Context
The Effects of Environment on Product Design and Evaluation

Context: The Effects of Environment on Product Design and Evaluation addresses the environment, or context, in which we consume products and the impact of context on choice and acceptability. The book explores what context is, how it influences design by specialists, and acceptance by consumers. Chapters discuss the basics of context, food and drink in context, testing a range of other products, and other contextual variables. Historically, research on context has been done in the laboratory and various natural locations, but rapid growth in other methods to study context, including evoked contexts, immersive contexts, virtual reality contexts, and more have widened research possibilities.

Appealing to the professional, academic and commercial markets, this book will be of interest to those who conduct research in product development and product testing, to those who study what controls product usage, including eating from the health perspective, and to those who make decisions about product and space development.

Section A - The Basics 1. The Language of Context Research 2. People in Context – The Social Perspective 3. Context Effects at the Level of the Sip and Bite 4. In Home Testing 5. Useful Observational Research 6. Situational Appropriateness in Food-oriented Consumer Research: Concept, method, and applications

Section B - Meals in Context 7. Food Choices in Context 8. Meal and Snack: Two Different Contexts for Foods and Drinks 9. The Meal as the Proper Context for Foods and Drinks 10. The Value of Studying Laboratory Meals 11. Are Family Meals Declining? The Example of Denmark 12. Studying Natural Meals: What Are the Benefits of the Living Lab Approach? 13. The Effects of Environment on Product Design and Evaluation: Meals in Context, Institutional Foodservice 14. The Effect of Context on Children’s Eating Behavior  15. Food Combinations and Food and Beverage Combinations in Meals 16. Virtual Reality and Immersive Approaches to Contextual Food Testing

Section C - Testing Products in Context 17. Healthcare Supplements in Context 18. Personal and Home Care Products in Context  19. Beverages in Context 20. Automobiles in Context 21. The Office Architecture: A contextual experience with influences at the individual and group level 22. Conducting Contextualized and Real-Life Product Tests: Benefits and experimental challenges 23. Inducing Context with Immersive Technologies in Sensory Consumer Testing 24. Contextual Product Testing for Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)  25. Assessment of the Comfort of Workwear for the Food Industry 

Section D - Other Contextual Variables 26. Evoked Consumption Context Matters in Food-Related Consumer Affective Research 27. Packaging in Context 28. From Photos to Real Stores: Context squared 29. Alcoholic Beverages in Context 30. Learning From the Real World—Creating Relevant Research Designs

Section E - Summary 31. Summary

Sensory and consumer scientists, market researchers, developers, designers, flavorists, perfumers, product developers, and product testers

• Explores information on how context works and how to assess its influence on product decisions
• Discusses the basics of context, food and drink in context, and testing other products in context, including personal care products and home and workspace design
• Identifies variables that contribute to the contextual experience