Designing for the public: a public-needs-oriented study on the 2025 year-of-the-snake spring festival gala mascot “Si Shengsheng”

Against the backdrop of the inclusion of the Chinese Spring Festival on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, this study aims to scientifically identify public demands for Spring Festival Gala mascots, accurately classify demand attributes, and establish priority rankings. To this end, a mascot design model integrating the KJ method, the Kano model, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is constructed to ensure alignment between design outcomes and public expectations. Drawing on regional viewership data from the 2024 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, non-structured interviews were conducted using purposive sampling and snowball sampling strategies in accordance with the principle of information saturation. Multidimensional public demands were collected and categorized into essential, expected, attractive, and indifferent attributes through the Kano model, clarifying their differential effects on user satisfaction. The AHP method was subsequently applied to calculate the weights of key demand factors, further revealing the relative levels of public concern for each attribute. Based on the weighting results, the design process systematically explored traditional cultural elements, including the oracle bone character “巳” (Si, representing a snake), bat motifs, scroll patterns, Chinese knots, jade carving, cloisonné, and filigree craftsmanship. This process led to the development of the “Snake Ascending” mascot proposal. The final design, unveiled during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, received widespread praise from audiences in China and abroad. The findings demonstrate that the scientific analysis of public demands through the integrated KJ–Kano–AHP framework, combined with weighted design decision-making and objective evaluation of design proposals, significantly enhances the objectivity and rigor of mascot innovation for the Spring Festival Gala. The proposed approach not only strengthens the global cultural influence of Spring Festival Gala mascots but also provides a methodological reference for designing similar culturally symbolic mascots.