Reflecting Emotional Aspects and Uncertainty in Multi-expert Evaluation: One Step Closer to a Soft Design-Alternative Evaluation Methodology

Abstract

We introduce an emotion-based, linguistic, multi-expert evaluation method for the evaluation of less tangible (and difficult to measure) aspects of design alternatives. We build on the basic-emotion semantic differential method proposed by Huang Chen and Khoo in 2012 and utilize the ideas of Kansei engineering and semantic-differential-type scales to obtain inputs and apply the concepts of strong and weak E-consensus. The proposed method registers information on the perceived relevance of the evaluation scales and the confidence of the evaluators’ answers and transforms it into uncertainty represented by interval values. We introduce modified computation formulas required to compute the overall multidimensional-block evaluations from the interval-valued evaluations and define the variability of the group evaluation in terms of the dissensus of evaluators.