adidas: material emotive modeler
A research-oriented project to design a tool for Adidas shoe designers that aligns emotive responses to product materials.
THE PROJECT
When Adidas designers are selecting materials for a new shoe design, they rely extensively on intuition and experience. To help increase consumer satisfaction, we were asked to quantify the emotive responses to various materials and design a solution so Adidas shoe designers and material engineers could make informed, research-driven decisions during the shoe design process.
THE OUTCOME
I designed EMMA, the Emotive Modeler Material Attributes tool. Based on our research, usability findings, and the EMMA prototype, Adidas has decided to fund this work and continue to pursue it internally.
This work was sponsored by Adidas and completed as part of the Human-Centered Design & Engineering MS program at the University of Washington.
MY ROLE
UI/UX Designer
Project Manager
Researcher
DURATION
6 months
THE TOOLS
Figma
Mechanical Turk
Excel
a tALE OF TWO PARTS
This project was both interesting and challenging as emotive materials was a new area of exploration for Adidas. This meant that not only did I have to design a tool that would be intuitive and beneficial for Adidas shoe designers and material engineers, but we would also have to conduct the emotive material research with consumers to develop the framework that would feed the tool. Given these needs, I created a plan that would split the project into two parts:
Part I: EMOTIVE MATERIALS research
Part II: DESIGNING the tool
pART I: EMOTIVE mATERIAL RESEARCH
I performed background research to understand the emotive material space and consolidated these literature reviews with others from the group. I also discovered the Materials Experience Lab, which provided resources to help us better design our consumer research study with the materials that Adidas provided. The results of this material study would provide the foundation to define the framework for measuring material emotive responses and sentiments.
BACKGROUND research
INSIGHT
The importance of form factor as a key component of the emotive perception, in additional to material.
RESOURCE
The Materials Experience Lab provided plenty of examples, resources, and also a material research toolkit. This provided a starting point for how we wanted to structure our material study.
INSIGHT
While competitors like Nike have developed robust material classification systems, their systems do not take into account emotive responses yet.
METHODS
Literature reviews
Comparative analysis
Trend analysis
CONSUMER MATERIAL STUDY
We modeled our consumer material study align with a consumer’s typical purchasing pattern to start with online viewing and transitioning to touch. To get a large dataset, we created a broad online survey via Mechanical Turk that asked participants to provide sentiment responses as well as perceived material attributes either free form or from a word bank.
METHODS
Broad online survey
Word association
Think aloud
Participant interview
I worked directly with two of our seven in-person consumer participants. They were asked to complete the survey prior to the study, and for each of the 39 materials, participants would touch and manipulate the swatch and then describe how the material physically felt and how it made them emotionally feel. In addition to think aloud responses, we used word association to map materials to emotions from our word bank. This allowed us to cross-examine any emotional responses that may have been changed from their online survey response.
THE RECOMMENDATION ALGORITHM
After cleaning and coding the data from our material research study, we were able to generate a list of material attributes and emotive responses. We created a basic recommendation algorithm to help with capture the complexities of combining material attributes or emotive responses. We calculated a weighted average score based on the inputs characteristics being designed for, taking into account the primary and secondary attractors and detractors as well as the global attractors and detractors. This would provide the framework for what our tool will be designed for.
pART II: designing the tool
This part of the project shifted our focus onto our intended users—Adidas shoe designers and material engineers. Using our material research findings and algorithm as a foundation, I worked closely with Adidas employees to validate our work, learn about their needs, and develop the final design solution for EMMA—the Emotive Modeler Material Attributes tool.
prototyping + ITERATIONS
Ideation began with paper prototyping, which led us to a dashboard-like experience. Due to a condensed timeline, I adjusted our project to incorporate user research into our initial low-fidelity usability study. Since the tool displays both emotions and material attribute views, I knew clarity and comprehension would be important pillars to design for.
I performed a total of two rounds of usability studies, both moderated and unmoderated with six Adidas designers and material engineers. The goal was to communicate the findings from the consumer research in a tool for the Adidas shoe development process. Using the input/output system of the algorithm as the base.
METHODS
Participant Interview
Ideation & Paper prototyping
Prototyping (Figma)
Task-based usability study
get to know emma
The Emotive Modeler Material Attributes tool
EMMA honors the creative and experimental nature of Adidas designers.
An Adidas designer or material engineer can select an intent, either Emotions and perceptions or Material attributes, and add keywords based their needs.
EMMA invites exploration with a dynamic interface.
In the example, EMMA displays Physical attributes and how they correlate to the Emotions and perceptions that were added. These can be changed at any time, allowing Adidas designers to explore how these perceptions change between pairings.
EMMA is embedded as part of Adidas’ robust ecosystem of tools.
The Materials tab presents Adidas designers and material engineers with specific materials that exist in the Adidas material library and how they correlate to the goals that were added. This provides specific recommendations for materials or examples of materials that can inspire new materials for shoes.
EMMA provides details to promote user confidence and workflow
By selecting any of the items displayed, users can open a card that includes additional details to help contextualize the recommendations that were provided. These cards help users understand the underlying data behind the algorithm. For cards about specific materials, EMMA pulls in data from the Material Library so Adidas designers can make informed decisions based on other important factors, such as weight or thickness, without exiting the tool.
REFLECTION
I am so, so proud of this project, my work, and our group. In just short 6 months we completed background research, a vast consumer material study, developed a framework for an algorithm, completed three rounds of iteration and prototyping, and two rounds of usability testing. I learned so much about the end to end design methodology and this project resulted in getting funded internally by Adidas.
If I could do this project again, I would really push Adidas to examine their own assumptions. While doing background research, I came across an interesting paper which argued that form was an undeniable part of the perception of emotive materials. Based on this, I made the case to our client that our consumer material study should include form and function. However, the folks at Adidas were set on the idea of raw emotive material data without qualifying materials for form or function. In the end, we went with our sponsors request but quickly found that 1) participants would create their own narratives about form or function for materials and 2) their perception and emotional response to materials would change when form or function were being considered. This resulted in our data most likely not being an accurate representation and our project building a framework, but one that would require new data.
It was an incredible learning experience and one in which I learned that one should be really brave, and make sure we are doing the work that’s best for the design process and for our project.