Investigating typicality and novelty through visual and tactile stimuli

Consumer products are purchased not only because of their utility, but also because of their visual appearance and their feel (touch). Historically, research has focused mainly on the visual and neglected feel. This research focused on both. A series of products were designed that varied systematically in both appearance and feel. Using measures from cognitive psychology we found that the more typical-familiar the design of the product the more preferred it was. This effect was stronger for the feel of the product than for the visual, indicating that we are more tolerant of novel visual features than novel feel features.