looking beyond function – on a design friday thursday

its is a perspective. not a theory!

what is a function? definition that we understand…a kind of action or activity executed by a person, institution, system, or a machine for a purpose

why designer’s need to look beyond function….

understanding from what we know…

ExampleFunction: user should have the ability to lock and unlock phone

Function points:1. System should allow user to

define and store a four digit number as the unlock code

2. User should be a able to unlock the phone by entering the code

3. User should be notified if the entered code does not match the stored code

4. User should be allowed to enter code max for three times

5. User should be notified when phone is successfully unlocked

6. User should be able to change the code

design ideas

It is really about finding design opportunities to design more meaningful, responsive and usable stuff

Let’s understand it by examples…

Form follow function emotion!!

Jewish museum berlinDesigned by Daniel Libeskind

Dramatic, nothing straightforward, nothing functional about this building

combine when appropriate

moving from mechanical appliances……to one smart and intelligent device

GE ecoimagination - simple and emotional objects to technological and intelligent systems

a latvian designer has designed a new hybrid urinal system

From victor hunt design/art

Further exploration of the same idea

convert functional specs to human specs

Redefining ways making things move on screen…personal favorite!

break and build. deconstruct existing objects

People become creative in their own versions of their clock. sometime almost like a code that only they could understand

Some went really extreme with it. Store in Singapore

Timesphere by Gideon Dagan

think of creating experiential memories (quirky sometimes)

salt and pepper dispensers in the business class seating of virgin atlantic

If you want people to remember you and appreciate you …most potent things are very small things

Big and important problem does not require complex and expensive solutions. Some time quirky thinking can solve.

But if you have large budget …you end-up spending on big projects

Mix form and function with avant-garde

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tg_RiKIRPo&list=PLABA0239EA68C47B6

The Alvaro Siza’s Architecture School in Lisbon Portugal

Augmenting something that already exist…giving it a more meaning and soul perhaps

Beside everything else….it is also a clock

Amalgamation of generations….Jonas Damon, industrial designer Frog Design

He loved the idea so much that he created this….

Trust me…he wanted to stop!!!

why technical settings are always hidden, complex and ugly designs