This study explored consumers' personal visual image processing tastes using collage, an image-based research methodology. Seventeen female Generation Z design students participated in collage creation, with seven selected for follow-up interviews to ...
This study explored consumers' personal visual image processing tastes using collage, an image-based research methodology. Seventeen female Generation Z design students participated in collage creation, with seven selected for follow-up interviews to analyze their image expression methods and approaches. The analysis revealed that collage image expression could be categorized into 'content aspects (implicit/fragmentary meaning)' and 'relational aspects (holistic/individual composition)'. Based on this categorization, participants were divided into a group with 'fragmentary meaning-individual composition' and a group with 'implicit meaning-holistic composition'. The former expressed fragmentary meanings related to the external characteristics of preferred objects, focusing on individual image features, while the latter conveyed implicit meanings through symbolic images of one's inner self, emphasizing overall composition and harmony. Furthermore, participants were classified according to their image selection process into 'bottom-up' (selecting individual images first, then forming the whole) and 'top-down' (setting a theme first, then selecting images accordingly) approaches. 'Bottom-up' participants focused on the uniqueness and details of images, while 'top-down' participants prioritized overall harmony and balance. This study is meaningful in that it conducted an in-depth analysis and categorization of the diverse factors influencing individuals' image preferences and visual image processing, through the process of creating collages with self-selected images. This highlights the usefulness of collage as a qualitative research method for effectively understanding evolving consumer preferences. Given the limited application of collage in design research and the scarcity of studies analyzing collage outcomes, this study contributes academically by introducing a novel approach that broadens methodological diversity in design research and validates the potential of image-based research. However, a limitation of this study is the small sample size, inherent to qualitative research. Future studies should consider image analysis methods based on online platforms employing image analysis techniques based on online platforms to broaden the scope of research and enhance diversity.