| Summary: | Proper selection of shoe insoles is critical, especially during athletic activities such as running, as it is directly in contact with the human foot. The purpose of this study is to identify suitable hardness properties based on users’ perceptions of comfort during running, using the Kansei Engineering (KE) method. A semantic differential measurement was implemented to relate emotions and products. The KE Type 1 procedure was implemented in this study to translate human emotions into design attributes. In this study, seven pairs of the most relevant words were shortlisted in the form of semantically different Kansei words to relate to the subject's feelings. Five healthy men between the age of 20 and 25, with BMI between 18.5 and 25 kg/m2, voluntarily participated in this study. The Crep Protect insoles were used as the main sample with three different sets of hardnesses: soft, medium, and hard. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Factor Analysis (FA) were used for the statistical analysis. The result shows that the preferred hardness for an insole during running was the hard type. The dense and flexible keywords were shown to be the most appropriate words to describe insole comfort. Overall, the result supports that most participants prefer a higher-density insole to be used during running. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.
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