A Design-by-Analogy Method for Integrating Chinese Paper-Cutting Art into Product Innovation: Understanding Attractiveness Associations via Expert Evaluations and Eye Tracking

Integrating traditional cultural heritage, such as Chinese paper-cutting, into modern product design is a critical challenge. To address the lack of a systematic method, this study proposes the PPI-SCAMPER method: a structured Design-by-Analogy (DbA) method that integrates knowledge bases (a Paper-Cutting Element Category and a Flat Process Category) with SCAMPER heuristics. Subsequently, an empirical study involving 18 experts and 146 users was conducted to evaluate the method’s outcomes. Multimodal data—including expert ratings of product attributes, user ratings of attractiveness, and eye-tracking data—were collected, and hierarchical regression and Random Forest models were employed to analyze the underlying mechanisms of attractiveness. The results indicate that products designed via PPI-SCAMPER achieved significantly higher ratings for user attractiveness, novelty, and culture attribute. Eye-tracking data revealed that the improved products elicited greater overall visual exploration. The exploratory analysis of associative patterns showed that product attributes constituted the primary basis for attractiveness judgments, with eye-tracking data providing significant yet limited incremental explanatory power. This study not only constructs an innovative design pathway for integrating paper-cutting culture from a DbA perspective but also provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating culturally inspired innovations through multi-dimensional empirical data.