Means to measure people's attitudes towards wood

Abstract: Wood is a material with many faces. It evokes feelings in us that no artificial material can do. Wood has inherent aesthetic features which, rightly used, give the final product competitive advantage over other materials.In this thesis people's feelings and preferences for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) wood surfaces have been examined. It comprises a qualitative study of what people see and evaluate in wood and two separate investigations aiming at quantifying people's preferences for wood. Those two investigations were analysed by multivariate techniques.The results show that people prefer different blends of wood features. There are two qualitative differences that are of importance for people's impression and valuation of wood: The overall blending of wood features and divergent features that mismatch in a surface. It was found that divergent features are more important than the overall mixture of features. But if there are no defects that mismatch, the overall mixture will then be the key to a person's appreciation of a wood surface. Other results from the qualitative study are a map of wood features that people see and a description of the phenomenon Attitudes Toward Wood divided into properties and aspects.The quantitative studies show that it is possible to measure people's attitudes toward wood by a questionnaire technique. The results also show that there are differences in people's judgements for surfaces with knots and without knots and that there are about 10 questions needed for detecting people's preferences for wood. A wood surface that people prefer should have at least one of the following characteristics:- Have a fresh look - Be restful- Be in harmony - Have an eventful look- Be interesting to look at - Not look like an imitation- Be elegant - Be imaginative- Be exciting to look at - Not be gaudyTwo interviewing methods were compared. The first method used wood surfaces and the second used computer images with the same wood surfaces applied to an example product, a kitchen cabinet. The result shows that the two methods are comparable and useful.