Abstract
In the rapid evolution of technology, consumers receive various stimuli through “smart” commodities, which transformed users’ understanding of the expressions of products’ and interfaces’ form. While consumers pursue utility and superiority from technologies, intelligent and high-tech things become a type of fashion. As a result, the “technological appearance” takes an essential role in branding. Artifacts are designed to be technologically advanced. While this phenomenon can be identified in many industries, this paper clarifies how the automotive industries use technology in their branding strategy. We analyzed five generations of Mercedes-Benz’s S-class and BMW’s 7-series and coded the architectural layouts of the cockpit system. Both models are flagship saloons from the German historical automotive brand, respectively. From the history of automotive design, we can see how brands and designers shaped the meaning and position of technology from a functional characteristic to a symbolic identity.
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Chien, WC., Lin, CH. (2022). Technology in Automotive Brands: Function or Fashion?. In: Kurosu, M. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction. Theoretical Approaches and Design Methods. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13302. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05311-5_28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05311-5_28
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