Coupling mechanisms and design drivers of New National Trend leather seats: An empirical study based on cultural identity and consumer preferences

Faced with the challenge of reconciling traditional elements with modern preferences in culturally sustainable design, this study developed a novel hybrid design framework. Using leather seats as the design medium, a survey of 240 respondents was conducted using the KANO model to identify user needs. Subsequently, the Shape Grammar method was employed to innovatively generate ethnic patterns, which were then used to guide the overall design of the leather seats based on the ‘New National Trend’ concept. Finally, the TOPSIS method was employed to conduct a quantitative evaluation of the design proposals, revealing that the relative proximity (Ci = 1) of the proposed design was significantly higher than that of the classic design (0.199) and the online design (0.392). The study demonstrates that this framework effectively bridges cultural design and user needs, providing a new reference approach for culture-driven design.