Background Amid the significant growth of the scooter market in Indonesia, investment considerations have encouraged manufacturers to market more global and regional scooter designs, which may not necessarily suit the preferences of Indonesian consumers. In light of the importance of design as an influential reason for purchasing scooters in Indonesia, this study seeks to enhance the understanding of Indonesian consumer preferences for scooter design by examining the affective preferences of gender and age group towards the design attribute of body character, which was selected as this predominantly shape the overall appearance of scooters.
Methods The semantic differential method was applied to measure the differences between genders and age groups in evaluating the design attribute of body character. The focus group discussion survey was conducted in two major cities of Jakarta and Bandung by selecting a sample of 100 scooter users from various brands and types. The collected data were processed using SPSS software. A factor analysis was performed to extract the factors with eigenvalue > 1. Two groups of factors with the highest order of weight/degree/quality were then selected, and a representative name was assigned to the factors. Subsequently, the values of the selected factors were processed into a perceptual matrix to be analysed and interpreted.
Results The ‘fashionable’ scooters (curved body shape with soft body lines) and ‘sporty’ scooters (tapered body shape with sharp body lines) are considered to represent a gender-neutral character and tend to be preferred by all genders and age groups (especially Z generation); the ‘manly’ scooters (muscular body shape with firm body lines) is considered to represent masculine character and tend to be preferred by male users (especially Y generation); the ‘elegant’ scooters (plain body shape with flowing body lines) is considered to represent feminine character and tend to be preferred by Y generation female users; however, Z generation female users dominantly prefer the gender-neutral character of ‘fashionable’ scooters over the feminine character of ‘elegant’ scooters.
Conclusions The results for user evaluation of scooter body characters are reflected in users' preferences for scooter body characters, except for Z generation females who prefer the gender-neutral characters of 'fashionable' scooters over feminine characters of 'elegant' scooters. Meanwhile, the relevant studies (especially in Taiwan) indicate that Taiwanese and Indonesian consumers have relatively different understandings of gender-neutral designs, except for the gender-neutral character of ‘fashionable’ scooters.