Today, the perceived quality of products arbitrates more and more the choice of the consumer. Beyondtechnical performances, the perceptions of the customer become very influent on the decision of purchase.In this thesis, we propose a ”user-centered” design method, which allows the integration of the consumerin the different stages of the design process, by taking into account his/her needs and preferences.Weapply this method to the design of musical instruments, products for which the feelings of the user are ofprime importance, and must be integrated for the design/improvement of an instrument. To study theseperceptive data, we use the sensory analysis and show its integration in the design process. Our methodconsists first in undertaking a perceptive study on a family of trumpets by using a panel of experts andsensory analysis tools. Then, we make an objective study of the instruments by the physical measurementof a specific characteristic of brasses: the acoustic input impedance. Then data analysis is used to correlateperceptive and objective evaluations, in order to deduce some rules, useful for the optimisation and theimprovement of an instrument. Finally, we propose to integrate virtual reality tools in the user-centereddesign process. Thus, in our application, we report the first conclusions concerning physical modellingbased sound simulations.
