Emotional design of new energy vehicle center consoles for elderly users based on entropy weighted TOPSIS and BPNN

With the increasingly serious issue of global population ageing, meeting the emotional needs of elderly users when interacting with the center consoles of new energy vehicles (NEVs) has become significant. At present, the design of NEV center consoles presents difficulties for elderly users in terms of both operation and usability. To ensure driving safety and comfort, console design must take into account the operational convenience and psychological experience of elderly users. Therefore, to design a center console that meets the emotional needs of elderly users, this study proposes a comprehensive methodological framework based on Kansei Engineering (KE), the entropy-weighted technique for order of preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS), and Backpropagation Neural Networks (BPNN), focusing on the elderly-oriented design of NEV center consoles. First, within the framework of KE, emotional evaluation indicators were collected and analysed based on the usage habits and Kansei requirements of elderly users. Second, entropy-weighted TOPSIS was applied to rank the morphological features of center consoles and to extract the key design features. Finally, a BPNN-based mapping model was constructed to link elderly users' Kansei intentions with the critical design features of the center console. The experimental results show that, among the morphological configurations, the combination of center control screen Type II, co-driver entertainment screen Type II, control panel Type II, and center console outline Type II best satisfies the emotional needs of elderly users. By integrating KE, entropy-weighted TOPSIS, and BPNN, this study provides a more effective means of understanding and predicting user emotions, thereby supporting the design of NEV center consoles that better meet the emotional requirements of elderly users.