Kansei Information Design Lab (Nagamori Lab)
What happens in the brain and eyes when people make design, and when they see and use it.
Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and eye tracking, we study both design activity (the maker's side) and design evaluation (the viewer's and user's side). In both, we measure people in conditions close to real work and real use rather than in oversimplified laboratory tasks.
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Research Themes
Design activity
With wearable fNIRS, we record prefrontal activity while participants build chair models from blocks and work through other hands-on design tasks. We examine how occupation, materials and individual tendencies such as visualizing forms in the mind relate to brain activity.
Design activity
We examine how task constraints and tools, such as hand drawing versus computer operation, change brain activity while people generate forms.
Design evaluation
We evaluate smartphone UI structures (object-first vs. task-first) and previews on self-ordering kiosks by combining cerebral blood flow, operation errors, perceived ease of use and task time.
Design evaluation
We study how the perceived quality of graphic design, typefaces, color, text layout, and labels such as "AI-generated" or award history affect viewers' brain activity and impressions.
Yusuke Nagamori
Associate Professor, Faculty of Design and Data Science and Graduate School of Information and Data Science, Tokyo City University. Ph.D. (Kansei Science). After graduating from the Department of Design Informatics, Musashino Art University, he completed the doctoral program in Kansei, Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Tsukuba (2009). He served as Assistant Professor and Lecturer at Tsukuba University of Technology and as Associate Professor at the Faculty of Informatics, Tokyo City University, before taking his current position in 2023. He has also worked as a freelance graphic, video and web designer since 2003. Board member of the Japanese Society for the Science of Design (JSSD) and editor-in-chief of its spring conference proceedings.
[Lab members]
Doctoral program (2nd year): Kei Satomi
Master's program (1st year): Kippei Kasahara, Minami Morikawa, Fumika Suzuki
Instagram (Nagamori Lab)
Instagram (Yusuke Nagamori)
Publications
M. Morikawa, F. Suzuki, Y. Nagamori: An exploratory comparison of object-first and task-first user interfaces across four smartphone application–task combinations. Journal of the Science of Design (in press, 2026).
S. Kimoto, F. Suzuki, Y. Nagamori: Effects of visual preview on cognitive workload in self-ordering interfaces: A neuroergonomic evaluation using NIRS. Journal of the Science of Design (in press, 2026).
【優秀賞(博士前期課程学生部門)】鈴木ふみ佳:机上課題における関心領域の余白と物体高さが視線指標に与える影響,第9回 都市大研究プレゼンコンテスト(2026).
里見慶,鈴木ふみ佳,永盛祐介:マルチスクリーン視聴環境での動画広告回避と認知的離脱の関係,日本デザイン学会第73回春季研究発表大会(2026). DOI: 10.11247/jssd.73.0_490【学生プロポジション優秀賞】森川実南,鈴木ふみ佳,永盛祐介:オブジェクト指向UIとタスク指向UIの認知的適合性評価,日本デザイン学会 2025年度秋季企画大会(2025).
【学生プロポジション優秀賞】鈴木ふみ佳,森川実南,永盛祐介:学習教材における図と行間による文章提示構成の違いが理解と印象に及ぼす影響の生理的評価,日本デザイン学会 2025年度秋季企画大会(2025).
Excellence Award (Master's Course Division), 9th TCU Research Presentation Contest (TCU R-PresCo) (2026). Fumika Suzuki.
SEGA SAMMY Innovation Award and Audience Award, Hack-1 Grand Prix 2026 (2026). Minami Morikawa (as a team member).
Excellent Graduation Research Presentation Award, Faculty of Informatics, Tokyo City University (2026). F. Suzuki: Physiological evaluation of how figures and line spacing in learning materials affect comprehension and impressions (in Japanese).
Dean's Award of the Faculty of Informatics, Tokyo City University Student Awards (Academic Activities) (2026). Fumika Suzuki, Minami Morikawa.
Excellent Presentation Award, Student Proposition, JSSD 2025 Autumn Conference (2025). M. Morikawa, F. Suzuki, Y. Nagamori: Cognitive compatibility of object-oriented and task-oriented UIs (in Japanese).
Excellent Presentation Award, Student Proposition, JSSD 2025 Autumn Conference (2025). F. Suzuki, M. Morikawa, Y. Nagamori: Physiological evaluation of how figures and line spacing in learning materials affect comprehension and impressions (in Japanese).
[Principal investigator]
Scientific Research (C): Evaluating aesthetic aspects of graphic design using cerebral blood flow measurement (19K12689, 2019-2023)
Young Scientists (B): Developing experimental tasks for design process research using cerebral blood flow measurement (17K12866, 2017-2019)
Challenging Exploratory Research: Examining the design process with brain function measurement (26560001, 2014-2016)
Young Scientists (B): A self-study e-learning system for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, examined with behavioral and physiological measurement (23730853, 2011-2012)
Research Activity Start-up: A system that prompts "noticing" in design education for deaf and hard-of-hearing learners (21830027, 2009-2010)
[Co-investigator]
Challenging Research (Exploratory): Evaluating design attitudes of design and non-design professionals in companies based on physiological indices (22K18542, PI: Kaoru Yaegashi, 2022-2025)
Scientific Research (B): A program to develop social communication skills of deaf people based on cognitive neuroscience (24300279, PI: Miki Namatame, 2012-2014)
Challenging Exploratory Research: Differences in sound experience and Kansei information processing explored through onomatopoeia (23650106, PI: Miki Namatame, 2011-2012)
Scientific Research (B): Developing education programs for deaf people and measuring their effects with a cognitive science approach (21300301, PI: Miki Namatame, 2009-2011)
[Research collaborator]
Early-Career Scientists: Basic research toward an evaluation method for design thinking using cerebral blood flow measurement (18K18318, PI: Takeo Kato, 2018-2019)
Scientific Research (B): Brain mechanisms of behavioral choice toward objects that intuitively attract people through Kansei (15H02765, PI: 首藤文洋, 2015-2017)
Board member and delegate, Japanese Society for the Science of Design (JSSD) (2018-)
Editor-in-chief, JSSD Spring Conference proceedings (2022-)
Chair, JSSD 2025 Autumn Conference (Tokyo City University, Yokohama Campus, 2025)
Steering committee, Design Symposium (2018-)
Local Organizing Committee, KEER2020 (2019-2020)
Memberships: JSSD; Japan Society of Kansei Engineering
Get in touch
Kansei Information Design Lab (Nagamori Lab), Faculty of Design and Data Science, Tokyo City University, Yokohama Campus
Email: nagamori[a]tcu.ac.jp (replace [a] with @)