Designing
What is a Design Classic?
A product that serves as a standard of its time, that has been manufactured industrially, and has timeless appeal.
- Instantly recognisable and provokes emotional response
- Often considered "iconic"
-Widely imitated
Define Function
How well a product fulfills the task that it has been designed for.
What is Retro-Styling?
A design that uses the form and decoration from a particular period of time and/or style. A Retro-styled product uses a classic image with modern-day technologies. Retro-styling a new product needs to respect and understand the original form and underlying structure before making changes
Image
The instantly recognizable aesthetics of a particular product to the public due to its emotional connection and highly recognizable aesthetics. For example, the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle, or the shape of a Volkswagen Beetle motor car.
What are conflict and compromise in relation to the design process?
The development of new products often requires a multidisciplinary team including designers, engineers, and manufacturers. These different actors often have different priorities when developing a product and this can often lead to conflict. In order to achieve the goals of creating the new product, the different team members must often compromise.
Define Form
The 3D space that a product takes up; the shape of a product and the aesthetic qualities that the shape gives.
What are Transcending Functions?
When classic designs fulfil their functions, and by becoming iconic objects they transcend their functions.
Status
Products considered as classic designs often increase in value and can project a certain status as they become more desirable. The ownership of a classic design can increase the perceived status of an individual.
What are aspects of Dominant Design?
The design contains those implicit features of a product that are recognized as essential by a majority of manufacturers and purchasers.
eg. QWERTY keyboard layout
What is Practical Function?
Practical function is concerned with criteria related to quantifying the performance of a product and can be evaluated, such as dimensions, weight, ease of use, etc.
What is color theory?
Color theory is the collection of rules and guidelines which designers use to communicate with users through appealing color schemes in visual interfaces. Suggests that within the color spectrum, certain colors are aesthetically pleasing with each other because of harmony or contrast. Since color elicits human responses color theory is taken into consideration in product design, packaging, and branding
Culture
Designs often reflect cultural influences and mark transition points within a particular culture. The culture of concern may be national, religious or a sub-culture, such as a particular youth culture or movement. Designs evoke emotional reaction.
Omnipresence
A product that is omnipresent has existed and been in circulation for a long time.
What is Psychological Function?
Psychological function are qualitative or subjective criteria concerned with the different emotional reactions or attachments people have with products such as mobile phones or their favourite piece of apparel.
What is Art Deco Retro Styling?
Art Deco Style (1930’s) has its roots form the exclusive hand-made French decorative arts (1920’s) and became incredibly popular decades later due to mass production (economies of scale) of products using different materials, such as metals, plastic, and glass. Being a decorative style it was easily added to many products (lamps, furniture) or surfaces (e.g. buildings). It was used widely in Architecture and lighting.
Obsolescence and classic designs
This is the stage in a product life cycle where the product is no longer needed even though it functions as well as it did when first manufactured. Classic designs tend to transcend obsolescence and become desired objects long after they have ceased to be manufactured.
What is intuitive design?
Designs that are easy to use to the target market. The interactions with the object can become intuitive and have a number of redeeming features such as affordance, expectation, efficiency, responsiveness, forgiveness, explorability, and emotional security. Designs can seem intuitive so some and not to others.
Define and give an example of planned obsolescence
Deliberately designing products with a limited life cycle, so that people will feel a need to replace their possessions frequently.
eg. technologies
What is Semiotics?
Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols in any sensory or media modality, including how they are used to communicate information. An example is how logos can convey product quality, performance, cost expectation However, it is not always the best since if one is not familiar with a symbol, they may not be able to figure out what it means.
What is Gestalt theory?
Literally means "unified whole". This is used to describe how individuals perceive visual input when viewing/using a product. Refers to the concept that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts".
main principles: similarity, continuation, closure, proximity, figure/ground, and symmetry and order
repetitive elements that are similar in shape, size, color, etc.
multiple individual units perceived as group or pattern due to similarities
a object can be incomplete or space not completely enclosed but tricks eyes to complete object
Ubiquitous
A product that can be found almost everywhere.
Ex. a mobile phone.