentation highlighted and considered the influence that applying Kansei has had in the field of design in recent decades.

They received the award jointly with the academic SeungHee Lee, from the University of Tsukuba in Japan, with whom Abril conducted research in 2021.

“Our research allowed us to see the scope of Kansei over time, to see which countries pay more attention to the concept and what types of applications it has, such as robotics or product design,” said Abril.

What is Kansei design?

Kansei is a Japanese term used in design that explores how to achieve pleasure with a certain product through sensory interaction.

Kansei is important because it’s an opportunity to improve a product or an experience, said Abril. It also aims to understand how the mind works and how good design heightens the senses.

According to Professor Lee, who has specialized in Kansei for more than a decade, no research until now has compiled its contributions and evolution over time.

“The importance of this research is to facilitate access to the history of Kansei so that future designers or researchers can identify the areas they can focus their designs in,” Abril said.

“It’s to facilitate access to the history of Kansei so that future designers or researchers can identify the areas they can focus their designs in.” - Abril Sánchez.

Kansei and design: cutting-edge research

“I couldn’t believe it when they told us we’d won. I didn’t even think they’d accept the paper because it’s my first piece of research,” recalls the student.

“I still don’t believe it... I’m very happy because this achievement motivates me to continue in the area of design research,” she said.

Abril Sánchez first heard about Kansei in the summer of 2021 when she did a Research Stay in Mexico for the University of Tsukuba.

It was there that she met SeungHee Lee, research leader at the Lee Lab in Japan and supervisor of the first piece of research they carried out together: “Mapping interactions between Kansei and design.”

“The paper we won the award for was a follow-up to that first piece of research I did with the University of Tsukuba last summer.”

Collaboration and learning

“We covered the basics in the first investigation. When we’d finished, we realized what we could accomplish, and we continued the investigation throughout the second half of 2021,” said Abril.

So, upon learning about ICES, Lee contacted Abril to invite her to participate with the paper that they were already writing.

Abril is currently part of a research group led by Professor Sanabria and plans to continue working there until the end of her degree.

She intends to continue learning about the Kansei trend and Japanese culture and to apply to study for a master’s degree at the University of Tsukuba.

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