Aesthetics contribute to product usability and sales. Products with aesthetic appeal positively influence purchasing decisions, quality perceptions, and collections. In empirical aesthetics, many different theories and models of aesthetics have been proposed and empirically tested to explore human beings' unified aesthetic criteria and aesthetic psychological mechanisms. However, these findings suggest that aesthetic experience is multidimensional and that many conflicting viewpoints exist. Accordingly, the present review aims to explore the joint effect of two aesthetic models, the Unified Model of Aesthetics (UMA model) and the Categorical-Motivation model (CM model), on aesthetic preferences for product design in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the design aesthetics. Several keywords, including 'aesthetic preference,' 'aesthetic pleasure,' 'product design,' and 'product category,' were used to search literature in the online catalog. Sixty-five articles met the inclusion criteria through initial and full-text screening. The purpose is to understand how multiple dimensions of aesthetics and categories of products influence people's emotional responses. A review and critical analysis of previous ground-breaking research, theories, and principles of the levels of the UMA and CM models will be presented. Based on the critical insights, the strengths and limitations of each reviewed theory will be illustrated. Therefore, research gaps in the field are identified, and future research directions are proposed. It is hoped that design practitioners and researchers of empirical aesthetics will gain valuable insights from this review.
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