Wood products are the result of several stages from primary conversion and secondary processing to different kinds of design and surface treatment. Within this production chain each stage is affected by demands of different types of industrial customers in a consecutive chain of purchases and sales. Furthermore consumers` preferences have backward effects on the production. Criteria that wood processing companies, traders and consumers use may differ. Thus, there is a complex set of parameters influencing the quality requirements on products from primary conversion to the end-user. Visible wood products have features that affect consumers` buying decision. When asking people, if visible features are seen as negative defects or as parts of an aesthetical composition this question is determined by individual visual perception, preferences and experience.Companies in a wood processing chain are confronted with the challenge to measure the quality of their products aiming at their costumers` needs. They use manual grading technics and scanning technologies to handle the product quality spectra. This quality determination is the basic information source for each product to achieve the expected product value meeting specific consumer requirements. For end-users the relevance of objectively measurable wood features is probably unconsciously and emotionally affecting their choice. The composition of features e.g. knots, tree ring patterns and colour influence the aesthetic impression to people. The connection between consumers` preferences and objectively measureable features within the production chain is not well established yet. When trying to connect consumers preferences it is a challenge to link emotional terms like “warm” or “natural” or “calming” to measurable parameters as mentioned above. Therefore there is a need for finding criteria which reflect end-users requirements. The aim of this study is to find criteria which are important for people`s assessment of wooden floorings. 109 persons and 15 wood experts were interviewed in 2011. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. The results show the most important criteria for people`s aesthetical assessment of wood floorings. This work is a base study for further investigations in the projectcalled “What makes wood so attractive? Transforming consumers` emotions into material characteristics” which is supported contract research ‘Forschungsprogramm’ of the ‘Baden-Württemberg Stiftung’.