Background and Aim: China's cultural heritage --- export porcelain in the Ming and Qing dynasties is the representative of Jingdezhen ceramic culture, which was the most exquisite handcraft in the world at that time, known as “thin as paper, bright as a mirror, white as jade, sound like exhaustion”, however, with the acceleration of the process of modern industrialization, which led to the inheritance of the crisis. This study aims to understand the motivation and psychology of consumers in purchasing ceramic products, and to provide an effective inheritance path for the development of the ceramic industry in Jingdezhen. Materials and Methods: This study collected consumers' perceptions, purchase demand factors, satisfaction, and expectations of ceramic products through literature research and questionnaires to reveal the future direction of ceramic product design. The study was conducted with 300 participants, and the data from the questionnaire were quantitatively analyzed using SPSS version 27.0 data statistics software. Results: Survey data from 300 respondents showed that sophisticated design, cultural heritage, material safety, and aesthetic value are the strongest purchase drivers. Factor analysis yielded three key dimensions—practical fit, cultural resonance, and innovative appeal—explaining 62% of variance. Interviews further revealed that embedding campus-specific symbols into celadon tea sets raises perceived uniqueness by 27 % and willingness-to-pay by 19 %, confirming the viability of a user-centred, semiotics-based strategy. Conclusion: To meet the needs of consumer groups, product development with user-centered design concepts, proposed design strategies of product semiotics approach, these results help to promote the sustainable development of Jingdezhen ceramic products, help the benign development of the local cultural and creative design industry, and provide solid theoretical support and practical guidance for ceramic design.
Ke et al. (2025) studied this question.