Faculty of Design and Data Science, Tokyo City University / 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.

Research Themes

Research

  • Prefrontal hemodynamics during naturalistic design

    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.

  • Constraints, tools and the design process

    Design activity

    We examine how task constraints and tools, such as hand drawing versus computer operation, change brain activity while people generate forms.

  • Neuroergonomic evaluation of user interfaces

    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.

  • Aesthetics and impressions of graphic design

    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.

Profile

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

researchmap: researchmap.jp/read0128846ResearchGate: researchgate.net/profile/Yusuke-NagamoriInstagram (Nagamori Lab): instagram.com/nagamori_labInstagram (Yusuke Nagamori): instagram.com/yusukenagamori

Instagram (Nagamori Lab)

Instagram (Yusuke Nagamori)

Publications and Activities

Publications

Contact

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 @)