Abstract
This paper presents a study based on three participatory workshops evaluating Nature Postcards from Finland, Japan, and those generated by artificial intelligence. The meaning fulness of place is examined through theories of human–nature connection—specifically restoration, nature-relatedness, and engagement with beauty—alongside the concept of sense of place. Kansei Design is applied as the methodological approach to capture participants’ (n = 17 in total, from Finland and Japan) perceptions of 12 nature postcards, each representing four levels of nature, using both positive and negative descriptive words, evaluated in two workshops held in Finnish and Japanese. The collected terms were grouped, and the ten most representative words were selected from each workshop. The third workshop, conducted in English, included participants from the previous two sessions. As a key outcome, the study points out cultural differences and proposes a preliminary vocabulary of descriptive words applicable to natural scenery in local, foreign, and AI-generated contexts.
Keywords
User perception; Meaningfulness of place; Human-nature connection; Sense of familiarity
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1114
Citation
Nurmela, P., Qureshi, A.,and Häkkilä, J.(2025) The Meaningfulness of Place: Evaluating Nature Postcards from Finland, Japan and Generative AI, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1114
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 1 - More Than Human-centered Design
The Meaningfulness of Place: Evaluating Nature Postcards from Finland, Japan and Generative AI
This paper presents a study based on three participatory workshops evaluating Nature Postcards from Finland, Japan, and those generated by artificial intelligence. The meaning fulness of place is examined through theories of human–nature connection—specifically restoration, nature-relatedness, and engagement with beauty—alongside the concept of sense of place. Kansei Design is applied as the methodological approach to capture participants’ (n = 17 in total, from Finland and Japan) perceptions of 12 nature postcards, each representing four levels of nature, using both positive and negative descriptive words, evaluated in two workshops held in Finnish and Japanese. The collected terms were grouped, and the ten most representative words were selected from each workshop. The third workshop, conducted in English, included participants from the previous two sessions. As a key outcome, the study points out cultural differences and proposes a preliminary vocabulary of descriptive words applicable to natural scenery in local, foreign, and AI-generated contexts.