The Effectiveness of Children's Emotions in the Desire to Use Urban Furniture with Kansei Engineering Approach (Case Study: Laleh Park in Tehran City)

Childhood plays a critical role in the formation of the human personality both individually and socially. The spaces in which children interact are one of the main factors in the formation and development of their personality and education of children. In this regard, we can consider the impact of urban furniture in these spaces on children. This group of society, in terms of their physical and mental characteristics, needs their own special design to use products made in the field of urban furniture. Finding the needs of children, which often involves providing a sense of security and a sense of belonging to and participation in the environment, can be the subject of research and design. Accordingly, the present study seeks to find the needs, feelings, and optimization of urban space through the design of urban furniture in parks. On the other hand, due to the inadequacy of the three elements of urban furniture, benches, public drinking, and trashcans, for children to use in this park, as well as lack of coordination and visual and conceptual fit of the mentioned elements with children's playgrounds, these three elements are selected from the urban furniture collection for research. Therefore, the main question of the research is based on whether the design of urban furniture with an emotional-oriented design approach facilitates the emergence of personality, social independence, and excessive dependence on parents in the child? This research is applied in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of type, in which the descriptive-analytical method is used. In the method of data collection using scientific sources with emphasis on the method of survey, observation and questionnaire, the necessary information was extracted. This study was carried out in Laleh Park of Tehran using Kansei engineering method to measure the emotions of children aged 5 to 12 years, considering the issue of growth as the most important part in child psychology, the three concepts of child needs, activities and growth and considering all aspects of children's existence which includes psychological, emotional, personality, intelligence, cognitive and moral aspects. In designing the questionnaire, the method of semantic differentiation, which is the most common method of measuring the perception of emotion in Kansei engineering, has been used. Questionnaires voluntarily and with descriptions and interviews by children (9 to 12 years) and in cases where children could not complete the questionnaire, researchers by asking questions according to the words of Kansi and using flashcards that are designed the furniture in question was drawn with the words of Kansei, and the questionnaires were completed based on the children's movements in reaction to the left or right, or their verbal reactions. Data analysis in this study was performed through Excel software to calculate the average score of each word in relation to each element and then after these comparisons using Excel and SPSS software to relate each word to the characteristics of one or more products, the cluster analysis method was used using the k-mean algorithm, factor analysis, and cross-tabulation analysis. According to kansei's engineering process, all products related to the subject of the project, including items available in the city, Laleh Park, and items found on the Internet, were collected and examined in terms of product design criteria such as ergonomics, performance, and aesthetics. General and details of each product were identified and categorized. Among these products, images of five products from each bench, trash, and drinking element were selected to ask, understand, and analyze user requests. Related sites, books, and articles were studied to obtain Kansei's vocabulary, and children were interviewed about their feelings about the elements in question. All the adjectives that described the product area were recorded in the form of bipolar adjectives, which finally, after sifting the obtained words and deleting similar words, finally 29 words for the drinking element, 29 words for the bench element, and for trash element 28 words were selected.
Kansei words were compared in each number 1 to 5 of the benches, trashcans, and public drinking with diagrams to better display the information obtained. In reviewing the average scores of adjectives, the highest score associated with the bench element is related to adjectives that are familiar, functional, reliable, solid, and in the next degree, adjectives that are pleasant, relaxing, cheerful, appropriate color, appropriate to the environment, Beautiful, friendly, attractive, innovative, modern, different, ergonomic, safe, enjoyable and simple, other traits rated less than 4.30 were considered ineffective. Also, the highest score associated with the trash element is related to the attributes familiar, creative, childish, attractive, happy, lightweight, appropriate, and kind color, and then the attributes of simple, safe, ergonomic, functional, different, modern, solid, exciting, friendly, beautiful, healthy, fits the environment, well-made, and other traits with a score of less than 4.30 were evaluated as ineffective traits. In the case of drinking elements, the highest scores are related to the attributes of creativity, modern, attractive, well-made, different, and in the next degree enjoyable, functional, beautiful, happy, childish, pleasant, ergonomic, friendly, reliable, standard, fits Environment, relaxing, safe, suitable color, exciting, kind, delicate, controllable milk, sturdy, simple and stylish, and other traits with scores less than 4.30 were evaluated as neutral traits. After these comparisons, using Excel and SPSS software to relate each word of kansi to characterize one or more products, the method of cluster analysis and factor analysis, and cross-tabulation analysis are used.
The results of this study on urban playground furniture for children, including benches, trashcans, and public drinking in Laleh Park in Tehran, showed that the elements did not have any proportional spirit and feelings of children, and from the point of view of complying standards and standards of ergonomics, they do not have a favorable fit of children's anthropometry dimensions. Also, using a questionnaire, the audience's consensus about these three elements of the urban furniture collection was measured and according to the results, the characteristics of the ideal product were identified in each category. Based on the evaluations performed, the criteria for designing urban furniture for children 5 to 12 years old for the bench element are round body shape, backrest, without handles. In the case of trash elements, these criteria are round body shape, the lack of the door, the lack of confusing, and the invisibility of waste inside it, and in the case of drinking water, these criteria include round body shape, for water to fall from top to bottom and pressure being a tap button. Therefore, according to this research, children's playground urban furniture should be designed in such a way that is suitable for the anthropometric dimensions of the child's body and responds to the child's desire to participate in doing things and his insistence on doing things by himself. This provides the need for children to belong to the environment. This helps children reach social maturity and personality development and increases the child's sense of independence and self-confidence by eliminating feelings of inability to do things. Also, using the emotional design approach, in addition to paying attention to the instinctive and behavioral levels in designing children, which leads to the use of colors and forms appropriate to their interests and physical dimensions, can emphasize on a design based on the level of thinking, the child's perception and inference of the environment are also considered and a include a concept for teaching and learning in the elements of urban furniture and by creating memories and feelings of satisfaction in the child, make these elements to remain in the child's mind  and increasethe desire to re-use these elements in them.