A scoping review on methods for assessing product comfort: considerations for footwear comfort

In footwear research, footwear comfort has become an increasingly popular topic.
Commonly used assessment tools include the visual analogue scale, the Likert scale and selfreported ranking (Lindorfer et al., 2018). Data collection methods for footwear comfort often focus on participants’ interactions with footwear, and tasks performed. However, existing literature on product comfort suggests that comfort is not only influenced by external physical factors. In a review on theoretical product comfort models by Vink and Hallbeck (2012), comfort has been defined as ‘pleasant state or relaxed feeling of a human being in reaction to its environment’. The review further explains that each individual experiences comfort differently based on various internal (e.g. sensation, emotions, expectations) and external (e.g. features of product, tasks performed, environment) factors. Perception of comfort is a complex subject, yet many commonly used assessment methods are often simplified and unable to encapsulate this complexity.