Handling evaluated by visual information to consider web‐consumers

As the Internet has wide use, it is expected that the opportunities of buying fabrics at online shops will increase. Can Web‐consumers catch and evaluate the texture and handling of the fabrics correctly? The aim of this study is to obtain fundamental data for evaluation of the handling of fabrics by visual sensation. Empirical knowledge is important for the evaluation. A questionnaire about the knowledge and image of the fabrics and the experience of buying fabrics at online shops was carried out. As for the handling of fabrics by visual sensation, sensory inspections were performed on 13 fabrics using the Semantic Differential method. As a result, it was difficult to evaluate the handling by visual sensation from fabrics' pictures on a computer. Though it was difficult, if the images of fabrics have been established earlier, the handling can be caught by visual information.